Peasants and highland rabble

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

In my recent scottish campaign, i discovered that scottish rabble come from mustering halls, as do peasants, so are there any differences in the stats are do they just look different?

[Askthepizzaguy]

I thought the highland rabble were scotland's "peasant" unit.

I thought they didn't have actual peasants.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

They dont, i was comparing them to other campaigns i have done, sorry for the confusion

[ataribaby]

Morale. Your regular peasant has a morale of 1 and a gardenfork-o'-war. Your highland rabble guy however has a morale of 3 (the same as the average archer unit) and a butterknife-o'-doom. I suppose it's to suggest that Scottish peasants can be a bit mental. All that woad face-paint makes them a bit plucky.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I had fun throwing an entire army of unupgraded highland rabble against 3 units of fully armoured English Knights with extra armour and weapon upgrades... the English got spooked after 500 highlanders had already died, but the enemy kept advancing with a bloodthirsty viciousness never before seen.

After systematically seperating the three units, I got them to advance too far away from one another to be of any use, morale-wise or otherwise. Then I surrounded them on all sides and began charging them like cavalry in a hammer and anvil tactic.

many Scotsman died that day... but the English were utterly annihilated.

I think it's interesting that the highland rabble can't steal armour and weapons off of dead Englishmen. I mean, really, free suit of armour, swords, axes, shields, helms... nope, rather have my kilt and dagger, thank you very much.

When the Scots go to war, it's in full-length pink ballroom gowns, or nothing else. There's nothing more intimidating than a man whose genitalia could be exposed to you at any moment due to strong winds.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Personally to me, i dont really use peasant at all, they just trigger off mass routing, even if i was down to my last city, fighting with a much smaller and outmatched enemy, i still dont think i would use peasants, as soon as i get the swine i dispand them, just a waste of money.

[Ethelred Unread]

Peasants are good to break up charges if you put them ahead of your lines and also to absorb arrows - you can even get the AI to withdraw it's archers if they get close enough. They are also very cheap so having a couple of units in each stack is worth it early on.

I've also found that they run fast and are good at chasing down routers (imagine!) - this only happens when I've flanked whoever they are fighting with DFK or whatever, usually they are cut to pieces of course.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Ive seen how the AI use peasants, they send them in firt, but my men cut them down with minimum casualties, in Rome total war, ive seen my entire army routed by 3 groups of peasants, but in medieval total war they seem to enjoy massacring peasants, well either that or my general forces them too...

[nokhor]

i use peasents to defend the gatehouse and towers when besieged and the enemy has artillery. they can get blown up when the walls are destroyed and it's no big loss to me, and they can man the auto defenses of the walls causing extra casualites to the enemy, at least until the attacker sends a unit up on the walls to rout them.

[Eikon the Magistrate]

Peasants are cheap garrison troops, and have a place as arrow targets when on the field. I loathe the peasant in defense however, nothing more heart-wrenching than to see a gate/wall fall due to their lack of competence or fear.

If your gunna build peasants may as well just build peasant archers...at least they got a slim chance at usefulness.

Altho...with unit size on large....peasants may be slightly more effective..most units seem to be.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

I think i found a use for them, angers in france keeps being under attack by the english and spanish, but i give them no time to prepare for the invasion and attack there army, i have loads of archers ready to kill them, but they are always out of range, well, what about targets to draw the enemy into range???

[Rhyfelwyr]

Peasants are OK in the early game, if you use them to back up cavalry they provide you with a cheap main line. This is usually safe to do early on in campaigns since I find cavalry can do a lot of the fighting, being the only strong units early on.

They cost 110 florins and 90 upkeep for most western factions IIRC. So thats basically a line of 6 peasants for the cost of one unit of Mailed Knights.

And yes, Highland Rabble are the peasant alternative for the Scots, although they are actually slightly worse than other peasants stat-wise, though the animations of their knives seem to make them perform better than other peasants with pitch-forks. Plus they do not have 'Poor Morale' like other peasants...

[Brave]

Peasant are good for garrison and the jobs they get make me feel sad for them.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

i reckon you should get extra farming income when you disband them, they can go and work on my farms. In my last battle, one enemy peasant caused most of englands dismounted feudal knights to rout to the onslaught of my highland and peasant archers in melee

[Brave]

An added bonus

[Old Geezer]

Shame on anyone who would use peasants! How unchivalrous. It is not wise to give serfs sharp pointy things. The next thing you know they'll get it in their heads to move away west and start their own country with no king or nobles and then what, eh?

