Peasants (English) have a whooping defense skill of 4, while, for militia the defense skill is only 1 if I remember correctly... The rest of their defense comes from the shield. This means, that "in the heat of it", peasants are better protected than spear militia unless militia is hit from the side of the shield.

Add to that, that peasants do not appear to have "spear attribute" to their weapon (even though it's just a pitchfork), so as someone guessed here, they are treated as swords, swords versus spears in the case of peasants against militia.

Quote Originally Posted by Kobal2fr
Peasant cost : 90
Spear militia : 250ish (can't recall right now)

Guess who wins ?

But it's true that weapons matter much more than stats in this game. I go with unit description and "sensible" use, and that works for me most of the time (except of course when inf will not attack cav at all, but that's another matter).