Garisson your cities and castles?

[Askthepizzaguy]

I have found it easy to defend a settlement with cheapo town militia. Archers are fine additions, but they can't really hold their weight in melee and they are useless if the enemy brings artillery. They also aren't very good at lighting the enemy seige equipment on fire, so I see them as largely pointless unless you have LONG RANGE archers with a high missile attack and a decent melee rating. Then they are worth more than infantry.

That's if you decide to build a garrison to begin with. I generally just stick with the cheapest and most volumous unit of peasants/militia I can find. Then I have a giant pile of well trained and armored militia units as a roving defensive force to repel invaders. Lots of my heaviest militia infantry, armored completely (costs nothing more in upkeep, and you have stronger units for your buck) plus archers and perhaps a unit of heavy cavalry as a captain, or a crappy general's unit.

This is the most cost-effective defensive force. Nothing too difficult to recruit, not too expensive to maintain, perfect for defending settlements or reclaiming them at home, but not so great on a long offensive mission.

Good for maintaining your borders. No sense in putting a good garrison inside a city deep within your territory. So I have them within a day's march of anything near my border cities. I use watchtowers and spies to tell me what is coming.

I use all my GOOD troops to attack other nations. But this is a good mixture of what you need on the home front.

Remember, one large stack of defensive troops is better organized and better prepared than several small ones scattered throughout your territory. You can defend yourself against real invasions with a big stack, a small garrison is just too inadequate, and a medium sided garrison is too expensive. You need relief forces.

So just use relief forces and your FREE milita inside the city. The free militia delays the seiging forces and the relief forces smash them by overwhelming numbers of defensive troops. Just keep your troops organized, use them defensively, and keep your captain alive. At the very least you should completely cripple the invaders, allowing you to repel them on the next wave, and send them home limping even if you dont beat them on the first assault.

12 units of spearmen, the rest mostly militia archers, swordsmen, or horse archers. Whatever you have that is cheap and can compliment a giant army of infantry. Plus one well-armored captain or general unit.