Polish Nobles are pretty useful for the Polish, being pretty OK in melee and carrying around those handy javelins, and available from almost all the castles. I simply love to take on almost any kind of an European army with these guys, HAs are still a problem.
I must agree with Didz with the merc crossbows, they give a huge advantage especially if the enemy won't try to counterattack when he's defending.
And of course, as dismal pointed out, ANY heavy cavalry makes it dirt easy to wipe the AI off the field, especially with a decent enough spear line and a few missiles to keep the HAs at bay.
If you play all the battles, Italians don't even really need castles, as Cavalry militia/Broken Lancers (at least the Venetians, dunno about the others, still a bit new to the game) and their militia spears combined with pavisare form a decent force. The bells are a bother to move, but not bad and add to the feel of the armies. In sieges, heavy inf doesn't hurt though, and everyone loves the variation castles give (I love those Venetian Archers, even if they never get the chance to flank...). Off topic, I know, but I tend to ramble at times.
Highly teched armies can be problematic to replenish if you move quickly, but this is not as big a problem as it could be in Rome. This would suggest that good quality basic troops make the difference.
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