With the advent of the pike, it is possible for even barely trained peasants to defeat armoured knights. Although not as powerful as Pike Guards, pike levy, if well-supported, pose a menace to enemy melee cavalry. Also, a low recruitment cost makes it easy to field them in large numbers to overwhelm enemy forces, despite being semi-trained peasantry with little in the way of armour, meaning they are highly vulnerable to flanking melee infantry or ranged units. Worse still would be archers and gunpowder weapons, against which the pike as a weapon leaves a great deal to be desired.