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Why do people love Halberdiers/Soldiers/Spear Fighters so much?


Corrobin
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They're just... infantry lance users.

That's it. Nothing special or unique. Just infantry lance users.

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It's kind of cool to play an enemy only class. Or at least it was for the longest time since nobody cared about Gaiden among the Kaga catalogue. And why not have a lance equivalent to fighters and myrmidons/mercenaries.

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22 minutes ago, Corrobin said:

They're just... infantry lance users.

That's it. Nothing special or unique. Just infantry lance users.

The fact that they are infantry lance users is exactly what makes them special. They are the only non-lord class that covers that function, and their bewildering exclusion from most of the games makes them a dark horse class for people like me.

 

And in terms of art, halberdiers have the most practical armor design of any class, aside from maybe paladins. They are more heavily armored than most classes while being sleeker and less brutish/blocky than knights. The result is a very visually appealing class.

 

Plus, I like lances as a weapon type. They aren't as generic as swords while still being less brutish/more elegant than axes.

Edited by Etheus
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Why many D&D players love kobolds so much? Because they are the designated canon fodder, and when a canon fodder rise up and kick asss, it very satisfaying. 

Statistically, they are balanced like mercenaries, wich is usually very good in fire emblem, wich reward having many "just  high enought" stats instead of big strenghts and big weaknesses.

Also, they tend to looks cool when they are playable.

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23 minutes ago, Corrobin said:

They're just... infantry lance users.

That's it. Nothing special or unique. Just infantry lance users.

Replace "lance" with "sword" and you can say the same about myrmidons/swordmasters. (in before someone brings up the class critical bonus)

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Lance infantry was the norm in ancient/medieval warfare, despite the popularity of magical swords (exactly they were very rare, difficult and expensive to make in contrast to a spear).

For some reason the games usually give you plenty of sword and axe infantry, but not lance infantry, which makes absolutely no sense.

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I'd say it has to do with the fact that they were enemy only in most games (again, barring Gaiden, the first title they were playable in is... Path of Radiance), among other things, like the fact that the only other foot class that uses lances is knights, which people tend to complain about a lot.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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It's a matter of negative reinforcement.  Take something away from someone (or keep it away from them), then suddenly they'll crave it.

And I mean...

Kzki6wa.pngIVa8NYd.jpg

This is the most fashionable look in all of Fates.

3 minutes ago, Lanko said:

Lance infantry was the norm in ancient/medieval warfare, despite the popularity of magical swords (exactly they were very rare, difficult and expensive to make in contrast to a spear).

Also this.

To add, more troops were trained in combat with polearms and blunt weapons than with blades, as the former two translated better from their previous careers as people living off the land than swords did.  You can equate bailing hay to stabbing dudes with spears, and chopping wood to cutting down enemies with battleaxes, but you'll be hard-pressed to find any ancient/medieval career that bears any likeness to slashing and stabbing with a sword aside from of course fighting.

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1 hour ago, Corrobin said:

They're just... infantry lance users.

That's it. Nothing special or unique. Just infantry lance users.

For me at least, that's part of the charm: they're not knights, mercenaries, royalty, or any of that; they're regular soldiers: standard infantry, with a standard infantry weapon. That, to me at least, is pretty neat, and it does make Fire Emblem feel just a bit more like a medieval fantasy war story. 

Gameplay-wise, they're a bit of a jack-of-all-stats: fast but not the fastest, strong but not the strongest, sturdy but not a tank. That plus lances makes them fairly versatile.

Plus, they tend to look really cool in the games where they're playable. 

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58 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

For me at least, that's part of the charm: they're not knights, mercenaries, royalty, or any of that; they're regular soldiers: standard infantry, with a standard infantry weapon. That, to me at least, is pretty neat, and it does make Fire Emblem feel just a bit more like a medieval fantasy war story. 

I couldn't agree more. I like the idea of just normal guys and gals fighting alongside heroes. They're very charming and they bring a stronger sense of... truth (I think that's the word I want?). They feel real.

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Well, I like them because their the only infantry unit that wields a lance. Swords has Mercenaries and Myrmidons, and Axes have Fighters and Pirates, but the Solider is the only infantry lance unit. Besides, not many FE games have them as playable units. I'd love for another lord to wield a lance again like Ephriham, and Claude looks to be that.

Edited by Roland
Clearer explination.
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2 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

To add, more troops were trained in combat with polearms and blunt weapons than with blades, as the former two translated better from their previous careers as people living off the land than swords did.  You can equate bailing hay to stabbing dudes with spears, and chopping wood to cutting down enemies with battleaxes, but you'll be hard-pressed to find any ancient/medieval career that bears any likeness to slashing and stabbing with a sword aside from of course fighting.

