Hey, where can I get peasants like that?

My H/H Alemanni campaign is pretty much flushed now thanks to an abortive assault on Campus Frisii. Already low on family members, I sent my young faction heir up north to take out the isolated WRE town that happened to be chock-full of peasants. I figured it'd maybe get him a command star thanks to the numbers involved, get me some cash (I planned to exterminate), and intimidate the stubborn Saxons who were refusing to a ceasefire. If they still wouldn't bite, I'd just smash all the buildings and head to Vicus Saxones to make them feel the hurt of my Chosen Axemen and Lombard Berserkers.

When I got to the town I had an Onager with me, so I knew the option would be there to assault right away. But I was in for a nice surprise because my spy had opened the gates too. Excellent! I had my Onager target the wall which supported a couple enemy archers and fire away.

First, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the AI knew enough to move its archers off the wall before it came crashing down. I made a big hole and decided a cav charge would be enough to clear out the annoying peasants behind the walls. Into the gate went my Barbarian Noble Cav unit and 2 Burgundian Lancers; into the hole in the wall went my Warlord and a single Burgundian Lancer unit.

Well, to make a long story short.... I got beat. My cav at the gate weren't making any headway and my general was losing men rapidly, so I charged in the infantry. Even with 4 units of Chosen Axemen, 2 Lombard Berserkers, and 2 Night Raiders (along with 2 Spearmen) I couldn't make the WRE budge. They had a single unit of Comitatenses -- I routed that -- a unit or 2 of Limitanei -- routed them -- but their hordes of Peasants would not move. Eventually my general went down to a well-placed pitchfork blow and the rout began. Couldn't believe it. I stubbornly threw my regrouping infantry back into the breach as they regained their composure, thinking they HAD to break those peasants -- but nothing would.

After the disgraceful retreat I still had my spy in there, so I looked closer at the peasants. I guess I hadn't really "noticed" all the gold and silver upgrades. Still, I thought, Chosen Axemen? Noble Cav? C'mon! I opened up a peasant unit parchment and saw the stats for myself: TWELVE attack, SIXTEEN defence!! ~:eek:

Well, that horrid battle left me with exactly 2 family members, and the very next turn the Huns, no doubt laughing to themselves, broke our alliance and sieged Vicus Franki where my faction leader was holed up. The turn after that, the WRE sieged Vicus Alemanni. I was able to see the Huns off, but after Vicus Alemanni fell to the WRE I got notification from one of their diplomats: "Accept that the time of your independence is over."

Sure, I can see the handwriting on the wall. Managed to get a regular tribute out of it, but I think this campaign is essentially done. File it under Alemanni: Screwed. With peasants like that, who needs Comitatenses?

CountMRVHS

That`s what happens with loyalist revolts. I guess when that settlement revolted to WREs favour, the only intact building that could produce military units was the governor building, hence all the money the AI got for this purpose was spended on peasants. This works in the same way as in custom\MP battles, so the wealthier the settlements is, the more money it spend per unit(armor\weapon\experience upgrades).

They are the golden peasants. I've had plenty of battles against them since I raided many ERE cities, burning the unit production buildings and letting them revolt. The peasants are very difficult to break in melee, but they are vulnerable to archery fire. Massed HA will beat them in open field.

Ha, I had forgotten about the golden peasants! I believe they were also in RTW 1.0. Where the hell were they when I was recruiting units from that city? Their gold chevrons would have come in helpful then!