Billmen building requirements?

Hey all,


Well, i finally decided to start a campaign with the english, on hard / early.

Now, the funny thing is, i cant seem to build billmen.

The tech tree (poster) tells me that billmen require a Spearmakers Guild, no more, no less.

So i built a spearmakers guild in Mercia, and blegh, no billmen

Could someone tell me what i'm doing wrong?

Some technical details;
I run medieval with VI.
I patched it up to 2.01
I reinstalled the entire game before trying again (yup, restarting my entire campaign, ugh).

I suppose i'm just not getting something...

Thanks in advance for any help

Greets,
-Ranges

If its before 1205, You won't get them.

Units are only trainable in the era they existed, so you cannot train Longbows or Billmen until the High Period begins.

The Opposite is also true and some Troops (such as the Varangian Guard for the Byzantines) become untrainable in the later periods.

(Historically the Varangian Guard were disbanded shortly after the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople, so they don't appear in the Late period, this also reflects the historical decline of Byzantium until 1453 when it finally fell)

Ah, i feared as much..
Oh well, i'll just crusade without billmen and longbows..

Thanks