Quote Originally Posted by Colovion
I can't believe this became such a big discussion. Anyone who believes that Priests were trained and then sent into battle for that purpose are sorely mistaken.
Whether that statment is true or not is merely a product of the religion the priest worships. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant christian priests in this time period. Because, quite honestly, you would appear to be quite ignorant if you tried to claim that priests have not been integrally tied to military matters (yes, including dealing death to the damned, not simply blessing the righteous) at many points in history in many cultures. I'll admit quite openly that I do not know whether Roman priests entered battle or not. With my cursory search the closest I found was a description of them as being "militant". Which of course could simply mean that they encouraged others to go fight from the safety of their chapels. However I do know that priests before their time went to war and that priests after their time did. Therefore I don't find it a great leap of faith to imagine that a priest and his underpriests accompanied soldiers in this time period either.
In Total War the static recruitment and blocky representation on the battle map of a conglomeration of church-less priests is absurd. They fought in historical times in desperation or when all other forms of diplomacy had failed - but never were they used in the context which they will be in BI.
You make the same error almost everyone complaining about them does. You say "they were never used in the context they will be in BI". Yet who controls how they are used? You do! If you send four groups of priests along with every army, that is your decision. If you train a couple groups of priests and attach them to certain armies specially made for them, once again this is your choice. You decide how to use them. So for them to be used in the wrong context requires you to use them wrongly.
It's the same discussion as the Screaming Women. Were women, at some point, moral boosters to their men in battle? Yes. Did they, at times, lend their arms to the battle? Yes. Was it ever done in anything near the way it's portrayed in RTW? Absolutely not.
How the AI acts is an entirely different issue, and one that will not be solved anytime in the near future.