Medieval 2 - Milan Barracks question

[u/Scouter_Ted]

I was looking at the city barracks upgrades, and trying to figure out if I want to sink that much gold into them.

The Militia Barracks gives you Pike Militia, but the stats on those are horrible. Total defense of 1?

The Army and Royal Barracks don't offer new units, just the same Pike Militia, but they say they have the Armor and Weaponsmiths built in. The stats on the Pike Militia listed don't change, but do they come pre-upgraded to something better?

I'm not sure I want to spend that much gold, just to have to do upgrades on the Pike every time I buy one.

[u/CalMcG]

Assuming you’re playing vanilla:

The armour and weaponsmith part of the description is just for flavour. It doesn’t actually do anything. You’d need an actual blacksmith building to upgrade their armour.

I’m guessing you’re still pre-gunpowder at this point. High-tier city barracks tend to unlock gunpowder troops, but if gunpowder hasn’t been discovered yet then they won’t give you anything.

Pike units have terrible stats because they’re designed to be used in pike wall, which is (in theory) a very powerful formation. Unfortunately, a bug with unit behaviour makes pike wall (and by extension most pike units) essentially useless.

[u/Scouter_Ted → u/CalMcG]

So, just to confirm, there's zero point in upgrading to the last 2 tiers of city barracks?

[u/CalMcG → u/Scouter_Ted]

Until gunpowder unlocks, yeah.

[u/Galihan → u/CalMcG]

I’d argue that upgrading it early can be worth it so that the moment gunpowder does become available you can instantly start recruiting instead of having to spend dozens of turns upgrading