True, but you'll want that for any camps you can lay down anyway.
I'm just saying that a lot of people forgo Archery. I don't.
I'm huge on archers. The AI has a very tough time dealing with the innate city defense/hills bonus. An AGG leader can compound the axeman's melee bonus with shock to overcome a majority of a defensive axeman's bonuses. However, the cover promotion does not make up for enough of the archer's bonuses (especially in a city on a hill).
Really, if you work the numbers, though, it probably works out to be the same. However, archers are a chunk cheaper.
In this particular case though the defending axes would be AGG, also camp resources are probably the most rare for a starting area and your pretty unlikely to come across them without wandering into jungle or tundra which many people like to avoid very early on.
Put them anywhere that you don't want the enemy in CA brigades with spearmen and pikemen- generally, on your gold/iron mines, towns and stuff, and they will work wonders
Rule one of everything - never use one specialist to do a job against someone who could be anything. Take along some spears and pikes, and try the defense again. Also, the AI is not bad enough to be negligable, especially not the barbarians (they are nasty and kill and raze everything)
To me this seems insane, the sheer amount of maintenance such a massive defensive army would require would be crippling so early. Active defenses done by axes/chariots/spears attacking enemy units tends to be far more efficient than large standing archers armies. Also consider that after defending the axes can then go and attack something.
Against barbs simply moving an axe into defensive terrain such as a forest or hill or behind a river next to the bar is usually enough to kill it.
Also if you have such defenses defending resources whats left to defend your city against AI civs?
You want your axes to move on and fight on another front while the bowmen form a militia and hold the city until the enemy are forced to pull out of the theatre
Well this is primarily an argument for archers not specifically bowmen, and I find if i move forward I can leave behind a wounded axeman as a temporary garrison, if the attack goes horribly wrong and you need that last axeman to take the city you'll appreciate him being there.
For a more permanent garrison I usually whip whatevers handy maybe an axe or archer doesn't really matter then
Those two are almost the two most no-brainer techs - city defense from the archer and counter-mounted weapons from spearmen - plus fur and deer resources.
The reason you build it is not against an axe, except that when defending a city you want first-strikes and it's basically an axeman with those - which is pretty useful. Plus, it needs no resources, so can be raised in colonies before they are connected up to the grid.
If your sitting in a city waiting to be attacked they'll simply pillage everything, if you defend all your resources you won't be able to have a garrison large enough to stop anything but the most laughable of stacks. The outcome of both of these situations doesn't often end well for the turtle.
Again the no resources argument is just an argument for archers, and a bowman is not incredibly better than one of those.
A lot of people on the forums forgo archery for a long time, preferring axeman and spear men to defend (as with a stack of these, there is no counter IE an axeman attacks the city, the axeman defends (and usually wins thanks to defense bonuses, a chariot attacks the city, the spear defends).
To be totally honest as a chariot receives no defensive bonuses against axes, and roads give axemen two moves then, axemen tend to defend against chariots just fine in a considerable proportion of cases, as you will often get to make the attack attack in within your borders.
The are a few here who advocate no hunting at all for a long time as a source of extremely cheap MPs post monarchy (warriors)
As Iranon already mentions the bowman only seems worthwhile as a backup, desperate defender that your really don't need unless you have no metals. It really isn't a whole lot better than a regular archer, especially compared to an AGG axe that you could be building (assuming metals).
If it started with combat 1 I quite likely would use it though