Go get a 2-5.5m long x 2cm Ø hardwood pole and see how much it wiggles
Add in the fact that you don’t have many skilled professional soldiers and depending on period they’re probably on horseback, archers, or some other role beyond the classic hero archetype of Jet Li or Achilles.
And you have to keep in mind, a lone guy with a long spear is going to struggle, much in the same way that a cavalry rider is going to really struggle fighting on a bridge. By the time you’re in that position you’re losing. Spears are best used in formation, Ideally a line of spearmen with the row or two behind them stabbing over their shoulders. Short spears and javelins can act as a compromise as seen in roman legions.
Ultimately though there’s a reason anti spear troops became a major part of medieval warfare. Pikes are cheap, easy, and good at killing knights
Spears were centrally relevant through the 1600s as part of pike and shot warfare, and even then only went away with the advent of bayonets for firearms. With as long as standard muskets stayed, as well as the continued use of formation tactics and existence of cavalry on the battlefield, these bayonets carried on in use and form factor as spears through the middle of the 1800s.
Modern bayonets and rifles are short enough and used differently enough they are a distinct type of weapon, but that evolution is relatively recent.
Go get a 2-5.5m long x 2cm Ø hardwood pole and see how much it wiggles
Add in the fact that you don’t have many skilled professional soldiers and depending on period they’re probably on horseback, archers, or some other role beyond the classic hero archetype of Jet Li or Achilles.
And you have to keep in mind, a lone guy with a long spear is going to struggle, much in the same way that a cavalry rider is going to really struggle fighting on a bridge. By the time you’re in that position you’re losing. Spears are best used in formation, Ideally a line of spearmen with the row or two behind them stabbing over their shoulders. Short spears and javelins can act as a compromise as seen in roman legions.
Ultimately though there’s a reason anti spear troops became a major part of medieval warfare. Pikes are cheap, easy, and good at killing knights
Spears were centrally relevant through the 1600s as part of pike and shot warfare, and even then only went away with the advent of bayonets for firearms. With as long as standard muskets stayed, as well as the continued use of formation tactics and existence of cavalry on the battlefield, these bayonets carried on in use and form factor as spears through the middle of the 1800s.
Modern bayonets and rifles are short enough and used differently enough they are a distinct type of weapon, but that evolution is relatively recent.