How Bad Are Bill Militia in Medieval 2: Total War?

[@micahbonewell5994]

bill militia aren't meant to hold the line, they are meant to charge from the rear or side while your spear militia hold the line. They have very good attack, unlike pike militia, and don't have the buggy formation that pikes have. For their cost, 170f, I'd say they are a good value.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Agreed that the attack is nice, especially against heavily armoured opponents. :)

[@addochandra4745]

you should charge, retreat, and charge again with these kind of units (two handers), especially against horde of units. Interestingly I did a test with Zweihander, 1v1 against AI (Armored Sergeants), on Grassy Plain, on Hard diff, it did quite well as long as Zweihander charging the enemy...

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Sounds like an interesting tactics. So, they don't take too many casualties when disengaging and thus not break? In any case, I need to test it with at least the other bill-units :)

[@addochandra4745]

@@qualityoldgames7721 Yes. Also to avoid the bug in prolonged melee...

[@micahbonewell5994]

Also I get why you only use 4 units for these tests to keep the results consistent between runs, but I personally feel like a better test would be number of units per x florins instead, as any cheap unit like bill militia will of course perform more poorly in this test compared to more expensive units like mailed knights or dismounted feudal knights.

[@micahbonewell5994]

I mean in previous tests you used Aventuros the Portuguese pikeman which cost ~600 florins each, whereas these guys cost 170f each, so you can have 3 almost 4 bill militia for the cost of each Aventuros

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Yea, cost efficiency could be one way to do the tests :)

[@runswithbears3517]

These units are most useful in defensively-oriented infantry armies. Such armies ought to deploy in woods whenever possible, which is where 2-hander infantry in a defensive role will really shine versus cavalry.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Yea, that might work :)

[@Rakiael07]

Opinions on commentary? Imo it feels redundant...I prefer to limit them to campaigns and tier lists.

[@camulodunon]

Same

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Seems there are different preferences :D Its perfectly fine for me to do them without commentary - and at least I wouldn't be rambling there.

[@tlf7674]

It's interesting how two hand units seem to perform better against cavalry than infantry. Might be something to do with cavalry charge animations?

[@hellbringer09]

2 hand units in this game much like rtw roll their damage 2 times as often. Bill and halberds act much the same but pikes and phalanx are hopelessly broken unlike rtw...

[@blazingsummit]

Lot easier to poke a horse with a longsword than a broadsword as my ancient ancestor said before he was decapitated by a knight

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. I think it comes down to smaller unit size for cav :)

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Imo it comes down to smaller unit size for cav, though not sure :)

[@Killertron_2]

They use a different and much faster animation versus horses, hence they do much better.

[@timothyernst8812]

How bad is this unit? They're worse than regular billmen. So whatever you think about billmen, remember that bill militia are not as good, though the fact that they're trained in cities and get free upkeep there might give the militia the edge in certain circumstances.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Yea, the militia variant just does not seem to be worth it :)

[@mateuszkuzma8029]

I only use it as a towns defense, they are way too slow for attacks, and way too weak for professional army

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Yea, sounds reasonable. That free upkeep can be nice :) Thanks for the comment.

[@dcavic6157]

BRooooo put them in Defense like you would Pikeman...

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Would it work as their defense is horrible and they don't have any formation that would bring benefits? :)

[@dcavic6157]

@@qualityoldgames7721 i believe they act like Pikemen when they are in defense position. That's the trick about Pikemen they need to be in defense and not mobile for them to be effective

[@Dergownik]

huh, i remmembered billman having spearwall ability, im i crazy or was it some other unit

[@Svennytheroman]

Halberd Militia

[@tunnar79]

The Voulge militia of the French has it as well

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. It would certainly benefit from it :)

[@shorkan1000]

Two handed units (both axes and polearms) are notoriously bugged in base medieval II total war that only got fixed with Kingdoms. The problem is that they carry out too many defensive animations, causing them to do hardly any damage. I think that if you'd perform the same test with Bill militia from the Britannia campaign, you'd get a different result.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Agreed on that :)