Spears feel wrong

It's the most powerful ability on the most powerful weapon.

I'd nerf it so that it only hits the enemy two squares behind and not one.

Yeah, I agree. I'd much prefer doubled fortify bonuses and damage reflection against mounted units.

I'm no expert, but that's the sort of thing that spears have traditionally been used for, right?

It's kinda fun to use.

But yeah, I agree... it's cheesy.  Same with the crossbow power shot that blasts through a heap of enemies.  Seems a bit silly.

Would love to see any of your suggestions implemented instead, particularly bonus vs. mounted.  

Not in video games

It is cheesy but more importantly it adds a lot to tactical combat and is fun. I'd keep it.

Something needs bonus vs mounted because right now making everything mounted is just a no brainer. There should be some reason to go on foot and spears doing a little bonus damage vs mounted units seem like the best way.

Imo, the only touch up spears need is such that you need to move your unit out of position to use it. Doesn't get the swarm bonus then and breaks up the line. If the AI recognizedthat and was able to single out a flank, I think combats could become very interesting indeed...

The spear mechanic is a VERY FUN mechanic.  Please DO NOT CHANGE or NERF it.  If you must change it, you may augment it with a BONUS vs. MOUNTED.

Total War Series

I'd like to see a few more one-handed spears. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think only Kraxis get one-handed spears right now. Would be nice to use a spear and shield for the ultimate defender.

@alstein Most powerful weapon? Right now spears get no love from the warrior tree, only axes, clubs, swords. Also Impale being better than Cleave? How do you figure? Impale hits two targets, Cleave hits three. Also the Backswing ability on Axes really comes in handy. The strongest spear I've seen is the Lightning pike and even with it's 66% armor penetration I'd still take a Sythe of the Void (Stardocks spelling not mine) Sword of Wrath or Doom Maul, or pair Heartseeker or Pyre Brand with an Obsidian Shield

I think spears are better, that armor penetration means a lot, not to mention starting tactical positions usually aren't ideal for cleaves but are for impales.

It depends on the map I guess, some maps favor impale, and some favor cleave. I know this because I've ran an all Spear Cavalry army, and I've ran an all Axe Cavalry army. What army I roll with typically depends on the heroes I come across, if I get Bragni I tend to go all spear, if there ever was a spear god on the battlefield it's Bragni.

I'm not sure abilities use inherent weapon effects like piercing or even +elemental damage. The spear ability does terrible damage in almost all situations and is only worth using with 0 swarm bonus and two soft targets lined up, even then it's not "yay, that was effective" but more of a "meh, I think that was better." Otherwise using a normal attack with swarm bonuses does easily twice as much damage.

I'd like to see a bonus against mounted units, if only because mounts need a counter.

They really do, it's crazy not to use Horses because of the vast advantages: Can wear heavier gear, can move further (On both maps), can't be knocked prone and beat on.

Edit: Can't forget the nice dodge increase vs. ranged as well

The only time I have had my supply of horses run out is during a war, and even then I had only 1 supplier of them.

I don't agree with too many people, but, I have to agree with you here the power of the spear just doesn't seem right. A PIKE would be more like what should have that kind of power or maybe it's a halbred. It's a spearlike weapon that is part axe part spear? I guess though some things just have to go beyond plausible for the sake of balance and having more than one weapon type used all the time. I personally liked the old system with piercing, slashing and bashing. But, someone got a wild hair and thinks the way it is now is better. It's more fluff basically I don't see it as being better.

Honestly I think they could run with both systems on and it would be even more tactically funtastical.

I like the Impale ability, it encourages me to not bunch up too much or the enemy will use it against me.

Yep, the new weapon abilities are great and make the tactical combat much more fun.

An alternative could be to be able to hit a unit one tile away with the spear, but that would have to be evry turn, not just every 5th turn.

Anyways, I like the current mechanic too. As people say her it has added alot to tactical battle.

I agree that it has "added a lot", but I think that with spears it has added a lot of wrongness. It feels goofy to me, cheesy, and wrong.

Mounts seem to be a no-brainer (which is bad, very bad), and I hope they got more expensive or nerfed or have some sort of drawback, but the very least they could have is some form of counter. Spears seem to be the natural one for it (and, in fact, long pointed sticks were used to great effect to counter mounted charges). It would still "add something", just something not so ridiculous.

Spears would not be able to impale heavily armored units without breaking right through them.  At the very least, the damage for the further unit should be reduced to 75% or even 50%, even if there is no unit in the first square.

This.

Couldn't agree less.

I like the spear mechanic as it is.  The weapon special actions add more fun to the tactical battles.

While it seems improbable that a spear would pierce through an enemy and strike the enemy behind him with the same force, you don't have to think of what happens that way if it bothers you.  Think of the spear unit going for an intense charging attack where the unit directly in front gets impaled by one or more spearmen and they keep going forward a few "tiles".  The spearmen who had their spears stuck into bodies just pull them out, yell out, "die Procipinee!" and fiercely attack onward. 

I do tend to design things based on how fun they are instead of realism (and people have different opinions on how much realism plays into making the game fun).  So I like spears and crossbow mechanics even though they are very gamey (especially crossbows).

But it sounds like a great opportunity for a mod.  Im sure some people would enjoy more realistic weapon effects (even the damage types are still in, they just need to set in XML) and its easy to create weapons that give bonuses vs mounted units, give spears counter attacks, move the special abilitiea around to different weapons, etc.

There is definitely neither an easy nor good (or even possible) way to give an unmounted spear-wielding warrior an intrinsic bonus to a mounted unit, which is based solely on the weapon their wielding, through the XML.  Unless you've recently stealth-added a new tag or two that we don't know about.