While making a comment from this thread:
Thought I’d make a side topic on hand infantry, hope it reaches the developers.
*Snort, Ackchuallyyy 
Summary
Let me start by nerding out with the history.
Before gunpowder, hand infantry (and primarily spearmen) were the core of any army, they were easy to muster and train with cheap to produce weapons (big pointy sticks). They repelled cavalry charges in tight formations, served as cannon fodder for ranged archers, and then pushed on melee with the enemy spearmen, everyone used them.
But everything changed, when the fire nation attacked, almost literally.
With the rise of gunpowder (year 1300 forward), ranged weapons and technology became the core of any army up to this day, same reason why martial arts are mostly for sport or entertainment now (By the Napoleonic era, melee was reserved for cavalry or when you ran out of bullets).
So it was logical for hand infantry to be less and less used as the ages progressed, with “spears” becoming an “accessory” to ranged infantry (musketeers adopted it through the bayonet) JUST LIKE IN AOE3.
An alternative to rebalancing stats 
Summary
Most games I’ve had (In like 5000 hours since 2005) have gone the same way; Both players use heavy hand infantry to counter and siege in early ages, only to switch to dragoons and artillery from age 3 (covering both of the pike’s strenghts).
Why not invest in hand infantry going forward? well…
- As the technologies pile up, they get even more out-ranged before contact (Especially by artillery, more on that later).
- They are not as tanky or fast as cavalry (Unlike samurai, let’s focus on the rest for now).
- Melee masses don’t allow the units behind to attack, so “underkill” happens, unlike with ranged units (happens with cavalry too, but they have better stats anyway).
- Since they are “archaic”, some civs need politicians or cards to research past the veteran upgrade (The game doesn’t want you to use them
).
With all that in mind, somewhat “recently”, standard pikemen and german Doppelsoldners got an special buff, where they got EXTRA MELEE RANGE.
Starts with 2 range and get´s up to 3,5 in imperial upgrade; might seem like nothing, but it let’s them attack with 3 rows of pikes at a time (Instead of 2, with micro), catch sneaky cavalry and make contact before “non-melee-purposed” infantry.
Usually (in smaller groups), I use the “defend mode” to mike a tight pikemen formation to attack with all of them at once at a specific target, but extra range would achieve that more naturally (You’d still need to get close to pile them up, but not DIRECTLY ON TOP like currently).
Starts with 1 range and get’s up to 2 range with the Zweihänder church tech.
Made sense they included this one, since the “Zweihänder” is what they called their LARGE 2 handed sword, which is also shared by the Landsknecht, but the Landsknecht itself, doesn’t.
Really, as far as I searched, none of the other melee units get extra range from using large weapons, and sometimes it’s arbitrary (Chinacos and Lancers use lances, but only lancers need a card to get 1 range).
The “nowhere near as used as it should be” stagger mode 
Summary
Not so staggered formation (Rerepost)
I touched on this in the past, and it actually got dev attention, and got fixed! HURRAY, except… not fully.
It still stops staggering units when you have more than 30 of them in a single selection (Counted them again), BUT, at least it doesn’t reduce the space between them lower than in volley mode.
But other than the persistent bug, the extra reason why hand infantry isn’t as useful past age 3, is because they get DEMOLISHED by artillery, as they should, but there is no counter-measure for this.
- Escaping or advancing hand infantry can’t use the “stagger mode” stance.
- Moving staggered skirmishers with non staggered pikemen “UN-staggers” everyone in the formation.
This is probably why the stagger mode isn’t as visible in multiplayer, as every unit in the formation needs to be staggered for it to work (Explorer too, I always set it on stagger mode at the start of every match so it doesn’t mess with the formation).
I guess I’m the only one using it.
The “hopefully valid” request 
In 4 lines, they’d be:
- Add extra range for the HAND INFANTRY units that it makes the most sense to (Swiss Pikemen, halberdiers, spearmen…).
- Add extra range for the HAND CAVALRY units that it makes the most sense to (Lancers, Lifidi Knights, Tokala soldiers…).
- Fix the staggered mode to include the maximum selection (From 30 to 95).
- Add the staggered mode for EVERY unit (Probably should include artillery, maybe not idk).
This way, hand infantry should be more friendly to use up until the mid industrial age while also promoting the use of stances and formations to get ahead in the battles.
Let your opinion be heard! 
To keep a better track of the opinions on this (Unlike in hundreds of singular comments), here is a poll:
- I think units with long melee weapons should have more range.
- I think they are fine as they are.
- I didn’t like the range buff on pikemen, I’d like it to go away.
And…
- I use it every match, whenever I need to.
- I rarely remember to use it.
- There is a stagger mode?
Aaand…
- Yes, I want that QOL feature.
- No, It’d be too overpowered, just separate them with micro.
Long post, but It’s fun to research this 
