History Main / InstantMilitia

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles''. In emergencies, starship crew units can be converted into militia (a weaker version of boarding parties) for combat purposes.
* Mentioned in the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' in-game discussion.
--> Shit, what's scary is that some of these places have security hackers and riggers on duty. Nothing worse than getting a team into a place only to realize there's a spider--a security rigger--who can jump into the security system and "become" the building. A few weeks back I got into a lab full of skillwired grunts and an alarm got set off. While our hacker was fighting through the building's system and the rest of us were trying to deal with the security drones, the damn spider downloaded a new set of skillsofts into the grunts. Transformed the bunch from lab grunts to trained security forces. In a matter of seconds, we had 100-plus orks who suddenly knew a hell of a lot about kicking our asses. Needless to say, we left.

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** Spinoff ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'' has the "Armed Workers" upgrade, which permanently gave miners sixguns and trade zeppelins a twin-linked machine gun.

** ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' introduced Minutemen, who can quickly be rallied to defend in an attack, however have an IncurableCoughOfDeath that drops their HPToOne, and can only be called once without any cards.

** Humans can convert Peasants into Militia that have the same amount of health but more armour, move faster and around the same damage as a Footman; this can only be done at a nearby ([[ObviousRulesPatch starting]]) Town Hall or any Keep or Castle. The effect doesn't usually last long enough to reach an enemy base and do any appreciable damage except at the very beginning of a game.

* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' allows Humans to convert Peasants into Militia that have about the same amount of health but much more armour and around the same damage as a Footman; this can only be done at a nearby Town Hall/Keep/Castle and the effect doesn't usually last long enough to reach an enemy base and do any appreciable damage. Meanwhile, Orcs can garrison peons into burrows and turn food buildings into temporary towers and the Undead actually use their basic fighters as lumber harvesters so Undead bases almost always have militia present. As for the Night Elves, their [[WhenTreesAttack buildings]] can defend themselves.
** The Night Elf [[WillOTheWisp wisps]] can also use their suicidal [[SuicideAttack Detonate]] ability to damage summoned units and drain {{Mana}} from heroes and spellcasters.

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' can usually garrison villagers inside buildings (especially town centres) and let them fire out of them. The third game also lets you hire minutemen. The "sappers" upgrade is also a specialized version: It gives villagers a quite nasty attack bonus against buildings.

** The Warchiefs expansion for ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'' adds the Revolution feature, which irreversibly turns all your settlers into colonial militia.
*** Also for [=AoE3=]: There is a town center function that lets you summon instant militia from it (they count as population but don't convert from peasants) and have an IncurableCoughOfDeath that drops their HPToOne. There's also a Home City card that lets you use a second wave with the same effect. However these "Town Militia" are different from the Colonial Militia you get through a Revolution post Warchiefs as the Colonial variant doesn't lose hitpoints outside of combat.

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' allows the Norse to turn Peasants and Dwarves into Ulfsarks. Because they're Vikings you know. Also the "worker unit" abilities are split between units, Peasants and Dwarves gather resources, while combatant infantry build.
** Also, Ragnarok immediately makes all your peasants and dwarves special "Heroes of Ragnarok" for free. Either a "panic button" or a GameBreaker.

** In the expansion, the Atlantean civilization can permanently turn any human unit into a hero for a cost, including their worker unit, the Citizen. Hero Citizens aren't that great at fighting anything but myth units, so they are mostly helpful as a defense in case a large army of myth units attacks your town, but they do have the benefit of being slightly more efficient workers

* One Wermacht tactical doctrine in ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' has them mount machine guns on all their production structures (research buildings and headquarters are SOL).

* The Vinci of ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'' have a "Prototype" (a trio of instant research options, selecting from an irreplaceable EliteMook, a buff to their basic infantry, or an economy booster, such as a [[MundaneUtility tireless clockwork miner]]) that gives their basic miners and trade dirigibles guns; a six-shooter and a twin-linked machine gun respectively.

** The Orks take the [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Night Elf route]], as almost all their buildings have point defence weapons mounted on them. They also have invisible Grots.. but they're probably the most pitiful fighters in the game.

** This is done away in the sequel, where Rohan and Gondor are merged into the Men of the West, and Gondor's foot soldiers take the infantry slot, while the Rohan are relegated into cavalry (Rohirrim being superior to the Gondor knights).

* In ''VideoGame/BattleForMiddleEarth II,'' all factions get an archer's tower (or axe throwers for the dwarves) on level 3 buildings.

* In ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander2,'' the Cybrans have a research option that slaps a laser gun on their Engineers.

* The Vinci of ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'' have a "Prototype" (a trio of instant research options, selecting from an irreplaceable EliteMook, a buff to their basic infantry, or an economy booster, such as a [[MundaneUtility tireless clockwork miner]]), gives their basic miners and trade dirigibles guns; a six-shooter and a twin-linked machine gun respectively.