Unclear on Spears

[Gunny Highway]

Fellow Warlords,
Still little confused on Spears and the relationship with other weapons. Some races and units as such can switch to spears for free and vice versa. Can’t seem to get it thru my large and boney head if spears can be carried WITH other weapons or not. Can anyone help a Senior Citizen in his addle-brained confusion?
Can’t really find it in the rules if this is possible. For example, Romans carried swords AND Pilum, so there is historical context ( Yep, got it, this is fantasy but a biped is still a biped) :). Thanx fellow WoE’rs!
Gunny

[Tim Haslam]

We’ve looked at this, it does seem a little confusing.

Spears, are just spears, with no sword back up.
You must assume you have a handful of them with you going into battle. But again there is some historical context for this.

So it’s a choice,
Sword, with 1ST AND 1SV
or
Spear, with 1SV, but the ability to throw one in exchange of missiles.

It appears that most troops have the option of either but NOT both.

[Gunny Highway]

Ok Tim, thx! Going the way of the Haslam for now! Just wanted some confirmation on this so will go with your viewpoint, thx!
Gunny

[AbsoluteZero]

Page 134
“If you take an option for a hand-to-hand weapon this replaces any hand-to-hand weapon the unit already has. If you take a option for a ranged weapon this replaces any ranged weapon the unit already has or is additional if the unit doesn’t already carry ranged weapons. E.g you can add a bow to a unit carrying swords without giving up the swords.
Rocks count as both types, but can be added as ranged weapons where indicated as ‘thrown’. You don’t have to give up swords or other hand-to-hand weapons to throw rocks! Otherwise weapons are hand-to-hand or ranged as defined in the Weapons and Armour section.”

This also is for magic weapons too(no dual wielding 😉 ).
I personally would take spears all the time. Basically you get an entire extra round of combat just with the exchange of missiles. Number-crunchy wise, for just generic 5 Acc, 5 Str, and 6 Res, you will get on average 3 more kills using spears instead of swords per engagement. I was a die hard sword guy till I did the math on this. Wow, that exchange of missiles is WAY better than I gave it credit for.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by AbsoluteZero.

[Gunny Highway]

@ Absolute Zero:
OMG can’t believe I missed this! Will have to get the book out and go to the page, thanx for the handy page reference!
Respectfully,
Gunny

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