
Peasant Levy is a type of militia in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
These men are dragged from the fields, perhaps given muskets, and then herded in the direction of the enemy.
Even though they carry muskets, they are given only the most basic of training: just enough so that they will not actually kill themselves before they reach a battlefield. This inexperience and a fatalistic attitude towards survival mean that they have low morale even before the firing starts. They can, just, hold their own against militia units, but expecting much more of them is a little optimistic. They can be a useful way of getting the enemy to waste precious shot and gunpowder.
The Ottoman Empire had several different types of conscripted levies in its armies: “miri-askeris” were paid on the battlefield, for example, while the “yeri-neferats”, included every Muslim man, regardless of age, in a town under threat. The intention was to get as many people onto a battlefield as quickly as possible as a response, any kind of response, to an enemy incursion.
General Information[]
Peasant Levy are the cheapest militia available to the Ottoman Empire. They have very poor stats across the board, even when compared to other militia. In particular, their charging bonus is among the worst in the game and a far cry from the capabilities of nearly every other militia. Thanks to their very cheap cost, however, they are great candidates for shielding more valuable units from fire. They are good for little else with their very low killing potential.
Early in the campaign, the Ottoman Empire tends to field many peasant levies. This makes Ottoman armies numerous, but very weak.