Quote Originally Posted by wiking
It seems that recently, whenever I start in the early era I play as the Germans and when I reach the point that I can build county militias, I am not allowed to build pikemen. I haven't been excommunicated and I seem to control most of Europe. However, I also do not get to build halbrediers until the master spear maker is built, then everywhere I have a town militia and a master spearmaker, I can now build them. Is this a bug and how do I get around it? It hasn't always happened like this, just the last two games I have played. I also installed viking invasion, but I was still able to get pikemen after installation. Any thoughts?
MTW 1.00 does not have any era limitations for the factions, eg the Byz can train SAPs at Early (by right impossible). MTW 1.1 and VI addressed these bugs.

Halbs require town militia only. All polesarms (JHI, Billmen, Halbs and Swiss Halbs) are only available from High (1205) onwards.

Pikes (all three variety) require county militia only and are Late (1320?) only.

Excom does not affect your unit builds at all, nor your territories, unless special units like Swiss ones.