macemen vs. crossbowmen

[eldar]

CBs I like because IIRC they can get both City Raider or City Defender - good versatile units. I've not used many macemen, probably because my games where I've done medieval warring, I've had Elephants to hand. Pikes come quite late (Engineering). Eles vs. Spears comes out even-ish, esp with cats.

 

[Shillen]

Elephants are only good for killing knights. Not sure what having elephants has to do with building macemen or not.

 

[IglooDame]

I'd say that if you're playing against the AI and you're mostly defending cities, crossbow/longbow is better, and if you're mostly attacking cities, maceman is better.

Multiplayer, a mix of both is probably best to give you more options when your opponent stubbornly refuses to attack your city head-on and pillages your countryside instead.