[Ironhawk]

Pikes are longer than lances so pikemen will get a repel attempt vs the devastating initial lance attack of cavalary. And its not perfect either - I think there is a morale check to see if you can repel - so the pikers will take some hits.

IIRC the pike does only 5 dam. So, Morkilus is correct, in that once the lance attack is over you are basically pitting what amounts to light infantry (average attack skill & avg. dam) vs. heavy cavalry (good defense skill & good dam). So you probably arent going to win.

Most players just use a screen of throwaway units to absorb the lance attack of the incoming cav. Then you can kill them with something that does good damage. I use about 2/3 throwaway units of the number of cavalry I expect to fight. Watch out for archer/cav combos, cause the archers could kill or rout your throwaway unit screen before the cav can use up thier lance attack on them.