Fauchard Infantry

It's with us only that they make battles. It is we who are the material of war. War is made up of the flesh and the souls of common soldiers only.

— Henri Barbusse, French author and World War I veteran, Under Fire

Fauchard Infantry: Vital statistics
Unit type	Light polearms infantry
Trained At	Barracks
Damage and weapon type	High; polearm
Armour	Good
Production cost	Pop Cost: 1 Resource cost: 60; 50 Ramp cost: 2; 2
Range	Melee Low LOS
Unit creation and movement speed	Movement Speed: Slow Creation speed: Fairly slow
Unit HP	High
Technological requirements & upgrades	Library: Castle Age Level 4 (Standing armies) Upgrade of: Militia Upgrades to: Espadachines for France; Halberdiers for others
Available To

Named after the farming tool (French: "scythe") after which it was fashioned, a fauchard is a polearm which combines the fast slashing action of a sword or knife with the reach of a spear. Trainable to a series of continental European powers, their fairly average price and a decent attack which can deal out some splash damage makes them highly versatile, being capable of being deployed against a variety of enemy units — especially infantry in tight formation. However, you should not expect them to stand up to heavy cavarly on a flanking manoeuvre. Equally, despite their better attack, Fauchard Infantry are much slower than swordsmen, so they are only effective against other infantry in large numbers. Nevertheless, if mixed in with other units, these units could provide an advantage; given their strong anti-infantry attack, the French could mix in Galloglaich and Swiss mercenaries to enhance their anti-cavalry attack.

Despite being deceptively simple to make, a polearm was highly lethal, especially in the hands of well-trained users. Polearms combined the long reach of spears and shorter weapons, such as warhammers or swords to form a highly versatile anti-personnel weapon. Caesar's naval victory in north-eastern Gaul (present-day Brittany, France) was attributed to the use of billhooks which were used to slash the rigging of the elusive Veneti fleet, disabling the ships and granting the Romans (despite their use of more inferior vessels) north-western Gaul. In Northern Asia, Britain, Scandinavia, Central Europe and Italy, polearms were often the favourite weapons of various armies, because of their availability and were even used from horseback in China and Japan. Glaives appear to be popular in Eastern Europe, and for this reason, both Hungary and the Turks can recruit ethnic Vlachs proficient with this weapon to boost their troops.

Unit summary

• Basic light polearm infantry, slower and with less armour than normal swordsmen, but capable of dealing low splash damage, ideal against tight formations.
• While Fauchard Infantry have a melee attack that can shatter large groups of infantry, they have less armour and are much slower, so they are only effective against other infantry in large numbers.
• Vlach Levy — Glaives appear to be popular in Eastern Europe, and for this reason, ethnic Vlachs proficient with this weapon can be recruited by the three Eastern powers - Hungary, Turkey and Serbia - to boost their troops.