Peasents/militia as skirmishers?

[RustySword]

Anyone ever try using spread out units of peasents and militia as skirmishers ahead of your main armies formation?

Playing against the computer i tried this and it worked fairly well

A= Archers
C= Cavalry
I= Infantry
S= Skirmisher


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CCCCCC CCCCCC

IIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIII

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S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S

[bighairyman]

It's good, but i will not use it, unless your infantries are noble or elite, they will suffer moral penaltys if those peasants routed, better use regular skirmishers, when the enemy advances, withdraw it, and move up your infantry. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

[Doug-Thompson]

I agree with BHM. Generally, you'd be better off leading with real combat units and then charging with peasants/militia. Attack with the trash first, and they'll rout and scare the rest of your army.

Peasants/militia tend to have lousy melee but a decent charge. Skirmish, as you describe, is an extended melee.

Obviously, you want to cause disruption and loss to the enemy before suffering casualties to your good troops. That's a worthy goal.

[RustySword]

Thats the general idea, I usually give the skirmishers afew momments of combat (not to the point of route) but enough time to get the enemy occupied with them to allow more efficent units to either; a: flank or b: reenforce the attack or c: reposition to better ground or d: allow missile units to bare down on the flank(s)

It works rather well, usually if I can time it right the enemies main units (computer player, i havent played a human yet) are so occupied with the lesser units that they don't notice the steel juggernaut bearing down on them from the flank.


Hence

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[Mablung]

The principle isn't too bad but the let down is the crapness of peasants. Only time I use them is if I have nothing else to build for garrisons or if I started the game with them. Good luck trying to withdraw the skirmishes, it just won't work, they will get cut down. For the job you suggest you could use spears to hold so you can flank. They will hold longer and actually (possibly inflict damage). They also have a charge of 6.

[RustySword]

i only use peasents at the beginning of the game and eventually switch to spearmen, axemen, militia etc as the skirmishers

[gaelic cowboy]

Why does everyone hate peasants there better at knocking a gate into a castle than seige equipment or cannons with there unit size of 100. Plus fill enemy crusades with them so they are crap and fail allowing you to pick up the peices afterwards heh heh heh. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[KyodaiSteeleye]

One cheesy tactic from STW is to use peasant skirmishers to soak up arrows ahead of your regular army - so set them up in loose formation, bring them in range of a defensive army's archer line and let them waste their arrows. When they rout, rally and send 'em back, or send in another unit. This works v.well when only got archers opposite, or where a defensive army has many catapults, which you just know are going to mess up your elite units when they get in range. Also v.effective on bridge assaults.

Cheesy, because there's no way it would happen in reality - the enemy gen' would get wise and stop his archers from firing until your main army body came in range, and there's no way your farmers would stand like goons in an arrow storm.

[son of spam]

yeah peasents are excellent for soaking up arrows, but spearmen are even better http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[Maychargewithoutorders]

I usually use peasants to trap HA's, they used to get on my nerves but not anymore

[katank]

skirmishing, they are not good for.

give them about 10-15 seconds before routing in melee.

enough to let my naptha loose their payloads and kill their expensive troops etc. but not enough to flank with swords.

arrow pincushions are great uses for my peasants.

anti HA is also useful as mentionned since they are actually fast and their size can let them to very spread out.

it really doesn't matter what you get the HA in melee with since you only need to hold them for a little while to bring up troops that can finish them.

ever consider anti archer duty with them? they can easily render an unprotected unit of vanilla archers useless by charging them. peasants are quite fast for inf.

even if it's archers that can beat the peasants in melee, they frequently would still run as the skirmish AI is stupid.

[Doug-Thompson]

Are you sure about peasant movement rate? I don't think peasants move any faster than regular infantry.

===================

Hmm. Hadn't noticed before this thread, but every faction I like to play has some low-cost, low-tech alternative to peasants and/or rely on Horse Archers rather than infantry.

Almohads: AUM from Cordoba, and Nubian spears.

Byzantines: ByzInf from Constantinople, and they're a horse archer faction.

Danes: Vikings.

Egyptians: Nubians

Hungarians: Slav Infantry and HA.

Turks: Another HA faction.

[slackker]

well peasants r what r there 4 to toil the land and keep the local populace in check http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

unless i'm real short of troops then they r thrown 2 the frontline...only use them 4 flankin or rear charge..they collaspe like flies head on...

[Maychargewithoutorders]

Im not sure about their movement rate and actually getting them in melee with HA. I use them more of a 'i dont actually care about them' bait whilst two units of spanish jinettes sneak up from behind http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-smile.gif

[katank]

I meant not to catch HAs but to spread the net.

they are a really cheap 100 man unit. spears lose rank bonus when spread out.

then you move a net accross the map and no more HAs http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I use them as archer pin cushions or something to tie up enemy units so that they don't get at my napthas or organ guns before I fired off my volleys into the melee as the peasants are more than expendable

[katar]

Quote[/b] ]Anyone ever try using spread out units of peasents and militia as skirmishers ahead of your main armies formation?

OOHHH look at the nice target http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

against the AI it might last for a few minutes, against a human it looks like a light snack. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif

that`s just my 2 cents on the issue. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Doug-Thompson]

Re: Peasant Speed.

I don't think peasants are any faster than regular infantry, but don't tire as quickly. Those farm boys should be in good shape.

The practical result would be the same when you're chasing things. Can somebody give a definite answer?

[katank]

checked stats.

they get normal walk/run/charge speed.

difference is next to no armor so they don't get fatigued as much and can run around all the time while other units simply can't run after a while.

better use slav warriors who actually are fast but they cost mor ethan peaants.

[Doug-Thompson]

Thanks. That's what I thought.