Gallic Skirmishers

Summary
Skirmishers are a basic melee infantry brigades available to the Gallic faction group from the start of the game. They are notable for being exceptionally numerous while cheap in both gold and recruits.

"Fast moving light infantry. Skirmishers are fierce melee fighters and their large numbers are ideal for swarming and surrounding enemies. However, their light armour means they cannot last long in combat and are very vulnerable to charges, particularly from cavalry."

- In-game Description

History
Skirmishers represent lightly armoured warriors that used aggressive tactics to engage the enemy in melee at short range. Early Gallic warfare seems to have involved a large proportion of swordsmen judging from the archaeological record, which is probably the basis for the Gauls having sword-armed skirmishers rather than spearmen as their basic early-game melee bigade. Unlike in-game though, swords were expensive, suggesting that warfare for the very early Gauls was probably a small-scale affair between wealthy warriors as they would not have been economically strong enough to deploy swordsmen en-masse.

Tactics
Skirmishers are the first melee brigade available to Gallic factions. They require exceptionally few recruits per unit while having a large brigade size and strong stats by light infantry standards, making them clearly the most cost-effective among all the different early-game light infantry types of the various faction groups, which is a notable strength of Gallic factions in the earliest stages of game.

Skirmishers are, however, not likely to do well against the Hoplites of other factions in the mid-game in an even fight, but Gallic players may still be succesful if they can use their superior numbers (due to their cheap cost in both recruits and gold) to outflank the enemy.

Their low recruits per unit and high brigade size also makes Gallic Skirmishers excellent as city garrisons to defend the walls and maintain public order.