Okay, now that the skaven book has brought back 1/2 points to warhammer army books, I suggest the following:
Halberdiers: 5 points.
- May take a shield for 1/2 point each.
- May take heavy armour for 1/2 point each.Job done. No messing around with fancy special rules, competitive with swordsmen.
5 1/2 point halberdier - slightly worse than a swordsman in combat due to -1 WS.. but also costs 1/2 point less.
6 point halberdier - still has - 1 WS compared to the swordsman, but also has +1 armour save to compensate.
And of course, they can always choose to use halberds in the situations where it's best to.
As for the whole "the models don't have heavy armour on them" argument... I think any chance of the models being remotely close to their stats went right out of the window after we got pistoliers in full plate and greatswords in heavy armour.
Thoughts? I realise that the naked 5-point halberdier still isn't much good, but that's a tougher nut to crack.