Help with Skirmishers

[godsakes]

i used to hate skirmishers and felt line infantry with javlins made them redundant but over time i've warmed up to them for the following uses

1. human shield
the more expensive (better) my line troops the less willing i am to take losses so i use skirmishers on the very front as battle fodder (well javlin fodder to be exact and it's more important the lower the shield bonus your line troops have) after the enemy has unloaded their 1st round of javlins and charges your skirmishers will run behind your lines and your good line troops can take the charge. you can then either leave them behind your lines so they can skirmish head on or send them around the flanks to throw their missles at an exposed enemy (javlins are a very cheap and fast way to take down high end troops)

2. pinning/distracting enemy
sometimes (normally when i'm outnumbered) it's best to try to split up an enemy army - skirmishers being a large, fast (and disposable) unit is good for keeping the part of the enemy army engaged while you concentrate on the rest

[Blxz]

Have finally found some small use for them. Usually I consider them to be of no use except for cheap garrison so they are only in my starting armies. This means there is never more than 2 units in an army. Lately I have tried having up to 5 in my army so i can test peoples tactics. They actually work quite well when I focus fire. Can be useful for routing squads. They still require a degree of micro-management (I am guilty of using a mega ball of 10 cavalry units to just swarm each enemy in turn when I get bored of loads of repeated battles) so I only use them when I give a damn enough to fight each battle at less than full speed.