Dont get caught up on the name. Besides there are lots of well equiped militia in history, you are sterotyping.

It stops when the AI has some sort of defense that can stop a human from steam rolling. Remember this is a single player game, if the AI doesnt have a chance to stop you then the game sucks, no going online after 'training' with a crap ai.

I think the precise problem armour on militia would ease is rushing AI cities early-game with your champions as soon as you meet them. Often the AI is out adventuring and has no real army to defend with.

I also think that militia should have a disadvantage over regular armies, and that the player (and the AI) should should have to plan allocating troops to defend their cities.

Adding more defenders is one thing, since as a city grows so does the population, but arming them and armoring them seems like giving everyone free armies.

If cities were magically endowed with defenders that were capable of winning anything but a skirmish, then a critical part of the strategy (defence) would be eliminated, and conquest would be the only issue at hand.

If the AI is silly enough (BRAD !!!) to leave its cities defended only by their militia, then I should be able to steamroll over them with my well-armed and provisioned sovereign.

After all, I would like to be able to reproduce the sacking of Winterfell by Theon Greyjoy, and I very well can't do that if every city automatically has an army defending it...

You would also be able to rush other players early on if the game had multiplayer, because the militia by no means mean any real help defending a city, there are no practical bonuses when defending your cities early-game until you get lightning hammers and your militia starts dealing damage.

I think militia should be equipped with the best spears, and the best chest piece armour available. You will still have to go tech for some defensive stuff, but the militia would have a slight nodge of defense stat, and a decent weapon.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

How is adding armor to miltia dumbing down the game?  I can't that line of logic to make any sense.

I would love to see this in. Taking over cities should be something you prepare an army for. Not just a lucky hero passing by and taking advantage of two men with clubs who happen to be the only city defense.

Thats a great idea Xia, the armour depends on the cities level - who's a clever boy! You have just won a pony!

I'm just playing devil's advocate with this one (maybe going a bit too extreme,) but I do caution against making the standard militia too good.

I would much rather have the AI be good at leaving some units home early game and also be able to employ a rush strategy against the human to force me to have to defend rather than everything be taken care of auto-magically.

Now, I have no problem with upgrading militia based on research (the warfare tree could certainly use another 3-5 techs, and this might be good content for that,) or buildings, or city upgrades.

Having to leave a hero at home would also make the governor trait more of a viable option, as well as making scouts more of an option.

Leaving a hero at home?  Which home? Every city?  Leave troops to defend?  So limiting their ability to expand and defend their cities?  Cities being able to defend themselves better will help the AI more than it will the player.

I think that their should be an option to upgrade the armor for the militia by a strict cost that we do for other troops. We want upgraded armor we pay the gildar for those units to have them like any other troop that we have out in the field before armor and we want to upgrade that armor. If the unit dies a new unit replaces that unit and we have to pay again.

Although, I think this is a feature request but it fits with the current gameplay model. It's not automatic and it doesn't take maintenance fees, but an upfront gildar cost to do it. I also think this is AI friendly (or maybe easily implemented for the AI with hordes of cash)

I also think the upgrade function should also have some tweaks, because sometimes I don't want to upgrade my units past leather, but it happens automatically. Sometimes the best is not what I can afford, but I can afford the second best. I know that this is another feature request, but something to consider for an expansion.

I think upgrades to armor and gear should come with techs, city increases, and buildings.  If there is a fully built level 5 Fortress, I should expect it to have a lot of well geared defenders.  Archers in full leather and longbows, Infantry in chainmail, kite shield and mace.  And maybe Fortress only. I think Fortresses should be a lot harder to capture than cities and conclaves, but a bit of armor on some defenders in any city is fine.