Hero Units

[ajaxfetish]

I never use peasants when I can avoid it. Their abysmal morale and readiness to run away seem to harm my armies more than their numbers help. I'd rather fight outnumbered with better troops (getting more kills & valor per unit and sometimes some nice virtues for generals) even if I get attacked more for the "apparent" weakness. My only purpose for peasants is cheap garrisons in interior provinces.

[EatYerGreens]

I find 60 UM's just as good at maintaining local province loyalty as 100 peasants. The difference in initial training costs will pay for itself in under 8 years (30pa maintainance for UM versus 37 pa for peasants) and, even if indifferent when called into a combat situation, at least they're not quite so indifferent as the pez.

I got away with using them in the HRE campaign only because they come out at v1 from Provence and the +2 morale (plus whatever the general may confer) can make all the difference between 'lose 5 men, then rout' and usefulness as rout-chasers.

That's the exception and I hardly need to repeat the rule...

[Roark]

Yeah, my HRE armies have been extremely sword-heavy, with maybe a unit of RKs and Mounted Xbows.

I'm too obsessed with Swabians to bother grooming and distributing my Royals as much as I normally would.