On Fri, 8 May 1998, James Ruhland wrote:

> Special Missile Attack: twice during any Battle, the unit may launch a
> Missile (3) Attack as a "Stationary Missile Attack" against units engaging
> it, as a free "Last Shot" (and may also conduct a melee attack that same
> round). Also, during a round when this missile attack is launched, any
> engaging unit is prevented from using its Charge rating (must switch to
> Melee instead). This Missile attack can only be used against units engaging
> them, however (it is a very short range attack).
> This special missile attack represents the affect of the Roman Pila,
> especially in disrupting Cavalry charges.

Hmm. It is a nice idea, but it does add a bit of recordkeeping.
See the previously mentioned "Cry Havoc" in Dragon Annual #2 for a
discussion of rating that change vs. rewriting unit stats as an average.
Recall that a pre-Marian (i.e., manipular, which is before c. 100 B.C.)
legion is 20 Elite Infantry and 6 Irregulars, so it does have some missile
capacity.
If you do want to keep the pilum universal, I suggest that it be
available only the first time the unit engages in combat: sure, they
carried two, but I suspect they'd have thrown both (particularly as they
were of distinctly different size) in the initial charge, or dropped them
when going hand-to-hand, as carrying a throwing spear in your left hand
makes it really hard to use your shield effectively.

- --Ryan