Clergymen: I FINALLY found a use for them!

[Shahed]

Well it took me pretty much forever but I figured out what they are really perfect for... cannon fodder!. It's either that or just to add flavor to the army, but otherwise they're utterly useless.

Am I missing something ?

[DVX BELLORVM]

You can use them to push the ram

[Privateerkev]

Supposedly they boost the moral of men they are next to like the Great Cross. So, I put them behind my lines. They can also then plug any gaps that appear in melee.

[WhiskeyGhost]

Clergymen can make an army of burgher pikemen and order militia not rout after a short engagement, i think they work fine =)

[TheLastPrivate]

block streets and fire catapults and mangonels into it. Order spearmen > burghers and militia so they're not used for me..haha

[Sheogorath]

Their moral effect is actually fairly significant.
Get some pikemen to block a street, let the enemy come to you, then order them to walk to the end of the street with the clergymen behind them.
They'll chew up pretty much anything except elite infantry.

[Slaists]

Put them between the gate towers to activate hot oil. Easier with them due to their smaller unit size. On top of activating the oil, they will provide a morale boost to your infantry below (if your tactic is to let the enemy in through the gate).

[TheLastPrivate]

But honestly I have never had the order rout...only thing routing is the enemy in most cases lol

[Sheogorath]

But honestly I have never had the order rout...only thing routing is the enemy in most cases lol

It can happen if you dont maintain formation while the enemy is still organized, especially against cavy.
Generally it happens only when massivly outnumbered, but meh :P

[PseRamesses]

Early in the game I find them useful for flanking but later I can replace them with better troops. I rarely carry more than 2 in an army. They have decent attack value, 13, if I remember correctly.

[ReiseReise]

I use them to push rams and keep one in each frontline city to inspire the Burghers while defending sieges. They need inspiration because those pikes become damn heavy when you have 4 impaled enemies on it.
"Come on boys.... HOLD EM HIGH, you think thats heavy? Hah! The One True Cross was much heavier, and He had to MOVE with it! Whats that? HEY, put that sword away, much too light for a True Christian, we fight with WOOD bedecked with bodies. If we had some nine inch nails I would let you fight with those, but NO LUCK TODAY BOYS"

[TheLastPrivate]

I use them to push rams and keep one in each frontline city to inspire the Burghers while defending sieges. They need inspiration because those pikes become damn heavy when you have 4 impaled enemies on it.
"Come on boys.... HOLD EM HIGH, you think thats heavy? Hah! The One True Cross was much heavier, and He had to MOVE with it! Whats that? HEY, put that sword away, much too light for a True Christian, we fight with WOOD bedecked with bodies. If we had some nine inch nails I would let you fight with those, but NO LUCK TODAY BOYS"

Amen

[jepva]

Actually, priests make excellent subversives. In the Kingdoms Crusade game I, as Byzantium, early on became an ally of both Jerusalem and Antioch. The game victory conditions require that I seize Antioch. So, I had two priests stationed outside of the city and watched as the proportion of Ortodox slowly grew to outnumber the Catholics. Eventually, this led to a rebel revolt kicking out the Antioch faction from the city. I was anticipating the revolt and immediately laid seige to the city. This allowed me to fulfill my victory condiutioin while maintaining my alliance with Antioch. I used this same system to obtain several other Antioch faction cities.

[TheLastPrivate]

Actually, priests make excellent subversives. In the Kingdoms Crusade game I, as Byzantium, early on became an ally of both Jerusalem and Antioch. The game victory conditions require that I seize Antioch. So, I had two priests stationed outside of the city and watched as the proportion of Ortodox slowly grew to outnumber the Catholics. Eventually, this led to a rebel revolt kicking out the Antioch faction from the city. I was anticipating the revolt and immediately laid seige to the city. This allowed me to fulfill my victory condiutioin while maintaining my alliance with Antioch. I used this same system to obtain several other Antioch faction cities.

I think the clergymen referred in this post refer to the military unit of war priests that preach by bashing enemy skulls, not the one that does the battle by talking

[imnothere]

it would be cool if clergymen can combine the effect of both - conversion by faith or conversion by a BIG BIG mace.

*should* makes the players less likely to use them as pincushion for arrows.

(*should* because personally, i thought that it is funnier to see those monks turn into porcupines)

[Shahed]

LOL... there's been some great suggestions here. Keep em coming, I've learnt a lot already. I'm gonna hire some more clergymen! and put them on the walls of evey city, for a start...

[ReiseReise]

They don't do good on the walls, i tried that because I figured with 13 attack they could bash the enemy militias as they come over ladders 1 by 1, all the while inspiring the troops down below, but they failed miserably as every casualty is 5% and soon 10% of their strength. Maybe 2 or 3 guarding one section of wall would work.

[Old Geezer]

Clerymen! Hot Dawg! I can hardly waite to finish my Britania campaign so I can start a Teutonic one. Thanks for the information. More C/A brilliance. Do they perchance perform Gregorian Chants? There will soon be a thread about how real men can win with only clergymen (and a few elephant units). Aach, if only the Scots had a few of these lads to put with the pikes.

[Yesugey]

Umm, do they actually have inspiration bonus to troops around them? It's not written on the unit card. I always thought it's a bug that they forgot to write that. Without inspiration, they are like Fanatics from vanilla, only with the unit size of 40 instead of 120, which make them pretty useless.