Some questions about the units.

**Akka** · 07-25-2009, 09:56

I've had for a long time wondered about the stat of some units in the game, and in the end I come and ask the pro to have an answer.

The culprits are basic units : town militia, spear militia and byzantine spearmen.

Basically, these three units have the same stat. I've never really understood what was the difference between town militia and spear militia. The latter cost 20 more to create, but except that, I didn't see any difference. Can someone enlighten me ?

The Byzantine Spearmen is even more confusing. The description say that they're a step up from other militia. Ok, so I looked into the files.
Same attack, same defense, same moral, same discipline.
For now, the only differences I could see are :
- They cost nearly a quarter more in upkeep.
- Their armour can only be upgraded twice and not thrice.
- They are not a "free upkeep" unit.

So in other words... they are considered a step-up, they are more expensive, and compared to standard spear militia is that they have no advantage and are less upgradable ?

You can guess I'm a bit at a loss here.

Sooo... anyone knows about something I may have missed ? ^^

**Nelson** · 07-25-2009, 17:05

IIRC, town militia don't get an anti-cavalry bonus like spear militia do.

I'm not sure what the story is about Byzantine spearmen.

**Akka** · 07-25-2009, 17:40

Ah, so town militia are a bit less specialized than spear militia ? Better against mélée but worse against cavalry ?
Ok, at least one question is answered !

Though the biggest one stay : what the hell is the point of Byzantine Spearmen ? :x

**Nelson** · 07-25-2009, 19:21

Town militia seem to have no advantage over spear militia beyond the small initial price break. They are not better than spear at anything and are worse facing cavalry.

They do look different of course. I use them as garrison forces just for diversity.

Maybe the Byzantine spearmen just look different. Appearance is important. We wouldn't want every spear unit in the game to look the same!

**Flavius Merobaudes** · 07-26-2009, 07:56

Seems as if apart from anti-cav abilities, town militia can have only one armour upgrade while spear militia can have three. That's for the western european militias.

Byzantine units are a different battlefield. While Byzantine spearmen are equal to western spear militia, they are indeed a step up from the Byzantine spearmilitia. They have better stats and get chevrons when being recruited - if you have advanced barracks in your castles.

Generally, it seems that the Byzantine unit roster is quite diverse, but the individual units are a bit weaker than other factions' corresponding counterparts. So you have to fight tactically sound, have every unit do what they do best and muster carefully balanced armies.

What vanilla Byzzies really lack is a pike unit, but there are mods for it. I never felt the lack of gunpowder to be a weakness though.

Anyway, you can always give the Byzantine spearmen the stats of armoured sergeants. And see how the Byzantine AI develops after that small change...