Mailed Billmen Useless?

[coinich]

Seriously, I have max armourer and Heavy Billmen, yet for some reason they seem to break easier than older spearmen, and never show any armour upgrades. Am I missing something about them?

[Krazy Kook]

Hey there! Wanted to reply to this since no one had yet, even if my answer might not be the best haha.

Okay SO! It's been a while since I've used billmen, and I've NEVER used them in SS, but I have an idea about what they can and can't do. Billmen are a unique English unit (I think), and are ALL about offense. Seriously, they suck at defense, and don't carry a shield like most other infantry units. This means that yes, they will fold a lot more quickly under pressure, even with heavy armor.

So think of Billmen as quick shock troopers, like Galloglaich units, or Saxon Huscarls maybe, or any other axe unit or those German dudes with 2H swords! They are used as your primary attackers, and can be awesome at catching cavalry in a melee and taking them down very easily. In a prolonged battle they will not be as effective, just because of their low defensive abilities. But if you mix them up with good spearmen and maybe some heavy tough infantry, you can deploy billmen as a flanking force and then have them fall back and let spears take over when needed.

As for armor upgrades not showing, I'm not sure. I DO remember that there was an earlier Billmen unit that could be upgraded, followed by a unit that started with plate armor. Maybe because it starts with plate, that means it's already at the max upgrade level? Anywho, hope this helps man

[Kabeloko]

Plus its fairly cheap and you wont have to await a most elite shock(dismounted kingsguard if i remember right) unit to be avaiable before sending your army away...
has a good avaibility and retrainig rate, so you can retrain it in enemy territory...
let spearmen sergeants and light MAA along others hold the line, and let the billhook shine in the flanks as krazy kook said.

Good luck friend.

edit: oh, i was distracted and was talking about armoured billmen, but still, its basically the same, just dont let them get charged or shot, and they should do a fine job against anything...

[coinich]

Hey there! Wanted to reply to this since no one had yet, even if my answer might not be the best haha.

Okay SO! It's been a while since I've used billmen, and I've NEVER used them in SS, but I have an idea about what they can and can't do. Billmen are a unique English unit (I think), and are ALL about offense. Seriously, they suck at defense, and don't carry a shield like most other infantry units. This means that yes, they will fold a lot more quickly under pressure, even with heavy armor.

So think of Billmen as quick shock troopers, like Galloglaich units, or Saxon Huscarls maybe, or any other axe unit or those German dudes with 2H swords! They are used as your primary attackers, and can be awesome at catching cavalry in a melee and taking them down very easily. In a prolonged battle they will not be as effective, just because of their low defensive abilities. But if you mix them up with good spearmen and maybe some heavy tough infantry, you can deploy billmen as a flanking force and then have them fall back and let spears take over when needed.

As for armor upgrades not showing, I'm not sure. I DO remember that there was an earlier Billmen unit that could be upgraded, followed by a unit that started with plate armor. Maybe because it starts with plate, that means it's already at the max upgrade level? Anywho, hope this helps man

Plus its fairly cheap and you wont have to await a most elite shock(dismounted kingsguard if i remember right) unit to be avaiable before sending your army away...
has a good avaibility and retrainig rate, so you can retrain it in enemy territory...
let spearmen sergeants and light MAA along others hold the line, and let the billhook shine in the flanks as krazy kook said.

Good luck friend.

edit: oh, i was distracted and was talking about armoured billmen, but still, its basically the same, just dont let them get charged or shot, and they should do a fine job against anything...

Oh, awesome, thanks. I thought they were the next tier of spearmen, not flankers. That changes quite a bit. And I managed to get their armor upgraded too - I just hadn't hit that event yet. Thanks for the help.

[Duck of Death]

I hardly ever use billmen... they remind me to much of ducks... there is only one duck in my game... and no gooses, geese? Yes, geese

[ksenagos]

They should be used for taking down engaged heavy cavalry.Sent some fodder to absorb the charge then send the billmen and watch their armor piercing +bonus vs cavalry hooks cutting down mounted knights costing 3 times as much