German Infantry

I've recently gained the ability to train both Night Raiders and chosen axemen. After looking at the stats, I saw that training normal axemen as opposed to night raiders is completely useless, since the axemen have less attack, charge and defense AND have more upkeep. After looking at the chosen axemen, I saw that they had better attack and charge than the night raiders, but extremely inferior armour. They also had an extra 70 denarii to upkeep. Are they worth getting? They seem like a great flanking unit, but it doesn't look like they can stand up to arrows or cavalry in battle for long. I tried using night raiders against heavy cavalry and they flat out sucked, but haven't had a chance to use chosen axemen, yet. It also looks like Berserkers make a much better flanking unit, anyway. Am I missing something? Should I just get Night Raiders to protect my flanks and charge infantry or should I use chosen axemen, despite their poor defense and high upkeep? Will the chosen axemen hold better against the Roman infantry than the Night Raiders, or vice versa? The only thing that I saw was good about the chosen axemen is their "effective vs. armor". Are the night raiders ineffective? It just seems like I'm missing something when an axemen unit has 170 upkeep and ALL worse stats when a night raider unit has all better stats, 130 upkeep and bonus morale-reducing abilities.

It depends on what you're preference of battle method is.

If you're into forming the standard German battle line by spear warband, then basically anything else besides chosen archers and spear warband is a waste. However, if you don't hesitate to try out exotic tactics, then the chosen axemen, night raiders, berserkes all serve a good purpose.

Usually the spear warband is the most preferred because they have no particular weaknesses and are reliable in all situations. But, if you can get the enemy forces into a situation which fulfills certain conditions, then that's when the normal axemen, screeching women, night raiders, chosen axemen and all the other units come alive.

For instance, in a snowy terrain, inside the woods, night raiders in vicinity with screeching women placed behind, the axemen(not chosen axemen, just normal axemen) unit will take a standard Roman Legionary Cohort unit head-on and beat it down flat-out. Under such conditions, you can have a lot of fun with different tactical formations, like placing axemen in front for an all-out, bloody charge.

To sum up, only use chosen axemen against armored units (the Roman ones) and night raider for the rest.
I also like having a unit of screeching women in each of my stack. It really makes the odds rout quicker.

What you want to do is use your night raiders scar infantry ablilty to its fullest extent by flanking units or having them surround units on 2 sides. The main value of chosen axemen is, like it was said before their high attack power and armour piercing. Use them against heavily armored units and units that don't like taking large amounts of damage.