Greek Spearmen

Summary
Spearmen are a basic melee infantry brigade available to the Greek faction group. They are cheap and available from the start of the game, with somewhat defensively-oriented stats.

"Equipped with shields and spears, they are better armoured but less offensive and slower than skirmishers. Using a battleline stance, spearmen are well suited for blocking enemy charges, or to hold enemy units in place while lighter troops attempt to flank."

- In-game Description

History
Spearmen represent basic Greek melee infantry levies or very early pre-hoplite infantry. In practice, the Greeks relied almost entirely on their hoplites as melee infantry, with lower class levies providing skirmishers and missile support as psiloi rather than forming a battleline.

Tactics
Spearmen are a basic melee brigade available to Greek factions at a cheap cost. Their uses are very limited, since the Greeks can recruit hoplites without requiring a barracks, making these spearmen already obsolete as a main battleline unit at the start of the game. Spearmen can still play a role as light infantry to outflank the enemy or charge missile brigades, though the more expensive peltasts are arguably superior in this role. Even as city garrisons to defend the walls and maintain public order, spearmen are less cost-effective than Psiloi that have a greater brigade size at a lower cost. In short, spearmen are only useful to quickly pad an army with additional cheap melee units in situations where peltasts or hoplites are too expensive in terms of gold or recruits.

Compared to other basic early-game melee units, Greek Spearmen have midling stats. They have a better missile resistance than their Sabellic and Latin counterparts, but are weaker than the early-game brigades of the Gauls, Etruscans and Illyrians.