Let's have an ambiguous answer!
As I recall from Anaris first implementing looting-based peasant spawns, one of the early issues was their demanding gold. So he implemented the changes you see now. So then I update Citizen Militia and thus you see what you have now. So, it is intentional behavior as-is.
HOWEVER! Perhaps Anaris didn't notice, but Tom had implemented code years before before Tim's peasant changes that would easily allow excluding peasants from militia. It is literally a 4-character change to prevent Peasants from being included in the listed regions (and for generals' disband option, they are not included). If there are no objections, I'd like to switch the Disband page to not include peasant units (and go inspect every other instance of militia to see if it needs updated to include or exclude Peasants).
Peasant units are formed in three ways, to my awareness.
- Angry Peasants - Formed when there are less soldiers in the region than an incoming troopleader and the region hates (or disdains, or is indifferent, it scales and involves randomness) that troopleader's realm. Of the three options, should form the smallest total amount in a region when generated, all else being equal.
- Peasant Mob - Formed when the peasants realize no one is coming to save them from looters and form their own defense. Of the three options, it should form the medium total amount in a region when generated, all else being equal.
- People's Militia - The citizen militia discussed here. Of the three options, it should form the largest total amount in a region when generated, all else being equal.
Considering these are all created in moments of high passion (angry peasants), desperation (peasant mob), and desperation mixed with loyalty (citizen militia), I can't imagine a lord saying 'alright folks, back to the fields!' without considerable force. As it is, they go back to work naturally as no battles occur and their passions cool.
Also, sidenote: militia don't add to region population when disbanded (peasant militia do though). Should they?
