Bannerlord is home to an extensive combat system that has more than a few nifty battle mechanics up its sleeve. There are plenty of tricks and bracing your spears is one such trick, and it will get you far against even the most elite armies in Bannerlord.
Bracing your spear is similar to couching your lance. The only difference is that the couch lance mechanic is exclusive for horse riders.
Bracing with a Spear in Bannerlord
Ever since Bannerlord came out many people wanted a ‘Brace Spear‘ option for infantry-oriented characters. Luckily, you can now also brace with a spear in Bannerlord. Pressing X will brace your spear whilst on foot.
Spear bracing is great to counter incoming melee shock cavalry. If you do manage to brace a hit from an oncoming rider, you’re bound to cripple him. If you’re having trouble bracing a spear, be sure to holster your shield – you can’t spear brace with a shield in your other hand.
Similarly to lances and pikes, if you want to be able to brace a spear you need to find one that has the ‘Spear Brace‘ tag. You can check this by hovering over the weapon in your inventory. Spears with appropriate brace tags can be found naturally in battle loot.
How to Craft a Brace Spear in Bannerlord
Although you can find spears with the ‘Brace Spear’ tag in loot, there’s also a way for you to craft them via a smithy in any of Calradia’s cities. However, going down this route will require you to have a higher smithing skill.
The way smithing works in Bannerlord is simple. You have to individually craft each part of the weapon in order to assemble it and form a usable weapon.
The part that determines whether your spear is able to brace is the handle. If the handle you’ve selected for your spear has the ‘Spear Brace‘ tag, then you’ll be able to brace with it in combat.
What Units Can Spear Brace in Bannerlord?
You might think that only the player has access to the brace spear and couch lance mechanics. Well, that’s not the case in Bannerlord. Pikemen and troops with polearms that are long enough can utilize the spear brace mechanic against incoming cavalry units.
Some of the troop types that are known for being able to spear brace are: Vlandian Sergeants, Battanian Elite Infantry, and most Pikemen troops that you can find in other kingdoms.
Certain cavalry units with long polearms can also brace their spears if they dismounted during battle.
Pikemen in particular can put up a spear wall big enough to counter even the biggest cavalry charge that an army can throw at you. But pikemen can’t properly follow up after that, so we wouldn’t recommend investing a lot of resources into pikemen.
Can You Couch a Spear?
No, you cannot couch a spear whilst riding a horse. The only polearms that you can couch are pikes and lances. You should technically be able to couch a spear on horseback, but it was removed likely in the favor of balancing.
All in all, you should stick to spears and spear bracing if your character is built for infantry combat. However, it is still advised to have a lance with the ‘Couch Lance‘ tag in case you need a mount for battles against larger armies.
Bannerlord is a game full of intricate features such as a Spear Brace, and we’re here to help you learn more about them:
How to Increase Party Speed in Bannerlord | The Best Troops in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord | How to Have Kids in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
