Leopold's Leopard Company, a mercenary company skilled in the use of the Tilean Pike, forming a phalanx formation.[2]
In the war-torn lands of Tilea, infantry routinely heft 5-to-6-metre-or-even-longer heavy spears called Tilean Pikes as their primary weapons. Ideal for combating heavy cavalry, soldiers set the foot of the pike into the ground and wait for the charging enemy to impale themselves on the sharp spearhead.[1a][4a]
Pikes are very long spears, almost twice as long as a normal spear and longer even than a horseman's lance. Because of the great length of the pike, it can reach over several ranks of soldiers, so the soldiers behind level their pikes over the shoulders of, or between, the men in front. Pikes outreach other hand-to-hand combat weapons and so troops armed in this way strike first during the very first moments of a fight.[2a]
When fighting cavalry, pikemen close ranks and form an impenetrable wall of sharp points. Horses are very reluctant to close with this steel hedgehog and are held at bay, though infantry often find a wall of pikes difficult to penetrate as well.[2a]
History[]
For such a simple weapon, the pike's history is a long one. It originated in Tilea, where the armies of the city-states had been using spears and pole-weapons as their primary weapons since the days of the Reman Empire. But it was the mercenaries of the Border Princes who recognised the true potential of the pike, adopted it and made it feared across the Old World.[3]
This was several hundred years ago, at a time when heavily-armoured cavalry were the most powerful and respected part of any army's force, and the undisputed rulers of any battlefield. After the mercenaries showed that a square of pikemen could not only withstand a charge by a full force of mounted knights, but could actually break it, the shape of the Empire's armies and the face of its wars were changed forever.[3]