Men at arms?

[Sir SillyDuck]

Maybe I'm missing something, and I haven't been in a campaign for a long duration (up to 1180 AD I think), but I mostly sea either spear units, dismounted knights/nobles and the odd swordmen, like nordic swordmen, or axe wielders like Gallowglasses and vikings/huscarls. What about men-at-arms?
Will they come at a later satge in the game? but what invention is needed or do you need a very advanced building?

[FrauGloer]

Nope, there are none. Shame, really...:no:

[Sir SillyDuck]

Darn.. Probably in the expansion pack then :no:

[Mr Frost]

Italians have them , and English Armoured Swordsmen are pretty much the same thing .

[Dave1984]

Italians have them , and English Armoured Swordsmen are pretty much the same thing .

Yep, they're another name for the same thing, the term pretty much covers any professional soldier really.

I have seen men-at-arms in the game, definitely mounted, although I can't remember right now for which faction and whether they can be dismounted.

[Lusted]

Venice get Men-At-Arms and Dismounted Men-At-Arms.

[Sir SillyDuck]

Cool. What is normally the prequisite for these guys? build in a city or in a castle? do they need an invention or a building?

[TheImp]

Wait for Westeros Total War, there will definitely be men-at-arms. Imho, i think it would be a great setting for the next game actually, let's pray the seven...

[R'as al Ghul]

Men-at-arms (mounted and dismounted) can be recruited in castles when the barracks and horse-breeder line is on level 3, iirc.

[Sir SillyDuck]

Thanks R'as.

[Bob the Insane]

Man at Arms = Professional Soldier (I think)

So you can think of pretty much any non-militia, non-levy and non-noble combat unit as being Men at Arms...

Would that be right?

[anders]

Man at Arms = Professional Soldier (I think)

So you can think of pretty much any non-militia, non-levy and non-noble combat unit as being Men at Arms...

Would that be right?

roughly, yes.

the knights non-noble retinues of warriors were menatarms, and the knights themselves could be that. in the game, it clearly refers to soldiers who are not part of the knightly social class.

[jabo0511]

Isn't Dismounted feudal knights essentially the same as men-at-arms from MTW?

[Sir SillyDuck]

I don't think so. dismounted knights were an option in MTW, though only in siege battles IIRC. What I meant with MAA is indeed the non-nobles, or retinue men, which fought in different degrees of equipement, but mostly in some armor and a sword, though some surely fought with axes, spears even, crossbows, or those balls-on-chains. Pretty much variable really, a 'unit' of those men rarely fought with only swords, but mostly with swords though.
It would be cool to see a unit of those (middle class men, between peasants/militia and nobles) with different weapons in 1 single unit. But I understand that they ARE in the game (any non-noble sword wielding unit would qualify) and I can imagine the building reqs are pretty high, because it is a significant upgrade from a militia.