| “ | A Kossar always warrants respect, for the working man represents the true spirit of the Motherland. | „ |
Kossars (Spears) are a 
Kislev missile infantry unit introduced in Total War: Warhammer III.
Recruitment[]
Kislev
- Unlocked with: Kossar Hut
- Kislev Expedition
- Unlocked with: Barracks
Description[]
While Kossars fight in regiments, they are not necessarily the most disciplined warriors, at least on the face of it. These hard-living hunters and trappers, drawn from the layfolk of Kislev, are fatalistic about the bitterness of warfare, drinking together by the fire at night and singing raucous anthems as they march, joking constantly at one another’s expense. They wear light armour, if any at all. This grants them great freedom of movement and enables their already impressive stamina to shine through.
Attributes[]
- Missile & Spear Infantry
- ▲ Hybrid: This unit can perform well in both ranged combat and melee.
- ▲ Anti-Large: Anti-Large: Anti-large units have an advantage against targets that are at least as large as a horse. This advantage can be a damage bonus against large targets or an attack that focuses on a very small area. However, some units are simply better against large targets because their attacks are slow and easy to dodge by skilled melee combatants.
- ▼ Weak Against Armour: This unit's attack can hardly punch through armour and is thus wasted on heavily armoured enemies.
Unit Abilities[]
Passive Abilities[]
Strategy[]
- While the temptation to imagine these brave men as another version of the Lothern Sea Guard is quite strong, it sadly isn't very long at all before that temptation is banished by actual experience. Unlike the Lothern Sea Guard, whose archery and skill with spears makes them a very valid and decent melee unit even despite small numbers, and incredibly dangerous to cavalry besides, Kossars (Spears) are statted out to be a tarpit unit, nothing more...and given their actual numbers, that's a real problem, since it basically translates to them being bad in pretty much every respect. They do carry bows, which is good, and gives them a definite battlefield role, but when facing enemy heavy cavalry, there's not much they do but die. Thankfully, they're cheap to field, which means you can pack a lot of them into an army without damaging your economy too badly, but they can't hold the line on their own, and they're not good enough as archers to do more than supplement your regular Kossars.
- It is important to remember two things with Spear Kossars: first, that they are a tier 1 unit (and a sort of tarpit unit, besides), and so will never be able to really match the stats of units like Lothern Sea Guard. And secondly, you have to remember that, despite this, they still are pretty much the only unit you field in any reasonable quantities that have charge reflection versus large. And because the Kislevites are very weak against cavalry, this is a really important feature, one that will ensure that you have to have a small number of these units for pretty much the entire campaign. While you will get replacements for armored kossars, and dervishes, and all the other opening units, the spear kossars do not get replaced until tier 5. That said, spear kossars, despite their stat lines, will never be able to fill the role of units like the Lothern Sea Guard. Instead, try to use them to fend off enemy cavalry. While they will never be able to handle units like Chaos Knights or Dragon Princes on their own, spear kossars are more than able to handle missile cavalry and tier 1 cavalry, which will free up other units to form your line of battle...and the spear kossars ''can'' eat a charge by bigger and scarier cavalry, if they must. You shouldn't expect them to survive eating the charge, but in some ways, they don't have to, because no matter how good the enemy's cavalry is, as Kislev, you can rely on your cavalry to at least equal, if not surpass it...and you're probably going to be at least equal numbers of cavalry. Enemies simply cannot afford to become bogged down fighting your spear kossars, because if they do, they run the risk of getting hammered by your own cavalry, and thus losing the unit (or at least seeing it weakened).
- If you have the Shadows of Change DLC there's very little point to these guys, since Kislevite Warriors fill their role far more effectively, AND they don't need a military building to recruit. A mixture of standard Kossars and Warriors can easily carry you into the mid-game. Plus, in the early game, money may be a bit tight. This unit shares the same upkeep amount with Kislevite Warriors, while being slightly more expensive than the normal Kossars.
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