The lightning hammer isn't good unless your unit levels up. It's a weak weapon if your unit is level 1. Militia is level 1.

Balance aside, I think it is also "unrealistic" within the setting of the game that militia gain any equipment you have available, including magical ones. They're supposed to be expensive!

I confess I gave them the hammers Please don't hit me.

Do militia units which happen to equip stuff which would normall require iron or crystal end up pulling that resource from the resource pool?

I would prefer for militia to be a viable defense tactic, not a drain on resources. Arguably if one militia unit dies, the same equipment could be used for the next round of militia.

Therefore I think what they are equipped with should be based/limited on the buildings in the city. More advanced infrastructure/ investment into defense should allow for a more beneficial militia force without further cost than the initial investment.

This sounds pretty good to me, too. Then, perhaps once a blacksmith is built, militia get to use iron-based equipment, for example?

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Chain/Maces/Wood shields should b the best militia gear.

Blacksmith/Armorer should upgrade the militia as well as making said equipment cheaper to build. Wood shields should be tied to some other building, and available after Blacksmith and Armorer. This scaling would help the militia actually be something other than a toss-away unit after the early game, but keep them from being the sole necessary defenders of a city.

I wouldn't mind a level 4 city from having an excellent militia force, as long as the city deserves it.

Of course, a 'stack of doom' would always defeat even the best militia ... however expeditionary forces, lightly armored blitz forces would likely not be successful.

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You wouldn't be able to defend a city from an entire army with just militia, and you would still need an excellent force to defend against an excellent force ...

yet this would allow defense to be (much?) easier than attack given the right set up.

1. This should not be possible with only minimal investment (would only be worth it with Bell Towers, Militia Barracks, etc)

2. This would help the AI not be stuck with crappy defenders.

I can see the Masterwork equipment thing, but really only as a high-level city level upgrade such as 4th or 5th Level "Master Smith" which grants all your in town militia masterwork weapons and decreases production time on iron gear.

That way the city gets some amount of differentiation, and you get a city level up that matters, but lets be honest with ourselves here. Most militias in most cities are a force of semi-trained civilians who get what gear is available, and "Masterwork" doesn't sound to me like to sort of stuff that winds up just laying about to be used by Joe the Butcher in defending his home.

Another interesting tradeoff might be that such buildings that improve militia are only available to be allowed after city level-up. Instead of being the blacksmith, armorsmith, or weaponsmith which confers the militia abilities, it might be various kinds of quartermasters. Having to choose between a beefed-up militia and a bank makes the decision a bit more dire.

Thus, strategically a player could choose to make a city more defensible via militia upgrades if that city is at a choke-point, at the sacrifice of all sorts of production bonuses, depending on how big the city could eventually get.

I would hope militia to be upgraded in some way during gameplay, so the random scouting unit, or a tiresome spider wouldnt just go in and trash a city, ive been rather annoyed at having some games start next to a spiders lair, and not being able to beat the spider at lvl 1 it would go trash my capital if i left it undefended for 3 turns with my main hero. (I know I can train units etc. to counter that, but even through that gameplay, that particular unlucky start gives me a resource penalty from turn 1).

Although, to please some members, at a certain point they could rename the militia to some other more heroic name that is fitting for the scramble defenders of civilization, - like minutemen, or conscripts.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

I would like to see City Defenders have equipment only from the Civilisation tech tree.  These are just city folk who grab arms which are easily available and not a trained professional army.  So boar spears, etc, okay, lightning hammers, no.

Maybe, at some point an established city should have regular, trained and professional defenders instead of relying on farmers and stable boys?

It maybe by design that if you truly want a good defender, than you have to train and garrison them yourself, but I still think it would be cool if your defenders improved more with the building you put in your city.  Right now the cost of maintenance on a lot of these building don't really make their creation worthwhile.