muskets vs.longbows in MTW2

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

The TW games have often had novelty units that weren't particularly effective in history or in the game, but they put them in for fun. That's how I saw gunpowder units in Shogun and M1, Kerns and other javelin troops in M1, and certain Roman artillery pieces in Rome. Maybe this is another example of that.

Mate the unit you refer to ask Kerns was a skirmisher unit in most Irish armies through the medieval period to the defeat of the O Donnell and O Neil army at Kinsale in the early 17th century. The were also used extensively in wars on the continent especially by Henry the VIII in France. They were hardy warriors and feared by their English enemies. Their appearance was seen in awe and many people in Britain would look on a Kern in amazement as if they were looking at a warrior from the Americas. Also their habit of taking enemy heads was frowned upon as well.

I never saw them as an insignificant or a novelty unit not in my campaigns anyway. I hope they have been added in the new game with Glibs aplenty