I don't buy Tribal militia to win battles with them - I buy them to soak up damage, instead of my good troops!
I don't even mind if they run away fairly quickly. In a huge horde of them, or in several small holds, they stay around plenty long in most cases - long enough to absorb lots of damage, which is my reason for taking them.
In fact, I like that they die quickly - it means it's easy to get rid of them when their usefulness has passed, which is usually only a few turns after I hire them.
What's great is that you can hire hordes of them in a single turn, and they can take blows that would wipe out your good troops otherwise, particularly when one is faced with something that can kill your usual best troops, like castle defenses, poison gas clouds, supercombattants, etc.
They are lame but they soak up lots and lots of firepower if you get them in bulk.
PvK
P.S. And as you mentioned, the dual daggers are actually not lame offensively against some foes. If the enemy can't kill 'em fast enough, the tribals can often do a good amount of damage.
[ November 25, 2003, 05:51: Message edited by: PvK ]