Shattered Kingdoms

It's not slashing, a weapon is set to cleave or not to cleave based on subtype.

And, landys are the primary weapon that most hellions use to cleave from back rank because swords > polearms for the purposes of parry and such.

So...just make it so that you can't cleave with a landy. Problem solved.

Um...I think you missed the point, GL.

No I didn't. Grakus says that he wants hellions to have to use polearms to cleave if they want to cleave from second row. He also says that hellions prefer to cleave with swords because of a parry bonus. The only sword that can cleave from second row is a polearm. Therefore, if he wants hellions to be forced to use polearms to cleave from second row, then this can be accomplished by removing landsknecht as a cleaving subtype. Voila, hellions are now forced to use a polearm to cleave from second row, because no other weapon type does.

That only addresses cleaving, though. The problem (at least as I see it, and I think what he's also concerned about) is that you can safely sit in the second row and still rip face without ever touching a polearm. Removing landsknechts from the cleave list would only affect hellions.

The better solution, (IMHO, as always), would just be to further reduce the amount of landsknechts (and other reaching weapons), improve the strength of polearms, and give scouts polearm again. Landsknechts remain as a viable weapon for hellions, reach becomes more limited, everybody's happy.