Halbs or Billmen?

[Finn]

currently my main armies consist of 2 billmen, 2 halbs, 2 chiv MAA, 2 chiv sargs, 2 chiv knights, 2 longbowmen, 2 pavise arbalesters, 1 jinette (as bait and for chasing routing foes) and the royal knights leader

although i am starting to wonder if i am doubling up with the billmen and halbs, now taken switzerland (playing as england) and now got swiss halbs to go into the mix.

looking at the stats hals are better armoured than billmen, but billmen have a better morale + attack, billmen i can get a +1 valour for while building but halbs i can build with a +weapon in an iron province

Now i currently have a cathedral/church etc in my halb province, to give them the max morale boost, and am also building my chiv sargs there as the 2 of them seem to have the lowest morale in my army.

but which is best? should i drop the billmen and go for the slower halbs with a max weapon boost and the morale boost, or go for the billmen with the +1 valour, or should i even just dump both from ym armies and go with swiss halbs? (which seem to be better morale by far, btu again low on armour)

[PseRamesses]

It depends on weather you´re forming a defensive army or a offensive one. If defence I´d go with the high-halbs but if offense I´d choose billmen since you can work their valor up by batteling. Anyway I think bills are far better than halbs.

[English assassin]

Billmen if you are on the attack for sure. Halbs are far too slow to be any use, in fact they are a bit of a pain in a defensive battle unless you are very static. If you do go wuith halbs have a lot of them, at least that way everyone is equally slow.

[Finn]

are halbs slower than pavise arbs then? because they seem to take the most time when i setup my front line to get into position, and then inch forward, everyone seems to be waiting for them anyway, in which case does the slower speed of the halbs make a diff ?

i'm tending to use my halbs more but i think thats just due to my setup formation, puts the halbs on the sides of my front line where they seem to get more action than the billmen do

[PseRamesses]

Quote[/b] (English assassin @ April 14 2004,05:15)]Billmen if you are on the attack for sure. Halbs are far too slow to be any use, in fact they are a bit of a pain in a defensive battle unless you are very static.

Well, on the defense I do play very static letting my archers + reinforce archers + reinforce cav do the work. The wall of spears is just there to protect and hold back offensive units. I can even go as far as having the following setup:

1st setup: 6-8 bills or similar, 8-10 archers
1st reinforce: 8-10 archers
2nd reinforce 8-10 cav (16 cav if I withdraw the bills to)

With any faction against any foe I get atleast 5:1 victory and hundreds of captives.

[CBR]

Halbs have same speed as Pavs. They are a bit better than Billmen (1 attack/6 defense compared 2 attack/4 defense) but are slower and have less morale.


CBR

[JAG]

I take the halbs everytime, just seem to work far better for the way I play the game.