I agree with Gregoshi on this issue. Everyone I speak to brings pav arbs for one reason and one reason only; they know the other bugger is going to bring em and if you don't you are gonna get shot to hell.
However, just brining a blitz army tends to make the games very short and equally as boring.
The use of pav arbs in MP games does bring a touch of skill, and the massive enjoyment I get from spanking an entire unit of pavs with a sneak attack by alan cav cannot be overstated. Besides it's a means of drawing out their cav/billmen/pike/whatever so that they get shot to hell as well.

One of the MK clan swears by Arquebastar@s and I notice that they are better in hand to hand than pavs, so always worth a look. The biggest dissapointment as an English faction player is the weakness of longbow.

We already have games titled no arty regularly in MP, I wonder when the day will come when it says NO ARTY, NO MISSILE AT ALL