Pike And Spear Wall Rework (Pike Wall, Hoplite Phalanx, Hollow Square, Square)

Pikes and spear units themselves are some of the weaker units in Attila.
A sword unit will beat a spear unit with the same stats most of the time.
Spears and pikes are not good investments without their special abilities.
The AI uses them when given the chance.
But the Vanilla formations still lose frequently because they allow non-formed sword units to swarm around them.
This mod aims looks to testing, formation buffs, past mods and history to achieve historical and effective spear-pike formations.

My first attempt at pikes – https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1516735967 – has allowed me to test these formations and find some other great works.
This update relies partially on Mackles and Noifs great work:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=438809866

"Does it annoy you that certain barbarians are the phalangites of Alexander reborn? Then this is the mod for you! It replaces all barbarian pike units pike weapon with the cavalry lance. This change serves to change the look and feel of the units to something of a hybrid between true pike and spear units. They can still be highly effective from the front and susceptible to missile fire. Additional balancing changes will be made with feedback on their usefulness now.

Also incorporates Noif’s Pikes Ready In Your Hands! mod. With this, all pike units will hold their pikes at all times except when engaged at close quarters. This makes it easier to tell at a glance what type the unit is, and generally looks better for screenshots and such."

The mod also incorporates my tested formation mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1684074018

Buffing the Special Pike and Spear Abilities in a realistic manner is the method used here to level the playing field with non-formed, flanking units.
With the special ability, many bonuses come into play that reflect their actual battle dynamics.
Pike walls: Able to hold the line unless they are flanked. It is hard to break them in urban settings. Added knockback animations.Less missile cover than in Vanilla. Slower than any formation. In particular, pike walls were nearly invulnerable from the front.
The best stat to reflect this -shield defense and not defense- is greatly increased in this mod for the appropriate formations.

Yes, there were no proper hoplites after Greece, but compressed spear walls were used through the dark ages.
Spear Wall (or "Hoplite Phalanx"): This is really a toned down Pike wall with the missile block chance set at 25. Slow. I would recommend it be assigned only to mid-level spear units, not tier 1, as it is powerful. I didn’t add that much bonus against cav because spear units already have very high anti-cavalry damage. It is meant to be more powerful than a shield wall with additional cavalry protection. Downside is its speed.
Spear Wall is not used for many units in Vanilla Attila. Please use it!

Pike Square and Hollow Square: These are generally assigned to tier 1 units. Buffed their morale, defense, first-strike and anti-cav stats a bit. The Pike Square is the more powerful of the two. Both are immobile. Very useful for holding a point or just before cav impact. Also help against missiles but not as much as other formations.

I mod the other key infantry formations in the Shep Battle Mod:
Strategy

The units don’t turn well in formation.
If you get flanked, it may be best to turn it off if the square formation is not available.
I recommend adding the squares to your spear units.
Put sword units on the ends of your spear line or fight beside a building or terrain impasse.

Built to work with most other Attila/Bel/Char mods, even the ones with units modifications.
I only modded the formations, kv and special ability fields relevant to pikes and spear formations.
Modded the pike weapon slightly. No spear changes.
No units are affected directly in land or main units!

This mod does not touch the stats of any units to allow many tiers of pikes if a modder wishes.

LS Modder collection: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1420203491