Pikes and Spears are objectively the best type of pre-firearms weapon.
Prove me wrong.
>>28263839
Crossbow.
>>28263839
Halberd.
>>28263839
Really any weapon that cpuld outreach it or get close enough to make it unusable, you should watch lindybeige he is pretty smart
>>28263839
Pikes were ideal against cavalry but dont allow shield use so pikemen are prone to projectiles.
I would say a medium sized spear or a large javelin as they can be wielded in tandem with a shield.
All in all pre-firearm weapons are more of a rock - scissor - paper interplay so there is no objective winner as every region a weapon excels in is reached via compromise. A pike has more reach but no viability in close quarter and a sword or mace vise versa and the "best" depends on what your opponent can field.
>>28263839
>pre-firearms weapon.
16th century pikemen
>>uwotm6
>>28263839
Pikes =/= fighting spears
A 7 or 8 foot spear with a shield is a formidable weapon. A pike, without a bunch of other motherfuckers with pikes around you, is a liability in a battle
>>28263839
What about bows? Range wins.
>>28265818
Literally the second post.
>>28265832
That anon (you?) specified crossbows. I'm talking bows in general.
Literally nothing before the gunpowder era can stand up to Mongols.
>>28265621
The Macedonian sarissa was around long before firearms, and was essentially a pike to be used with a shield.
>>28265867
Polynesia laughs at silly horseniggers from the steppes who cant into sailing.
>>28265898
What are you gonna do when you get there though?
It's like asking who would win in a fight between earthworms and fish. They never meet in nature, and if they meet artificially, both of them are in for a bad day.
>>28265862
Not me but bows are inferior to crossbows.
>>28263892
Too bad he has no actual credentials in the field.
>>28266018
These be fun to watch is.
You have nothing better to do.
Learn something.
Mike Loades _ Weapons That Made Britian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Zzm0UbUm4
>>28263892
>outreach
Nothing but missile weapons, which typically LOST to advancing pike units, and badly. Or ran.
>get close enough to make it unusable
This has literally never happened unless the pikes advanced onto rough terrain. Every single attempt to assault a formed pike unit form the front with short weapons failed.
All of them.
>HUUUR DE DUUUR
Lindybeige is a fucking moron who routinely spouts off shit that is verifiably untrue.
Please never post again.
>>28264009
>All in all pre-firearm weapons are more of a rock - scissor - paper interplay
No they fucking don't.
Pike and shot reached all the way to russia, with princes fucking eager to hire germans to fight as mercenaries.
the ONLY places in the old world that didn't make use of it, are places that didn't see any large bodies of armed westerners by the time the tactic came around.
>>28265818
Pikes wear armor and later period pikemen were fast.
The swiss in particular happily charged and overwhelmed artillery on a regular basis, and would do so consistently without pikes rushing in to stop them.
>>28265867
Except the mamluks.
An afghan hillmen.
Oh, and there's those subsequent invasions into poland and hungary that got BTFO.
And the stone castles that literally held out through the ENTIRE first invasion.
Anon you are correct.
The equivalent would be.
>Rifles were are objectively the best type of pre-lasers weapon.
And some faggots going
>Hurr durr SHOTGUN
