Why oh Why did I level up Lancers?

[Clonkinator]

Uhm... Footpads can't backstab...

[Weeksy]

footpads can't backstab, but thieves can if (and only if) you can get a unit behind the unit you want to backstab. Footpads and gryphons are fast. Faster units are more likely to be able to go around a unit and have the MP to come back.

[Jetrel]

Hes speaking about MP now, where the chance you get a Knight a level up is.... very slim, if it gets unlucky once and misses both charge attacks and all retaliation attacks hit hes dead.

Knights have more HP (resiliency against a lucky counterattack) and are more frontloaded (more likely to be able to kill on swing 1 or 2 and avoid damage entirely). Plus, you're often better off just swinging the sword, which is as powerful as that of an equivalent front-line fighter unit.

Major fact about the horseman line that everyone seems to forget:
20% res. to blade
30% res. to impact
(no one forgets the -20% to pierce, but the above two are just as significant).

The lancer has this too. This transforms the way these units can be used - they're excellent against melee units, especially when using the sword attack. If you attack a troll during dawn/dusk, the reduction to the troll's damage is as significant as a ToD shift. That's huge.

You have to be smart and not use it when your opponent can subsequently use pierce units to counter-attack, but that's what mobility is for. And these guys have it.

[Urs]

My short explanation: Lancers roflpwn.

The somewhat longer one:
- Lancers aren't as weak as they seem. If you use one to charge at pikemen or halberdiers, then that's just plain stupid.
- They can pick off wounded enemy units trying to retreat
- They can often give that extra damage and kill an enemy unit about to level where it might be dangerous to try something different.
- They are the bane of archers, mages, other non-piercing horsemen (elvish scouts) and drakes with low melee.
- They can easily take advantage of an enemy stuck in an inconvenient location. Like a thief stuck in shallow water. Instead of clumping your units around the area hoping to kill, just send a lancer and solver your problem quickly and simply.

[Clonkinator]

footpads can't backstab, but thieves can if (and only if) you can get a unit behind the unit you want to backstab. Footpads and gryphons are fast. Faster units are more likely to be able to go around a unit and have the MP to come back.

Actually I know what units have backstab and how to use it... I'm no beginner.
Other than that, just get a lancer onto lit cave at day, with a grand marshal next to it. You will be impressed. (However, you will be impressed by almost any loyalist unit this way... ) The fact is, as already mentioned, Knights are the guys to do the usual job at weakening and killing things and doing all the other usual stuff, lancers are the "kill-or-die"-guys. However, heck they're GOOD at killing things. Especially because they have, as the only charging unit at all, three strikes on their charging attack. Neat.
Uhm... What did I want to say...? Dang, I forgot.

[Thrawn]

Pretty much everything to be said has been said. Now to sum up and finally end this.

*Lancers have pros and cons. Knights have pros and cons. Get them accordingly.

*As to people's "image" of you, don't be too concerned. I've been around when things that were proposed were rejected (many of those times where my suggestions) and as long as you realize there is a reason behind your rejection (sometimes you may not accept the reason, but it is still there, and probably valid) and don't act rude about it, there should be no bad "image." You will be seen as yet another new player who hasn't bothered to use the search feature (as this has al been argued before), but as you come to appreciate the work the dev team puts in, and hopefully start researching before posting, this image will change.

*Clonk: Weeksy isn't being rude--he is only giving a scenario where footpads are useful--by being the person behind a thief (which has backstab--he wasn't saying that you didn't know this) as it is maneuverable.

I see no real reason for this to continue to be open, so I'm giving it a day to have a point again (and not simply rehashing already argued points)

[Clonkinator]

*Clonk: Weeksy isn't being rude--he is only giving a scenario where footpads are useful--by being the person behind a thief (which has backstab--he wasn't saying that you didn't know this) as it is maneuverable.

Yeah, I know. I didn't mean to be rude either, I just wanted to say.

[Tom of wesnoth]

I just read Velensk's post its crazy every typr of unit dies!!!