They are, however, cheap militia. Moreover, you need to spend at least 190 gold to get it up to a decent level (20). The only thing they're good at is catching an odd spy/assassin or killing off a bunch of Atlantian/Caelian raiders. Any decent force will totally smash them (unless you contribute regular troops to province defense, of course).
EDIT: Damn, too late
[ March 29, 2004, 02:33: Message edited by: Alexander Seil ]