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

You just explained communists old geezer, but sure, i dont use peasants as i is unfair, they could be on my farms rather than dying uselessly on the battlefield

[Brave]

Then I would say good luck to them, my cavalry is hunting you down!

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Come get some!

[PrestigeX]

I guess thats cool that they have a plus 3 morale , but..
usually i'd only built peasants when i just need 1 or 2 units to bolster the garrison ,,usually i'd never want more than 2 units of peasants in any army - and i try not to use them at all..
but they are useful for certain things - dieing mainly lol (to take archer fire , instead of my more expensive troops) or.. to be in the back of the line to increase numbers..
putting them in the front line tho is not good, because they'll rout and possibly cause a mass-routing.. you know how it works, 1, then 2, then 3, and then ur entire army is broken..

but Highlanders tho,, sheild and axe are a beautiful troop

[WhiskeyGhost]

highland rabble are quite good for peasants, they also make good cheap counter units to those nasty little militia the AI hates putting in their cities for defense. If nothing else, they work well enough as a frontline troop to waste the enemies stamina on.

[imnothere]

Dear Sirs,

how dare you make fun of those cute little peasants? who do you think provide me with all those koku of rice and free targets for testing my new katana? without all those peasants, where can I unlease all my bad karma stuff onto and keep my ego level up?

imnothere-san
The Caring Samurai for the Ignorant Peasants' afterlife

(sorry had to do it, too much into Kendo and I nearly murdered two fellow female students last night with my kendo stick by accident...)

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Ok.......

[Rhyfelwyr]

Shame on anyone who would use peasants! How unchivalrous. It is not wise to give serfs sharp pointy things. The next thing you know they'll get it in their heads to move away west and start their own country with no king or nobles and then what, eh?

You just explained communists old geezer, but sure, i dont use peasants as i is unfair, they could be on my farms rather than dying uselessly on the battlefield

Hmmm I think he was talking about the USA, and I'm not sure the Yanks like being called communists...

Seriously though, peasants will comfortaby hold Spear Militia or even Sergeant Spearmen while your cavalry run round the back and pound them to death.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

It happened in Russia, although im not sure about the pointy sticks, i think they had rifles but meh. I still wont train them, i would like my infantry to actually give significant losses to the enemy side, rather than sending my men mass routing.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

In this battle i had given the Dismounted feudal knights 8 units, aswell as being fully upgraded, the peasants were directly from the field, and werent upgraded at all. There were around 2700 peasants opposed to the 480 dismounted feudal knights, s i formed and i formation, to stop each unit being flanked. The peasants stopped 50 feet from the knights position and made the knights chage first. Id say around 100 peasants were cut down in the charge, but more filled in the gaps, people should try this, it is very entertaining

[Old Geezer]

Shoot son, here in Houston we has mor fun stompin on mounds uv fire aints, cuz they kin bite ya back. (PS, we gots bunches o' commies here, by the way. Ya'll need some? We gots extree.)

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

by the way the battle in the third picture was actually won by the dismounted feudal knights, they had around 60 knights still fighting, the peasant general died and they all routed

[Callahan9119]

i dont think i'v ever bought peasants in m2tw, the first few i get just sit in garrisons till i notice them later and disband

[Askthepizzaguy]

what are you guys talking about? Peasants make the perfect low cost garrison forces and they quell riots. Instead of whining about the cost of bread, they are on the government payroll and are now loyal to the King.

Beyond free militias, these guys are perfect for keeping castles from being costly to garrison, and perfect for keeping order in large cities.

You can send them on crusades so they can occupy cities while your REAL soldiers do the dirty work. Pretend they are policemen, and their pitchforks are those baton things. They can't fight wars but they can keep order.

And ya know, 10 peasants guarding a castle is actually kind of a beefy security force. A stopgap measure, if you will, to prevent the AI from laying seige and winning the next turn. Often times with a garrison that large they won't try to force open the gates or take the walls, and sometimes they wander off instead of taking the city. And as we all know, a pair of peasants on the walls is worth dismounted feudal knights on the ground, because these buggers skewer laddermen to death, almost as if armour doesn't matter once you begin climbing a ladder. Unless the enemy has a full stack of doom, a large battalion of peasants on a wall, or on walls, will triumph under human control.

Beats garrisoning all your cities and castles with expensive troops. Just keep an active stack or two (depending on the size of your territory) in range of your borders, and make anyone pay for attacking you. The peasants will hold them long enough for you to act.

Caveat: I wouldn't use peasants in hotseat games... versus humans? Big no-no. AI battles only.