8th Ed. are spear special weapon?

[CN45]

I know i have asked this befor about are Spear 2 handed weapons but some of my friends are now saying that Spear are "Special Weapon" and under the rules any weapons that are Special cant us there shield in Melee?

 

[vict0988]

spear is a one hand oberated weapon that lets you strike with one extra rank however they can only make one attack.
shields gives a 6+ armour save that can go with other armour also if you have a hand weapon you get a 6+ ward save in close combat.
hand weapons can be axes swords or otherwise, but does not give any bonusses and are carried in one hand
a saurus has 2 arms (normally) and can carry a spear in one and a shield in the other, has a total save of 4+, and can attack in 3 ranks. the ranks after the first only attack once this is called supporting attacks (4 if in horde formation).
however it is a better option (thinks most people on this forum) to keep the hand weapons as you dont have to buy spears and get a 6+ ward save in close combat and can attack in 2 ranks.
try reading the big book it really helps......

 

[The Omen]

I think your friends might be confusing the rule, you can use the shield for +1 armour save but you can't get the 6+ ward save - you only get that with a hand weapon and shield.

 

[troubled_joe]

The long and short of it is, there is no rule stating that you can't use shields with special weapons. Your friends are 100% wrong. Some special weapons (i.e. 2-handed ones) mean you can't use a shield, but not all special weapons.

 

[BEEGfrog]

Various conditions and rules apply to shields, I have tried to consider most below

Example ------------------------------Shield Save Parry Ward
HW + normal Shield normal combat...Y...............Y
HW + magic Shield normal combat.....Y..............Y
Any 1H + Sh v any stomp .................Y..............N
Any 2H + Sh v any stomp .................N..............N
Any weapon + any Sh v all ranged ....Y..............N
Magic 1H Weapon + any Shield HtH....Y..............N
Special 1H Weapon + any Shield HtH..Y..............N
Any 2H Weapon + any Shield HtH.......N..............N

This can be summarised into you only get a parry save with a shield and a normal HW v normal HtH combat.

 

[CN45]

alright thank you for the help in all this. I ask this question b/c he want to 2nd round of ArdBoys and 2 guys there were Liardmen and they just used HW/SH b/c they said"you dont get to us your shield with your save" I understand that Halberts dont b/c there 2 handed but Spears have been a topic on are they 2 handed or Special weapon like a Great Weapon and so on. But thank you for your help on this topic.

 

[n810]

Pretty sure that if you have a shield and a great weapon, while the shield is useless in CC you can still use it against shooting.

P. spears only use one hand, pikes use 2 hands.