When you're comparing a unit that is better in every area but cost and shields it's a safe bet that if you don't care about cost because you are rich you also don't care enough about shields. Greatswords give up shields for much heavier armor, much more lethality and armor piercing and if I recall right anti infantry boosts, and leadership.
Click to shrink.I mean I'm not significantly familiar with 2 due to being limited to wiki crawling but like.