Conscripts are a type of militia in Empire: Total War.
Description[]
Conscripts are usually given basic training of a kind; a measure of drill instruction and enough knowledge of their weapons so that they are less danger to themselves than the enemy. However, it is often impossible to instill military skills and virtues in men who do not want to be in the army, and for this reason their grasp of even elementary tactics may be scant. This can cost lives in battle, as the use of conscripts is to march them towards the enemy en masse, and hope that the enemy cannot kill them all.
Conscription is an easy method of recruiting troops, by simply compelling the adult male population to join the army for a set period or until an emergency ends. Usually, there are enough special exemptions so that the moneyed classes do not have to join the ranks. Conscription is not without its costs: as men are swept into the ranks, the supply of laborers and even skilled workers can vanish almost overnight.
General Information[]
Conscripts are available to be trained in any region, but are only available to republics, like the Republican Guard. They have somewhat better statistics than militia in most ways, but have very limited ammunition and are still no match for Line Infantry, as they still have much worse statistics and cannot utilize the various firing drills and formations.
Should a republic have a revolution that transitions it into a different government type, all conscripts are automatically disbanded.