Militia Vs. Militia

[name thief]

What type of militia, excluding giant militia, what type is best? I wonder because I sent 42 one star militia against 42 hoburg militia backed up by two hooburg horticulturists, one with water one. The hoburgs won.

[kianduatha]

What's your definition of 'Militia'? Max goldcost 6? Do they have to be indy recruitable?

I'd nominate Voi Spearmen for their javelins and 7 prot. They could maybe take an equivalent number of lobo guards.

[Fantomen]

The hoburgs won beacause they have good defence and stick closer due to size 1. This leads in practice that fewer of your militia is fighting in any given battle turn, giving the hoburgs more attacks which lowers your defence even more in comparison.

[Trumanator]

Why are giant militias excluded? They are pretty much considered to be the absolute worst, except as arrow catchers/very poor meatshields. I think I would nominate Pythium's milites as the best. Tower shields (I think), javelins, semi-decent prot and defense, a spear for a bit of repel, whats not to like.

[Redeyes]

I'm rather partial to T'ien Ch'i militia. Tower Shields to soak arrows, Pikeneers to deal the pain when you have joined melee.

Velites are very effective against independents and other situations where javelins work well, though they have a tendency to fail hard against high protection troops.

Huskarls for the norse nations are rather good, with their axes, javelins giving plenty of well-rounded offense, and shields + ring mail a better than usual defense.

Axe Fir Bolgs are highly effective offensively, but are lacking in protection and therefore die to archer fire. Excellent defense is adequate protection against most melee.

[Trumanator]

I'm somewhat confused. Are we talking about PD or militia units? Granted, they're usually the same, but not always.

[Agema]

A "basic" (i.e. all stats 10) human warrior costs 10gp. Pretty much anything cheaper tends to have stats deficiencies and could be thought of as militia. Velites, Fir Bolg and Huskarls are surely not militia.

It's a bit tougher to define in terms of nonhumans, but most army lists have a range of middling units with different equipment but the same stats who could be considered the "base" for that race (eg. Jotun javelinists/spearmen/axemen), and those that rate below are militia. You could otherwise identify militia by name, including terms like levy, thrall, slave and so on which also clearly imply inferior quality.

[Redeyes]

The "Firbolg Militia" and Velite cost 9 gold under CBM rules at least, though they might be more expensive outside it. Huskarls cost 10.

These units are all the cheapest for their respective cultures.

[Stavis_L]

For one possible definition of "militia", see my thread regarding which unit appear in the "militia event" for nations that get special units.

But I agree - name_thief - please define "militia" for the purposes of your question.

[Edi]

If we're talking about the independent militia units (the worst of which is the default for the militia event and is also included in some national rosters, e.g. MA Arco), the hoburgs will kill them every time.

The reason is that the hoburgs have high defense and pack six into a square, meaning that any given square of size 2 militia is going to be outnumbered two to one when going head to head and the indie militia's low defense means they get hit a lot. And as they take damage, morale checks will spell doom for you because militia has really crappy morale.