Archer Militia

Battlefield Role: Medium-range Infantry

Weapons: Common flatbow, arrow quiver with ~22 arrows and a hunting knife as an improvised sidearm.

Outfit: Simple plain clothes.

Skill level: Amateur archery training. No skills in melee.

Affiliation: Every region of Southern Arandolia has them.

Doctrine: Reservist Militia

Strengths: Abundant, cheap and widely available local civilian reinforcements to help defending their home regions.

Weaknesses: Defenceless in melee combat, they will either surrender or flee if attacked in close quarters. Their bows are also not powerful enough to penetrate heavy armour.

Militia Archers are excellent units for bolstering armies assembled to defend a region from foreign invasion forces, adding a significant amount of firepower to the actual local military.

Like any other militia unit, they are gathered from amongst the countryside peasantry as reservists and called upon in times of war to defend their homes, but they are not expected to join the army for extended campaigns or ever leave their home region. After all, militias are defensive units composed of armed citizenry who have actual jobs and families to feed, so they have to get back home as soon as possible once their land is safe and sound.

In the particular case of the Archer Militias, the most common volunteers who join their ranks are huntresses and shepherds, who in most cases already own a bow and use it in their daily shores. However, many farmers and other kinds of assorted professionals also often join the archer militias of their towns in order to receive free archery training and equipment. Archery is a rather nice sport to practice as pastime with your friends, and knowing how to defend yourself might always come in handy.

As such, those unpaid volunteers join the militia out of their own patriotism and free will, taking on the responsibility to be readily available to rise and fight for their homes and family shall the call to arms ever come. They also do defend their small town from raiders and bandids, always counting on reinforcements from other villages and even from the actual standing army if they ever need to be the ones issuing a call to arms of their own.