There is one thing that would be scarier. Pike and shot bow edition. Our strength boost means that it would be very rare for any group to be able to outrange us, and the spear wall would would protect the archers as they reap their harvest, and honestly, would make for a scary force...
The big issue is how our forces go about fighting, and while we do have shield wall and spears, our forces simply don't seem use formations much, and a bunch of spears in position is actually great. A group of spears in formation is very deadly against a charge, though they aren't as good against heavy armor, hence the invention of the Halberd.
We don't use formations because formations are wrong to use when you have the ability to dodge open conflict by being self-sufficient warrior bands fighting a brutal asymmetric war against their vulnerable and weakest. Also- Spearwall is devastating
if your spears can survive it reasonably. And you don't expect your line to survive. And the enemy isn't using a sturdier quadruped than "oops I sprained my ankle guess I'm dead" horses. Like I duno. One of the stoutest quadruped species to have ever developed, enhanced by divine magic.
Boars.
I'm saying that normal spears don't do the trick against
our world's Boars and we developed Boar Spears specifically for the suckers.
These are bigger, stronger, tougher, and divine. Spear formations sound like a bad plan compared to, you know, denying good engagement paths for the cav and/or digging trenches and/or placing stakes. Like. These things
literally break down full blown Pallisades. A Spearwall is a suicide mission, even if it bleeds the boar to death a few hours later.
If the "innovation" is "do the thing we know how to do, but this time it works" I'll eat a hat. Not my hat of course, but you know. I'll find one.
The innovation should be Boar Spears great weapon type stuff. Like, halberds were made for killing cavalry in close quarters
quickly as opposed to sticking it with a spear and having it flail as it dies. Behead the horse and it stops ravaging the line with it's death spasms. The spike on the back is for armor piercing, and the spike on top is for traditional "pike" line warfare. Which is, itself, an anti-infantry technique built to beat Shield Walls (and it is
technically effective against cavalry, but I have my doubts that it'd hold up to a Boar charge). They're a multi-tool, not just a "they were made for AP damage" like in certain video games.
Either that, or Battle Planning. Battle Planning is even more effective against cavalry than spears or pikes or halberds. A couple ditches, a few well placed posts, good terrain and strong initiative can make the enemy cavalry the panicky bunch of dumb animals that they are, rather than the well trained and furious balls of muscle and death that they also are. It's like, why would you want to plan for a charge that
bulldozes prepared and built pallisades when instead you could. You know. Deny the charge from them?
I'm pretty sure this is militia rather than another holy order, and militias would do bad things to our culture. Making the Arthwyd's culture more martial would cause bigger problems than any it could hope to solve. We can, will, and are improving our military without doing that. Increased militarism is a deleterious temptation that we must resist.
No way this is militias. We have Holy Warriors civilization perk. All of our military is organized through the clergy. This is a Holy Order
@Oshha right? Not "suddenly let's let random civilians take up arms"
Cateyed
