Religious zealots joining the cause

[Norfleet]

The militia tend to be equally worthless troops regardless of the size of the map: They quickly rout before even most of them can be killed off, then scatter into random provinces and chew up your upkeep forever because it will cost even MORE at any given time to try to round them up.

Plus they materialize without a commander, so somebody has to go and round them up.

The flagellants are slightly better....if you had a bless effect. If you don't, they're just as useless as militia, but their higher morale makes them easy to kill off.