My apologies if this topic has been discussed to death in the past, but I'm a recent newcomer to Medieval: Total War & the Viking Invasion expansion. I'll give you a brief history of my TW experiences (in chronological order):

Rome: Total War
Barbarian Invasion
Shogun Total War: Warlords Edition
Battle Collection - Medieval: Total War & Viking Invasion

As you can see, its a bit unorthodox, but at last I've found my way into MTW.

Back on topic, is anyone a fan of Woodsmen? I'm currently into my first MTW campaign, playing Poland on Expert difficulty (fancied a challenge ). The main thing that struck me about this unit is its low recruitment cost (150 florins), low upkeep cost (about 30 florins per turn?), its combat bonus vs armoured units, the unit itself is lightly armoured (?), cheap to retrain.

The description for these units is accurate though - these unit types are still peasantry (and therefore run like peasantry), but are instead armed with hefty axes. However, for their cost-effective recruitment & upkeep costs alone, I find these units more preferrably than an alternate unit, say Urban Militia for example. Urban Militia cost more to recruit & upkeep than Woodsmen, so this is my main reason for recruiting plenty of Woodsmen units in the provinces where they are available (dense woodland).

On the battlefield, Woodsmen seem able to inflict casualties easily enough on rival units such as Spearmen, Urban Militia, Peasants and so on. Their only real drawbacks are that they usually take heavy casualties, especially versus archers and cavalry, and they can also waver quite frequently when fighting isolated battles.

What's the opinion on Woodsmen to their equivalents?