Summary
Foot troops. Cost 2AP. Move 400p on road, 200p in good going, 200p in bad going. Combat factors are +4 vs foot or Stronghold, +4 vs mounted.
If they lose a combat to Knights in good going, or to Warband they are destroyed. Otherwise they recoil.
If they are doubled in combat they are destroyed.
An element of Spears may give a +1 rear support bonus to an element of Spears in front of it.

Alan Saunders writes:
I always find spears to be a very underused troop type, compared, say, to blades. Given that ppears are better than blades against mounted troops, and that mounted troops are very common this seems strange to me. Tactics for spears seem pretty straightforward though. Stick them in the middle, protect their flanks and resist the enemy. Against mounted they can fight in a single rank, against strong foot such as blades then perhaps a double rank may be better, as long as they are not outflanked.

At least one person proposes spears as an ideal way to deal with behemoths.

Luke Ueada-Sarson writes:
They are much worse against knights than blades are and won't last long against knights single ranked. Here two ranks are probably better - if you don't get outflanked as a result.

Against blades I'd use them one deep and hope to beat the blades elsewhere. By going two deep you halve your frontage meaning the blades will inevitably get around your flanks.

James Ewins writes:
That's the problem with spears I've always found - to be really effective they have to be doubled, and then at most you have (effectively) 6 elements in your army. Much more use for defending narrow frontages then attacking anything, just sit them down and they'll soak most things up. As an attacking force they're less useful.

Richard Crawley writes:
I always use my ppears in two ranks though I admit that it's as much for the look of the thing as anything.

On consideration my Lunar hoplites have traditionally formed the central striking force of my battle line with their flanks protected by the Blades of the Steel Sword Legion or Warbands of the Carmanian Corps so the extra fighting power of the +1 has been useful especially when the spears are acting as the army's general.

One thing that's worth bearing in mind is that the second rank are only lost with the front rank IF they have added +1 that turn. Thus not when shot at or presumably when contacted to the rear - I would assume only the contacted element would turn to face.

Graham Harrison writes:
I think spears are the ideal steady foot element to hold the centre of a battle line. Used 2 deep my Elf army has successfully seen off behemoths, blades, knights and all sorts. Particularly combined with an uphill position if you are lucky enough to manage it.

The weakness is the need to be two deep to obtain the optimum results and their slow speed if attacking. This means that an opponent of comparable cost, eg blades, will overlap you and a lot of troops will outrun you. With my elves I tend to use the spears and magician as a slow advance/holding action and swing wide with a hero/2 knights combo. It doesn't always work but it's successful more than half the time.

Don't get obsessed with the enemy overlapping you, other factors on the battlefield can easily effect that, and if you end up with the Spears hit from all sides, you have probably already lost!

Jeff Bolton writes:
What are their strengths? Their combat factor - the magic number of 4 versus all comers - and their ability to provide rear support to other spears. To me, their biggest strength is that combat factor.

What are their weaknesses? Well, that would be bad going and their ability to provide rear support to other spears. Wot's that, you say? (Go ahead, I'll wait.) Basically, when spears back each other up, the battle line's frontage shrinks which opens up the possibility of someone exploiting a flank. Another weakness is their susceptability to quick kills by certain elements.

How do you use them with other troops? Too many players think that spears MUST be deployed behind each other. This is simply not true. With a combat factor of 4, they are not likely to be doubled; they can stand in a single-deep line.

Also, I often use Spear as a flank guard. Why? Because they have a consistent combat factor against anyone. I've killed a LOT of blades by turning them to the flank and riding them down with aerials or riders. spears are just a little bit better against that sort of thing. I also like to use shooters and spears together on flanks.

How do you oppose them? Carefully. They are too tough to just blow away, particularly since my armies usually do not feature Knights or Warbands. Your best hope is force flanks and overlaps in an attempt to apply the minuses to the opponent spears.

Spears should be used a LOT more than they are in HOTTs. Historically, spears were an extremely common troop type. And, if you look at the way most armies operate in published fantasy (when you can find operational description), the most common infantry are spears (along with shooters and hordes). But - and I am guilty of this, too - most HOTTs players prefer blades as their dominant infantry type. After all, 2AP is 2AP. (And blades are marginally better in bad going.)

In an army for a campaign game or use in a tournament, I would - in an infantry army - try to incorporate a lot of spears. They are marginally better than blades at meeting all the different troop types that might appear in campaign armies.

Alexei Gartinski writes:
Spear are definitely tough and behemoths definitely don't like them. An all-spear army is more effective without any magical creatures!

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