Barbarian Peasants (RTW Unit)
Peasants are reluctant warriors, but barbarian peasants are better fighters than most: hard lives produce hard men.
Overview
Peasants are reluctant warriors, but barbarian peasants are better fighters than most: hard lives produce hard men. Numbers are useful in all armies, and forcing peasants to fight is one way of getting lots of men in the field quickly and cheaply. They have little tactical sense, and even less willingness to fight - they would rather be defending their own homes than be dragged to a battle they neither care about nor understand. They are, however, experts at reading the land and hiding when there is cover.
Details
Barbarian Peasants have all round terrible stats, but unlike their more civilized brethren they have a bit of armor. Their morale is so bad that if any allied units routs they are almost certain to join the rout. Besides being able to defeat the soft, civilized peasants the other boon of barbarian peasants is they make superior fodder and battering ram pushers because their armor lets them survive for just that little bit longer and they re still one of the cheapest units in the game so they make superb garrison troops for towns that are not at risk of attack.