RTW/BI Poll : Do you use PEASANTS ?

[AndyNgFL]

I wanna find out if anyone use PEASANTS in RTW/BI and for what purpose and why. Thks !

[Telys]

Aside from using them in the beginning of a campaign the only time I really use peasants is to quell squalor because the size of the unit is larger than most.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Aside from using them in the beginning of a campaign the only time I really use peasants is to quell squalor beause the size of the unit is larger than most.

Seconded. Or if I want an army to leave a just-conquered town in a hurry I queue up a couple of them.

Bottom line: They only ever see garrison duty, and that's if I'm desperate to leave.

[Avicenna]

I just keep the free peasants given at the beginning. Otherwise, I find they're completely useless. I think some people use them as arrow fodder in sieges though.

[AndyNgFL]

I just keep the free peasants given at the beginning. Otherwise, I find they're completely useless. I think some people use them as arrow fodder in sieges though.

So far, seems like u all dont use peasants .... are peasants that USELESS ?

[Telys]

You can use peasants in battles, but they are only effective when facing other peasants, weak skirmishers that don't have any missles left or attacking an enemy from behind when they are already engaged in combat in the front. Still, calvary can do these jobs a lot better than any peasant.

[Zalmoxis]

Personally no, but I pity the foo' that does!

[Severous]

Yes



This lot came with a town I gained through diplomacy. So I used them on a bunch of rebels.

Normally peasants are garrison duty.

If any find themselves in a bigger battle I will often put them in open formation and draw the enemy fire. If the enemy attack them on the ground I will retreat them luring the enemy into a trap. I also used them vs chariots when tons of infantry mobbing bogged down chariots soon kills the chariots.

[AndyNgFL]

Normally peasants are garrison duty.

If any find themselves in a bigger battle I will often put them in open formation and draw the enemy fire. If the enemy attack them on the ground I will retreat them luring the enemy into a trap. I also used them vs chariots when tons of infantry mobbing bogged down chariots soon kills the chariots.

Hmmm ... good point !

Summary so far ... Peasants can be used for :

1) Garrison Duty

Peasants are cheap to recruit and maintain !

Normally, I use 1 Peasant unit for every 1000 population in a city.

Bigger unit size = less garrison unit used = less $ maintainence $ cost
(might be useful for large city size and for a faction with a poor economy)


2) Cannon Fodder

Peasants in open formation can draw enemy fire. Especially in a STALEMATED battle where micro managing your units is essential to win the battle or the army you are using has weak ranged units (e.g Spain). Enemy units like Velites, Hastatis will use up their ammo very fast. Without thier ammo, it will open up more tatical possibilities for you.

I also find them useful in city siege battles (stone walls). I will use them to push Siege Towers and capture enemy "Towers" while the other infantry units engage enemy units in the melee. "Towers" captured will shoot at the enemy below the walls while they can't do shit to you.


3) Bait

Drawing enemy archers out from their rear. You can then charge them down with your calvary.

If the enemy give chase to your Peasants. You can then lure them into a trap. (E.g lure them in range of your archers OR they chase you so deep that you can use your calvary to smash into thier flanks or rear)


3) Bog down Chariots

Tons of infantry mobbing bogged down chariots soon kills chariots. (good idea contributed by Severous ! )


To be continued ...

[Ludens]

No. Though they do have their uses (mainly providing cheap mass when you don't care about routers), I prefer something that won't die like flies.

[Antagonist]

They can be useful in battles sometimes (for the reasons listed above) but I would never build them for that purpose, only use them if they were already there at the start of the campaign, or as part of a bribed army.

The main use I have for peasants is in the campaign game: training a bunch of them and moving them around and disbanding is a useful method of managing populations, which is especially important if you play on Huge unit size settings, as I do. I tend to mod my game to allow 0-turn "recruitment" (more like conscription) solely for peasants for this purpose.

Antagonist

[Arbaces]

peasants aren't such useful, militia units are enough

[Severous]

I would not build peasants or town watch for combat purposes. They will get used in battle if they happen to be in the wrong place at the right time.

Only plan to use peasants for garrison and population movement (I play large setting).

Dont build town watch. Not as cost effective as peasants for public order and not good enough for combat.

