Billmen

[Owain Glyndŵr]

They seem useless. Highly vulnerable to arrows, short reach, and absolutely pathetic morale. I had five of them fighting three units of Welsh Spearmen on a wall... they just BARELY survived and I had to call in my general to mop up the town square. Also, half of them routed.

There must be something wrong here... historically, they were used to great effect against other infantry! If there's no tactical use for them here, perhaps there's a mod to replace their short "black bills" with the longer "forest bills", at least improving their reach?

[Mikiez]

I found billmen to be good flanking infantry.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Yes, but what would you use as your main line? In this period the only other available infantry are Levy Spearmen.

[Viking Prince]

Yes, but what would you use as your main line? In this period the only other available infantry are Levy Spearmen.

Any good general uses the forces available. If all you have are levy Spearmen -- then use them. Do not forget to run them through a armor upgrade (do it if available in another settlement also).

As to the Billman -- early anything is iffy, but one or two can be used effectively. In addirion to flanking which nearly any unit is good for -- try a very thin Levy Spearman (two ranks) backed close by thick Billmen (at least 4 ranks) where you are vullnerable to a cavalry charge.

[Old_Scratch]

Billmen are light shock troops. They actually have a pretty decent charge, but can't remain in a constant fight. So, fighting on a wall is pretty much the worst place for them. They do get several armor upgrades though IIRC.

[Callawyn]

I use 5-7 Levy Spearmen as main line (until I can get something better), 2 Billmen as flankers. I never use Billmen in main line. They have good attack and pitiful defense, you wan't them hacking the flank of an enemy unit that is busy attacking something else of yours.

[Lysimachus]

Get retrofit and gain use of Sergeant Swordsmen (a nice medium sword infantry unit) or wait 'till fortresses to get Dismounted Feudal Knights. Using billmen on a wall is stupid because they have slow animations, (which means that the spearmen will finish theirs before the billman resulting in him dying and that will repeat itself all throughout), they have no shield, (which means they're poor at deflecting hits and against arrow fire) they have no armour, (upgrading is neccessary, but you can only get to light mail which in retrofit will add up to about 3 points of armour) and two handed weapons need alot of room to use, and on a wall there is next to no room so they can't wield them effectively. You'll want to stick with Mercenary Spearmen, Levy Spearmen, Spear Militia or with Retrofit you can use Sergeant Swordsmen and Armoured Sergeants.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

England is awful in vanilla... and that's coming from an Englishman.

[StalkAndStrike]

I couldnt agree more, no matter what they fight against they manage to get themselves into a 50% casualty rate and than route to top it off....im never going to use them again....

[Celsius]

Billmen are good to divert the enemty from a position.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

I've been using Spear Militia(easier to retrain and more are available) for my main line, and making sure they have light mail at the very least; the billmen are good for containing the flanks while my knights smash into the rear.

[OdinX]

Normal billmen are pitiful; however, Heavy Billmen are great since their defense equals out with their attack making them excellent for just about any situation. I mean the only situation I can see an army of billmen winning would be against an army of peasants, still...they'd probably get owned and leave with like 10% of their force.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Agreed, no problems with Heavy Billmen; I find them doing well against most heavy infantry, and anything that's normally too tough for them has already been decimated by longbowmen.

[Lysimachus]

I always thought Heavy Billmen were a bit lacking. They use the two-handed axe animations (so as opposed to two-handed sword) and since two-handed axe units suck pretty hard that would have meant that billmen kind of sucked too.

[Old_Scratch]

I always thought Heavy Billmen were a bit lacking.

All billmen are lacking and shouldn't be relied on to hold the front line. Even the best two handed soldiers, like varangian guard, tabaridiya or dismounted English knights have difficulty holding in a prolonged melee against sword and shield soldiers.

As already mentioned though, billmen do have a decent charge which can be utilized quite well as a flank.

[Bowden]

Just get longbow archers (no Sherwood), some Armoured Swordsmen, some English Knights, a General, and you'll be pwning.

For the early period: Hobilars and Spear Militia.

[Mithrane]

If you can get the enemy's general or heavy cavalry/armor engaged with a defensive unit and can hit them from the side or behind with even lesser billmen, they will rip them to shreds, no matter the numbers.

They simply eat armored units for breakfast. Their problem is that they don't defend well and can't hold a direct fight.

Thus, they are shock troops. Flankers. Use them as such. Never build an army around them. Never put them on a line. Never engage them alone. They augment your other forces.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

I'm finding Billmen extremely useful deployed directly behind my line or to the side. After the charge has been absorbed by my Levy Spearmen(which are actually okay once they've been upgraded to mail), the Billmen rush forth and finish off the enemy. I watched in amazement as 60 billmen single-handedly chewed up an entire unit of Feudal Knights and routed the rest of the enemy's Armoured Sergeants.