Disclaimer
This will become a very long topic. I decided to not write everything in the opening post. It would be way, way too much. So I will first try to go through the issues with the current implementation and then try to catch different whole concepts in individual following posts.
First and foremost I will make a possibly “controversial” ##### ### it is actually the result of the combination of different issues I will lay out later:
The current Implementation of the Militia line doesn’t allow it to become a “Power Unit”. A unit you can make from the beginnin to the end, add specific counters or composition partners to, a unit you decide for from the beginning to build your whole strategy around. At least not on higher levels of play.
There are some civs with amazing bonusses which can very effectively utilize the unit in their gameplan, but it’s usually only used at specific timings where the opponents aren’t set up to effectively counter it. That’s what I would call a “tactical utilization”.
Issue No 1:
It’s too costly to upgrade to a “usable” state. Both in cost but also in upgrade time. The other power units are just faster (with the exception of drush/maa, just because it’s the only military unit you can make at this stage).
Issue No 2:
It doesn’t has any feature to leverage in a direct confrontation with the (other) Power units. It’s slow and has no Range, but also no other stuff like charges or whatever.
Issue No 3:
It’s harder and less revarding to keep alive individual units. The Health pool is comparably low for a melee unit, it’s slow so you have to be really clutch to keep them alive. But the scaling in numbers is also less, also less than Cavalry as Cavalry is more pop efficient - and needs to be actively microed against in all situation with ranged units. Whilst against the low health of Infantry at some point “stop micro” is actually way more effective because of the reduced “overkill”. What I refer to, is that with especially the Knight line there is a mass threshold on which it becomes incresingly difficult to micro against with archers, as you would need so many archers that you would produce a lot of overkill. But you also can’t “stop micro” because the cavalry numbers wouldn’t go down fast enough. With the militia line the one-shot threshold is so low, that with a big enough mass (50-60) you can utilize stop micros higher dps as the Champion numbers will go down more than enough to compensate for the disadvantage of not microing.
They also have less Gold cost than the “Power Units”, so they are easier to replace in the long run.
Lastly the comparably low health pool, low Speed and no compensation makes them also vulnerable to Siege, especially in high numbers. The exception is ofc when you “Goth Spam” as then you don’t have them collected at one spot, but for obvious Reasons it should be avoided to make “Goth Spam” the standard Infantry play.
issue No 4:
There is no specific “Counter Unit” available to all civs to counter the Militia Line. Most Civs have good Archers or Hand Cannons in the lategame. But whilst the Archer Line is quite effective against the Line, it’s more of a “soft counter”. Against high enough numbers of Miitia with upgrades an Archer switch won’t get the numbers to deal with it in time - the damage output is just too low in smaller Archer numbers.
Leading espeically on lower elos to the issues that players who aren’t used to it, can be completely overwhealmed by mass militia, especially as the archer line has a very high threshold in skill requirement before it can be used effectively.
Issue No 5:
Ther is no sufficient “Composition Partner” that synergizes with the militia line. In theory - against the best “counters” in the Archer and HC Lines - Skirms would be favorable. But Skirms don’t have high DPS - not even against Archers. In fact, skirms don’t have higher DPS against Archers than Archers themselves. And Siege is effective against both, Skirms and the Militia line. This is especially visible with the current Dravidians design, that has strong bonusses to both unit types. Yet we basically never see this combo. It’s just not working. Even with 33% higher DPS of the Skirms, which is exactly compensating the named issue of the comp. It’s still not enough. Siege is ofc an option. But Siege synergizes better with the spearman line anyways. There are very little situations where you will prefer the miltia line over the spears (most notably the mesos ofc). Somtimes we see Champs added to Arbs or CA, but then as a support unit, not as the main force of the army. And this is about looking for a support unit for the line. And there just isn’t one working at the moment.
issue No 6:
Too high food cost in the midgame. This isn’t necessarily an exclusive issue. Because there can be ways to cicumvent the negative effects of it. It’s not the Issue in Feudal. In Feudal you have to add a lot of Farms regardless to get up fast to Castle Age. That’s why it’s also not an Issue for scouts at this stage. And you can’t add extra TCs in Feudal to utilitze it instead. But once you get in Castle Age and you used the military Powerspike you want to boom behind. Then the food cost of a unit becomes a direct aversary of your Boom. That’s one of the main Reasons we don’t see Goths playing Milita at this stage. Pretty much preferring the other “Power Unit” options. Cause Goths want to boom to utilize their Infantry later.
But there are several ways to make this less of a factor. For example if the line would be utilized more in late Feudal you could use the Castle Age Powerspike more with it and compensate the economic burden by damaging the enemy. Or - like the current Warrior Pirests - if the main Counter was the Scout line, the opponent would be forced to spend a lot of food themselves…
Issue No 7:
Stone Defences. The Line atm has the “speciality” of dealing anti-building bonus Damage. Which is really nice against stuff like Mills and Markets. Also partially to Houses and Palisades. But especially stone Defences are really tough to deal with. Archers at least can shoot over them, for Cavalry you can utilize Petards quite effectively. But Petards don’t work well with the Militia line - as it is too easy to backwall. They aren’t as fast as the Cav to swarm in, so it’s way easier to contain them. And also again thanks to the low health pool they are prone to fall very fast against good defensive players. Siege, Monks, Archers, CA - Towers, and Castles.
issue No 8:
Low pop effiency. Even when you manage to get to the very lategame with them, the opponent often just can produe the more effective units. You either have to sacrifice eco or go in the fight with an effective ressource disadvantage. Usually we don’t see this kind of battle, as it doesn’t make any sense to take. Best example is again the Goths flood - just don’t take the direct battle but instead kill the eco. But when we talk about a “Power Unit” this is a basic requirement. It’s not possible to have a “Power Unit” which can’t take the direct standoff with the other “Power Units”.
Please note if I forgot something or you whish me to elaborate something more/better.
