Removing block on a pike will make it even easier to just rush past the frontline and kill the pikemen before he can switch to his sidearm. I have lost count of how many times I am helping teammates with my pike and the enemy just bull-rushes me right past my teammate. If I had no block I would be screwed every single time I enter into a melee, everybody would know "hey there is that free kill". we would essentially have to drop the pike every time we get near a melee.
I work with guys constantly in NH about protecting their pike/spearmen, but a lot of the time it is literally impossible to get help from a teammate given the games mechanics at this point. Sometimes the enemy is too quick and just waltzes past the teammate and gets me before anybody can react fast enough, help is coming but I still need to get off a good couple of blocks before somebody gets the enemy off me.
If block was removed from the pike, I know a lot of Pikemen would just not use the weapon. At that point the risk of using the weapon far out weighs the benefits. As a consequence less pikes/spears means more cavalry running amok over everybody. I understand the realism argument versus pikes and heck I even agree, it does look a bit odd, but at this time I think its best just to leave the pike and longspear alone until other game mechanics are looked at.
