Varangian Guard...wtf is wrong with there attack??

[lancelot]

I thought there was a bug in the 2 handed attack animations in vanilla MTW2. Has this been fixed?

[FactionHeir]

Only against cavalry. They remain useless (unless charging) against infantry.

[ataribaby]

They seem to be better at fighting spearmen than other spearmen. For instance, I'll always include some billmen in an early English stack in order to counter enemy spears; particularly Armoured Sarges. The billmen can be left to chew through spear units fine without having to charge in and out of melee.

There seems to be some two-hander improvement with Kingdoms and the Retrofit. Although what this improvement is precisely I couldn't say.

[FactionHeir]

Probably because the defense of all units across the board is lower, meaning their high attack has an even higher chance of killing, if the animation were successful.

[lancelot]

IIRC Billmen in MTW1 were good general units instead of spearmen- even against cavalry.

I found in MTW2 (when I was playing it) that billmen sucked against cav and in general would die at an alarming rate.

[Old Geezer]

In Retrofit and LTC the English AI builds recruits about 50 percent billmen which are somewhat better than peasants but nowhere near as tough as levy spearmen. When I played as England I only used them as cheap garrison. I don't understand how the French AI doesn't just quickly eliminate the English unless the AI auto resolve battles grossly overvalue billmen and longbowmen and undervalues the French cavalry.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I never used to bother with Billmen as the English, until I discovered their charge. Plus like all 2-handers they cut up cavalry that are bogged down, but obviously can't take a charge. I soon started taking maybe 4 units per army, especially once Heavy Billmen became available. Great value, 300F and 150F upkeep.

Still you have to use them properly to be effective. They are basically dirt cheap cavalry that are a bit less good and lack the mobility.