So thats another use for peasants..thanks to Antagonist for mentioning it...moving population around

[longbowmen]

for RTW i spam lots and lots of peasants to maintain loyalty in conquered towns so that my fighting troops (hastati, equites etc.) can quickly move on to conquer the next town.

for BI its necessary to keep in mind that peasants have halved effectiveness as garrison units, meaning for 120-unit peasants has the same effect as a 60-unit town watch, so it really depends.

they are gd for pumping the population size of a small town (build peasants at large towns and disband them in small ones) so that you can get to a large town quicker. small towns' growth rate are really slow until they get to a decent pop size.

[Wardruid]

I use peasants to do ram and sapping work when the enemy has archers.
Peasants are also useful for wearing and slowing down units esspecially cavalry.

[YAKOBU]

I never ever use peasants in my game. I know why some people use them but I don't agree with filling a setttlement with them to keep public order down. Each to their own I guess.

[Tellos Athenaios]

I use them to maintain public order, and sometimes I attach them to an army to allow more siege equipment to be built in one turn. I've only done that once so far, but it turned out usefull.

(I don't like waiting for a settelment to fall under the might of my armies - so later on I always make sure to have some onagers or ballistas included in any invading army.)

[Thracian 06]

I never use peasants. I only save up and build good buildings to produce better armies.

[ArnoldLol]

i only use them to garrison rebelling cities.

[Barbarossa1221]

I never use peasants on the battlefield and when I do its usually because some fool has decided to siege my city and I throw peasants at him before my main force hits
But other than that I use peasants as a garrison because of their large number and cheap cost.

[Goalie]

Peasants are completely worthless on the battle field except if you want to waste the enemies arrows. The only time i ever use them is in campaign to raise popularity.

[allfathersgodi]

I use them only as Garrison forces in my rear areas and as cannon-fodder. I was thinking of ways of how they would be more valuable to me and came to this conclusion.

It was a common practice of the Roman Empire to use its soldiers to build public works and other such stuff, using peasants as help to construction work would be an immense boost to their status, but of course you should be able to take any ground combat unit (except siege crew since there are not enough of them) and use them as workers....

What would also be nice is to take them and sell them as slaves, or rapidly train them to better units...

[kburkert]

i use peasents for garrison when i cant recruit any other unit.

[Darren_Shan]

do u use peasent?

yes for cannon fodder sometimes :D

[orangat]

I hardly ever use peasants in battle, they die/rout to quick to even work as chariot speedbumps. Apart from meatbag duty to soak up arrows, their main use is to garrison cities.

[Guthwyn]

Playing as the Greeks, I recently had to use peasants to move a siege tower into place. A group of archers on the wall and the wall towers shot 'em up pretty good, but the great thing about peasants is: you don't care. They actually finished off the 6-8 archers that were left on the wall once they had climbed the tower. While they were getting shot at, my Spartan hoplites climbed the wall unimpeded (no losses) and captured the gate.

So yes, I think peasants are great for drawing fire. But I won't use them unless I have to.

It was different in MTW, when your first couple battles could hinge on a peasant unit charging at the right time.

Guthwyn

[bamff]

Haven't played RTW, but the lot of the poor old peasant looks much the same in both MTW and RTW (and indeed throughout history) - theirs not to reason why, there just to do or die, etc.....and generally that is what they do in alarming numbers.

On occassions I suppose it can be useful to have a few of them just to discourage AI factions from attacking (bigger stack looks scarier than a smaller stack, even if there is no substance to it).

Apart from garrison duties, they (peasants) get the same treatment as mercs - use them on any mission that will involve a big body count and will thereby spare more useful and more expensive troops.

[Papewaio]

In RTW I use them to breed Spartans!

Playing on huge unit size, I ship in as many peasants from non-combat unit producing cities. I as quickly as possible increase the population of Sparta and at the same time I always make sure I'm queueing up the builds that will create the Spartans. If there is spare time I invest in buildings that will enhance the troops.

So I like to think of my peasants as the helots who help create the economy that makes the Spartan warriors sustainable.

I've yet to think of a city that I need to populate up that quickly to create the equivalent of Spartans in RTW:BI. Warlords would be a good thing to go for if I was finding that my family was being whittled down to quickly.

[Taurus]

In the single player campaigns I use peasants at the beginning to fight in my armies and later on to occupy my cities etc.
In multiplayer I use peasants as fodder if I have any spare cash.

[PseRamesses]

...I also use peasants as "emigrants" and send them from fast overgrowing cities to settlements that needs to be boosted to the next level. It´s pretty fast and above all cheap.
I never use them in battles but I do use them as garrison units in the beginning of the game until I can afford to replace them with better units.