They are incredibly weak troops, even by the standards of fresh recruits. A complete lack of Power Strike, as well as the relative weakness of their weapons, prevents them from posing much more of a threat than Looters. It is advised that a commander's time spent with their Footmen should be at a Training Field.
Their cheap cost allows them to be used as cannon fodder of sorts. Gathered in large enough numbers, their Bamboo Spears can stop cavalry charges, though actually killing the horsemen is another matter entirely.
Sarranid Footmen are only efficient in big groups; you can only win in terms of quantity instead of quality. The huge problem with them is that they are not only generally weak in melee fights, despite being infantry, but also the fact that tier 2 infantry of other factions will always dominate over them with a possible exception of the Khergit Skirmisher. This leaves only two choices of tactics:
Note: Troops have a set of default stats; at the beginning of a new game, these stats are randomly adjusted for each type of troop. The following is the default set for this troop as seen within the game code and may not reflect the specific stats you will see during actual gameplay. For more information, see Troop stats.
Desert Bandit
Recruit
Skirmisher
