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Okay so my friend and i had a battle a while ago and we werent 100% sure if my men-at-arms (Bretonnia) got to use thier shields in close combat because of thier Haliberds (Two handed). But i saw that they have hand weapons too, but i would much rather have str4 attacks than thier strength 3. But on the models and thier pictures in the army book the shields are attached to thier arms and they are using haliberds. So what im trying to find out, do they get thier armor save and parry save from the shield in close combat if i used the haliberds that round? Thanks.

Read the first paragraph of the "Close Combat Weapons" rules on page 89 of the BRB. It basically says that if you have a special weapon you must use it, so no switching from halberds to shield+HW, the men at arms are stuck using the halberds in close combat. You only get a bonus from the shields when getting shot at as their arms are free.

wow thats kinda slowed because now there is literally no reason for the shields on them, except the range part of course, but i mean if their gonna die by ranged their going to die, i think they should have some sort of special rule like "Strapt Shield" or something like that so they can use their haliberd and their shield in the same turn. because i mean they have WS2 so that would help them A LOT, because i like the Men-at-Arms i think their cool, and they help out a lot because of the horde rule and the str4.

Moonscar14 wrote:wow thats kinda slowed because now there is literally no reason for the shields on them, except the range part of course, but i mean if their gonna die by ranged their going to die, i think they should have some sort of special rule like "Strapt Shield" or something like that so they can use their haliberd and their shield in the same turn. because i mean they have WS2 so that would help them A LOT, because i like the Men-at-Arms i think their cool, and they help out a lot because of the horde rule and the str4.

They have an option for spear. Take the spear, keep the shield, use them both. You won't get a parry, but that doesn't matter. The only job of men at arms is to take steadfast away so when the knights go into the flank, you win by a ton, and break the opponent.

-Matt

Eh, but the thing is thier str4 wrecks toughness 3-4 units because when i wound -1 when toughness 4 or -2 when toughness 3 to their armor, and a strength 4 on a 5 point unit is pretty nice, and even if i dont use spears i still have a 99% chance of having my knights come around and attack i mean ive done this every game and it works, its just i was saying it would be really nice for them to be able to have that shield ability, so they could use their shield in combat, because like i said i like the Men-at-Arms. But thanks for the post

You are doing that wrong - a S4 model always makes an opponent -1 AS than normal, it has NO bearing on your relative strengths and toughness

Take spears

hehe ya i just realized my mistake on the strength/toughness thing sorry.

Not a problem, just a key thing to get right really!

Here is why Halbards are a bad idea in general.

Men at Arms(and Empire state troops) arn't meant to kill things. Halbards make them try, but they still fail.


Men at Arms are meant to hold things so the knights can hit them in the flank just like Hawaiimatt said.


Men at arms are supposed to be cheap bodies. Halbards detract from that purpose.

Thing is i like these guys because my few games that i've played they have done some very nice damage to some ogre Bulls, like 1 combat they made them run and a few more times ive won but they passed their leadership test. So i mean that str4 on a 5 point unit like i said is awesome. and besides those haliberds are free so why not.

Moonscar14 wrote:Thing is i like these guys because my few games that i've played they have done some very nice damage to some ogre Bulls, like 1 combat they made them run and a few more times ive won but they passed their leadership test. So i mean that str4 on a 5 point unit like i said is awesome. and besides those haliberds are free so why not.

Why not? Because they stop you using shields... which may not be a reason to stop using halberds, but it certainly gives you a reason to consider spears instead. Which makes for a choice where no option is clearly superior, which is a good thing.