The composites don't even have to move on hilly terrain.
Turn 1: Pikes are 2 tiles away, the front line of composites open fire.
Turn 2: Pikes are adjacent to the front line of composites, but are also in range of the second line.
Turn 3: Er... pikes didn't live to see turn 3. Repeat with the next line of pikes.
This all happens before they can inflict a single blow. If you get a complete surround, then you'll get some shots in. But how long is it going to take you to position yourself for that surround in hilly terrain?
Who says I have to charge your archers right away? Maybe I wait until the flankers are in place and then charge. If your archers move in on me, then you're giving up the entire advantage.
If I do charge, then the first group of pikes dies at the feet of your front line, and then the second group moves to the front line fresh, and digs in. Though I'm somewhat skeptical that a comp can kill a pike in three hits if the pike doesn't actually attack them.
If they're fresh unpromoted pikes, and they survive three hits, I might as well recharge them instead of promoting.
Another option would be to just continually move within two tiles, take a hit, and move back to get exp. What's the hurry? Maybe you'll build reinforcements if I wait, but I'm building them faster.
You're the one with the most incentive to charge.
I like Alhambra a lot too, but I'm just going to ignore the Alhambra argument because, again, I don't feel like adding more and more what-ifs and counter what-ifs. The 500 hammers you spent on Alhambra are 500 hammers that I could spend in any number of ways. Same with Medic. Let's be real, those landsknecht are fresh out of the oven with no additional experience other than maybe the +15 from the barracks. It's a zergling rush after all... as you keep saying, you're just sending them off to their deaths, so where'd they find the time to level up?
In a Zergling rush not all of them die. My abusive attitude toward my poor sknekts means that the few who do survive are battle hardened.
Medic is the smart promotion because you can move a medic, and the bonus still applies so long as they end their turn adjacent to the unit that's trying to heal itself.
Of course sknekts are useless alone with no other kinds of armies with them. Assuming a mixed or pure army are both assumptions. If you prefer a pure bow army, then I may assume you'll send a pure bow army. However I certainly don't prefer a pure sknekt army, so assuming I would use one becomes a failed assumption (probably anyone looking for a pure army would hate sknekts.)
The fact sknekts are cheap, means I can apply the hammers I save elsewhere. Maybe instead of a zerg rush, I build a few sknekts and focus on comps just like you, except my comps have melee to block for them.
Kind of like how if gasoline became cheaper, a lot of consumers would spend their money elsewhere.
The one advantage that I accept is that landsknecht are on the natural path to universities. That's why I compare them with composites, since that's only a slight detour from universities, as opposed to crossbows. But if you tech to knights, then all bets are off.
Yeah. I'm a sucker for Alhambra. I'll burn an engineer for Alhambra. I'll even save him for 20 or so turns if I have to. I like having one city that builds super elite soldiers.
But after it's done the age of the sknekt is already beginning to come to a close, so I guess I can't really use that as a sknekt strategy. At that point, if I'm honest, I would probably only build as many sknekts as I plan to promote to Lancers later on.
