I wanted to stress that both were fully civilian troops. Neither really had any endurance training, nor fighting drills to learn how to fight in formation, how to handle their weapon, etc.
Likewise, the medieval city would be a place of a decent amount of middle class people who did have their own armor and weapons, helping during defense of the town (when it's under siege) or keeping the order (various guard duties). For the purpose of the game, it's these who stand up and defend the city. Though yes, the term peasant does seem to be tied to living in the countryside so "civilians" would have been a better wording on my part.
I had to look up the precise definition of 'peasant' myself to be sure the 'accepted' definition was accurate.
One more thing about the Hoplite, though. Although technically they are indeed, 'militia', it was your Civic Duty as a Hoplite to train yourself in the use of the Hoplon shield and Xyton spear, because the shield protected the man on your left as well as yourself and being inept with it was letting down your neighbor and fellow-tribesman. There were even
gymnasiae (exercise yards/halls) that specialized in weapons training for the Gentlemen Farmers (land owners) that made up the 'Hoplite' class.
You are absolutely right, though, that the defining nature of Militia - lack of unit training - characterized all the Hoplites, with the notable exception of the Spartans, who were full-time warriors and did perform and practice Unit Drill.
Other 'reasonably good with their weapons' Militia would include the horse-archer nomads, since every adult and teen-age male in those societies rode and practiced mounted archery (since that was how they protected their flocks and herds from animal predators) from childhood, and the various 'peasant militia' of early Medieval Europe, like the Saxon Fyrd or the Carolingian Miles. Those relied on a system where X number of families had to provide a man when called for by the king, and that man armed appropriately. The Fyrd candidate, for instance, had to have a metal-tipped spear and shield of wood or cow leather (sheep leather was too thin to protect against arrows) as a minimum, and enough food to keep him with the army for at least 3 months. He was expected to know how to use the spear, but I have not seen any source that says how this was measured or any kind of formal training.
By the High Middle Ages (+1250 CE, approximately) virtually every city in Europe had some kind of City Guard or Watch, again composed originally of 'volunteers' from the merchant class and their apprentices. Some of these, at least, did Unit Drill as well as individual weapons training, and so could be, in the right circumstances, very effective. Prime example is the Battle of Courtrai in 1302 CE between militia from Flanders' cities and French knights. The cities being very rich from the cloth trade, the militia wore link mail armor and had trained as pikemen. When the knights tried charing through a marsh to get at the pikemen, they got themselves bogged down and were massacred. The battle is sometimes called "Battle of the Golden Spurs" because afterwards the militia hung up 700 pairs of spurs in the cathedral, spoils from knights who were too dead to need them any more.
This City Militia didn't last long as a prime combat force, though: by the late 15th century the cities were discovering that it was more cost-effective to keep your apprentices and merchants working and paying taxes and hire professional mercenaries to do the fighting - men who made a living at fighting and so were much better at it, and better trained for it.
I have long thought that the proper division of Units was not only by weapons type, but primarily between those who were 'part-time soldiers' (militia) and Professionals. That
Humankind appears to be implementing just such a distinction, even if only for certain specific Unit Types, is very encouraging.
But I really hope than you will reconsider the +2 Strengh for Naval Units for Norse. It's look like a common cliché about Norse naval engineering.
