Quote Originally Posted by Rythmic
Yes woodsmen are useful, especially for a faction like the Polish. But once you can get Men-at-arms, they become useless except as garrison troops.

Disagree.

Woodsmen unit is wholy different in use than any swordsman type unit.

Woodsmens are cheap and expendable, while men at arme are elite(first thing to come in my mind when comparing this two units), arent cheap and expendable.

Woodsmens are best used in flanks or...for frontal, suicidal charge to disorganize enemy ranks, preparing the field for cavalry charge.

Men at arms is best used directly, for slowly advancement with other supportive units.They kill ratio is slow, but they stay on the battlefield much longer.
In my Polish games i rarely use men at arms(in early, fmaa are more often garrisoned, rather fight on the main army) and prefere using woodsmen.
If we playing Polish on Expert, there will be not to much gold to upkeep costly units, so woodsmen are ideal solution.