Why did I not realize this before? It makes total sense.

Also, if you were a hunter, you could become an archer easily. Not everyone lived on a farm with cows and pigs etc to kill for meat, so I figure a lot of archers for the military started out shooting wild animals to feed themselves and their family. You could buy from the local farmer yeah, but if you could kill your own meat you probably did that more often.

Edited by Dragoncat
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3 hours ago, Lanko said:

Lance infantry was the norm in ancient/medieval warfare, despite the popularity of magical swords (exactly they were very rare, difficult and expensive to make in contrast to a spear).

So you're saying is that in actual medieval times, actual magical swords existed? Umm... what?

Edited by NinjaMonkey
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1 hour ago, KevinskyHaaz said:

I couldn't agree more. I like the idea of just normal guys and gals fighting alongside heroes. They're very charming and they bring a stronger sense of... truth (I think that's the word I want?). They feel real.

Thanks. Yeah; I agree. I think the word you're looking for is reality. I once heard that Miyamoto, when making the Zelda games, would often say something along the lines, "Value reality over realism"; essentially meaning that the game should be designed to feel internally consistent and "real", rather than just make it look real. Having the soldier class helps Fire Emblem to feel real. 

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Lances have fabulous animations, lots of swinging a giant... er... stick... pole? I guess around your body gracefully.

Mages are the best of the best though.

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My first inclination is that it's because they're rarely given and only because of that rarity. However, I think another contributing factor is how basic the idea of a lance wielding infantry is, so not giving the player one produces a greater sense of "not having something I should" than even Brigands (a far superior class with fewer playable representatives) can provide.

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3 hours ago, NinjaMonkey said:

So you're saying is that in actual medieval times, actual magical swords existed? Umm... what?

No, they didn't actually exist... but people believed they did.

Charlemagne was widely believed to have received a sword from an angel (Durandal). The Japanese had a whole mystical tradition regarding them. Some believed they actually had spirits or could be imbued with them or even possess them . There are tons of examples of those weapons if you research about it.

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7 hours ago, Corrobin said:

They're just... infantry lance users.

That's it. Nothing special or unique. Just infantry lance users.

So you can get all of the Lancer with none of the armour/flier/beast/dragon weaknesses. You get better Movement than with armours, which means you don't have to transport them via other units and they're pretty much as effective as their Sword and Axe counterparts. The REAL question is: "Why are they not more common?" I mean, I get that the units you recruit are from all over the continent but you'd think you'd get SOMEONE with that class from yours or the enemy's side, right?

 

6 hours ago, Etheus said:

Also, how do you have a character as awesome and distinctive as Nephenee and NOT want to follow up on that?

I echo this question.

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3 hours ago, Dragoncat said:

 

Also, if you were a hunter, you could become an archer easily. Not everyone lived on a farm with cows and pigs etc to kill for meat, so I figure a lot of archers for the military started out shooting wild animals to feed themselves and their family. You could buy from the local farmer yeah, but if you could kill your own meat you probably did that more often.

Well its a bit more complicated than that. Roman law restricted hunting to rulers, and that mentality continued through the feudal age in the aspect of property law called poaching (you were usurping a lord's right to determine who could hunt on their property). The woodsy sort of area that have large game in Europe were generally owned and maintained by Lords to have a place to host great hunts with their noble friends, and hunting in a lord's forest without permission was a crime. Now poaching laws were hard enough to enforce (and often unpopular) that plenty of people still made a living off it (although the punishment was often severe, England for instance punished the crime by hanging until death), and occasionally sections of the Commons (land set aside for the common good) would be areas set aside for hunting, and some countries allowed exception for the hunting of small game, but this wasn't universal. The English became famous for their long bow archers more due to laws that required citizens over the age of 6 to practice archery every Sunday (plus their easy access to Yew, a wood that naturally had the advantage of laminate wood).

One other nitpicky thing that I will add is that it is other polearms that Fire Emblem classify as lances that were commonly used by infantry, lances were mounted weapons.

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Well, for one, make something ennemy exclusive, that the player can't have, and well, they will want it. Two, after a while, it's only a matter of time before it's implemented, depending of the gameplay of the series.

Like, for exemple, FE4. This game is the biggest 'the ennemy have cool crap you can't have' Fire Emblem of the series.

...Honestly though, the only reason I wanted soldiers was because they were ennemy only, but everything changed... when the spear fighters attacked, I mean when they became common, especially in fates, which you basically had a better version of it. Kind of sad.

It's probably because, if Swordmaster exist, why can't a version of other weapons can't ?

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