Conqueror's Blade: Imperial Lancers, the ultimate wall? [EN]

Hi my zoulous and welcome to this new video.
In this video we are going to talk about the ultimate wall unit! I present to you the Imperial Pike Guards.

Let’s start with how to obtain them.
Imperial Pike Guards are available through the unit tree by pressing U, then the unit tree, then infantry. Of course, you will need to unlock the previous units before being able to unlock Imperial Pike Guards.


Once Imperial Pike Guards are unlocked, several points are worth discussing.

Let’s talk about veterancy.

Imperial Pike Guards are usually specialized in the bottom line, mainly for unlocking the Shield Bash passive and its knockdown effect. The bottom line also provides an activatable heal, which is useful for surviving longer, and especially the final point that increases all resistances by 20%.

The top line, on the other hand, provides various bonuses that are much less interesting, such as reduced damage taken from behind, reduced bleed damage in specific cases, and reduced damage taken from ranged units.

For this unit, there’s really no debate: bottom line is the way to go.


Regarding doctrines,

You should mainly focus on block, block recovery, and damage reduction. You can also add an Unyielding doctrine, which makes Imperial Pike Guards immune to crowd control for a short time. Optionally, you can add a mobility doctrine, since this unit is quite slow.


Let’s move on to masteries.

This unit has very interesting masteries, including increased movement speed, passive health regeneration, and concussion effects under certain conditions. If you play this unit, I strongly recommend unlocking these masteries as soon as possible. To learn how to unlock masteries, I redirect you to the tutorial on the subject.


That’s it for customizing Imperial Pike Guards, let’s now move on to how to use them.

A quick definition of the Imperial Pike Guards’ role.

With Imperial Pike Guards, you are the frontline. Your job is to protect your other units for as long as possible. The longer you hold the frontline, the more effective your flamethrowers, culverins, etc. will be. Be careful: Imperial Pike Guards are very tanky, but in exchange they deal very little damage, so avoid roaming alone.
Additionally, they are very vulnerable to cavalry, so always try to play with anti-cavalry units such as Fortebraccio in the best case, or alternatively Modao, Camel units, or Halberdier Sergeants.

Let’s now take a closer look at formations.
The F1 Shield Wall formation creates a wide defensive line.
This formation is useful before combat, especially for visual cover and for blocking projectiles aimed at your valuable units. Thanks to this formation, you can stop most projectiles and hinder potential enemy dives.

Once the fight begins, in most cases you will switch to Follow Commander. Therefore, the F1 formation is situational.


The F2 Turtle formation is a square formation that blocks the front and sides but remains open at the back. It can be used in tight areas such as gates and is mainly intended to cover a poke phase. Once the fight starts, you will again likely switch to Follow Commander.


The F3 Schiltron formation is a circular formation. This formation has no real value, as it is similar to Follow Commander without the associated bonuses that we will discuss later. In short, you should not use this formation in combat.


In addition to formations, Imperial Pike Guards have several skills.

First skill: Shield Push.
This skill allows the unit to advance in a tight formation while applying light crowd control to enemies in front of the shield wall. This advance can be useful when pushing into an established pike setup or against cavalry that is already controlled, preventing it from escaping.


Second skill: Follow Commander, which triggers a circular formation that follows your hero and provides the following bonuses:
– Crowd control immunity for 2 seconds if the unit takes 3 hits
– 30% increased damage and resistances for Imperial Pike Guards
– 24% reduced damage taken by your hero


Unlike the standard Schiltron, when you enter an enemy pack in Follow Commander mode, all Imperial Pike Guards will face outward, allowing for much better survivability.

Third skill: Recovery. If you chose the bottom veterancy line, this skill heals your unit for 250 HP per second for 15 seconds.

Fourth skill: Unyielding, if your unit is equipped with the doctrine of the same name. This skill grants crowd control immunity for 2.5 seconds. This can be useful, for example, to counter a Myrmillo charge.

Let’s add a few tips for playing Imperial Pike Guards.

Don’t forget to use double C to move your Imperial Pike Guards faster, as this is a slow unit and repositioning is sometimes necessary.

Once engaged, it is very difficult for Imperial Pike Guards to disengage from a fight. Think carefully about how you enter combat and above all avoid trying to retreat with this unit (in most cases, you will just lose them).

Remember that you are extremely tanky. With this unit, you are capable of holding multiple enemy units by yourself, potentially giving your allies an advantage on another front.

Last thing: because Imperial Pike Guards are very tanky and slow, players will often try to drop trebuchets on them. You can use this to bait and consume enemy trebuchets. Of course, always keep an eye on incoming trebuchets or projectiles so you can move before they land.It’s already the end of this article, I hope you enjoyed it. Don’t forget to leave a thumbs up if you liked it, and if you want to follow the channel, subscribe! Remember that you can use the code ZYX515 to get some in-game advantages for new players, or ZYL515 for players who haven’t launched the game in over a month.