Whats your favourite army to be and why?

[Project Spartan]

Whats your favourite army to be and why?


Personally i love being phalanx armies because its strongly relied on there infantry line (phalanx) Its just so much fun beating the over powered roman armies!

This is my video of Greece destroying romans! haha :) The use of phalanx to hold the enemy back!

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Probably the Scythians and Parthians. I have a severe addiction to cavalry. XD

Horse archers, good heavy cav, good light cav. Good archers are nice too. So probably I prefer Scythia. :D

[ReluctantSamurai]

dbl. post

[ReluctantSamurai]

My favorite army looks like this:

http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...rmenia02-1.jpg

Why? Because I can crush any army any faction decides to throw at it...and that would include an entire army of Spartans (and if you look in the topic where this screenie and others are posted [Cat Power], you'll see that this army stood off FOUR chariot-archer armies in succession on the same turn)

Scythia and Parthia have pretty good horse archers, but they don't stack up to these bad boys....

[Tsar Alexsandr]

You're right about that. The cataphract archers are amazing xD

As Armenia, I'll usually take those into battle instead of cataphracts. The regular kind. Those guys can do a lot of damage!

[ReluctantSamurai]

dbl. post......again.

[ReluctantSamurai]

It's always a good idea to have several "heavy" cats to support the horse archers. While you certainly can go with only cat archers, they don't have the charge bonus that the heavy cats do (3 for cat archers, 15 for the heavy cats). This means it will take longer to break heavy infantry, especially elite phalanx like Spartans, Royal Pike, Silver and Bronze Shields, or Sacred Band, and you will take higher losses.

The one unit that can give heavy cats problems in melee combat are the armored elephants. They are a handful if well led. Better to pepper them from a distance to whittle down their numbers.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

For the price of a few phalanx pikemen, some skirmishers, and some bowmen, you can by an elephant unit lol. So what I'm saying is I don't worry about elephants too much. A balanced army can usually beat em. Or at least get them to run amok.

If I can't afford to bring more cataphracts I'll just use the archers, but you're right the hand to hand ones do their role better. Lots of charge. Brutal maulers lol. Resilient against bows and missiles too.

[Myth]

The lategame versatility of Rome is my preferred choice. Urbans, Pretorian Cav, Archer Auxilia, great temple bonuses, great siege equipment. Although they are so-so in lead battles vs. other humans (unless you abuse urbans) I preffer to have the option to both assault and defend a city, as well as crush most field armies with ease with just one stack. I don't imagine anyone being too pleased by the option to siege assault armoured hoplites and spartans with cav heavy stacks.

[ReluctantSamurai]

my preferred choice. Urbans, Pretorian Cav,

I don't permit any of that in my games, either for the AI or for myself if I play a Roman faction. The Lorica Segmentata did not appear until the time period when RTW campaigns come to an end.

I don't imagine anyone being too pleased by the option to siege assault armoured hoplites and spartans with cav heavy stacks.

Ahhh....but you forget the versatility of the Armenian roster. I have Heavy Spearmen and Armenian Legionnaires backed up by Cretan Archers to do my sieges. My heavy cav armies make sure there is no outside interference while the siege is in place.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

The historical problems of Rome too were powerful cavalry armies like the Parthians. Parthia, and Armenia can field cavalry heavy armies that dominate the Romans on the field of battle.

As always, it's more about who's a better general, rather than who has the best units. Online against a human, playing against Rome is a challenge, but not impossible to win. The AI however, more or less, doesn't stand a chance. Can't compete. Rome is of course, a very powerful faction, but not my favorite. And that's what this post was about, what's your favorite army.

[phred]

I like the mix of units you get with the Seleucids.
Good cavalry, good spears and serviceable archers/peltasts.
They're missing a good low level sword unit, but at higher levels you can recruit their version of the Legionaries.
Pikes can be terrible assaulting walls, but once they get past the walls and onto the streets in phalanx they're nigh unstoppable.
Oh, I almost forgot about the elephants. I don't use them much, but they're marvelous fun.

I think Pontus has a pretty similar mix of units, too. I like a good combined arms army.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

The Seleucids and Pontus are both good factions. I don't like the Seleucid starting position, but if you like the faction enough, easy to overcome that. It is a challenge. But that's what we like in TW games anyhow. :D

I'll just have to try it again sometime.

[phred]

The Seleucids and Pontus are both good factions. I don't like the Seleucid starting position, but if you like the faction enough, easy to overcome that. It is a challenge. But that's what we like in TW games anyhow. :D

I'll just have to try it again sometime.

I just re-installed RTW to play the Seleucids. I'm finally to the point where I've eliminated Egypt, Pontus, Armenia; made peace with Parthia and Numidia; and the Greeks were eliminated by the Scipii. ahhh....blessed peace for the first time since turn 10 or so.
It won't last long. The Romans are on a roll east; it's only a matter of time. Good times ahead. :)

[Tsar Alexsandr]

My favorite Hellenic faction was Macedon lol. I loved beating the Greeks and the Thracians and Dacians for control of Greece, and then, the Brutii... ah Rome... Macedon's non-stop fighting in my experience. No matter who you're playing, you gotta know at some point you'll be contending with Rome. Good luck and enjoy the fun! :D

[Mana Æ Varyl]

Dese Guise



Good V.S. both cav and inf, and they just look epic to me.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Cataphract camels are great lol. Nearly the same price as the regular cataphracts, nearly the same attack and defense too, + a bonus against other cavalry. What's not to love? It's Parthia's insurance that they'll always be able to achieve cavalry dominance. :D

[Empire*Of*Media]

firs of all The Cataphracts In Parthia & Sassanids Because they Have NO EQUAL !! you know better why !
then the Parthian & Kurdish Horse Archer (in Parthia & Sassanids) (Skythia & Sarmatia TOO)!!
and Legion Cohort & Praetorian Guard !!
I dont like the Savages of Ancient Greeks !! (i dont mean now!! i mean Ancient Greece!! or better say after the Christianity of Greece!!)

[flyingeagle]

I have to say that my favorite factions are Pontus, Seleucid Empire, and Carthage.
They have good cavalry, good infantry, and good missile troops as well. Units like Poeni Infantry, Cataphracts, Pontic Heavy Cavalry etc. are the bomb!

[flyingeagle]

Double post, are you serious? -______-

[Tsar Alexsandr]

I didn't get the correlation at first, but you're right. :D

Pontus and the Seleucids are very well balanced. Carthage too. Fun factions. :D

[Myth]

Oh man, if we have to restrict units in RTW because of historical inaccuracy, we might as well not play RTW at all and go for EB. Rome is not that strong in multiplayer, go watch some of The Prince of Macedon's online battles to see how he beats them with Macedon or the Seleucids.

The guy is a douche and he likes posting games versus obviously inferior players, but there are good battles amongst his hundreds of posted videos. The Romans are a pain only if you're having a 30k denarii battle so they can fullstack Urbans and roll you over, but then again if we're abusing like that, someone massing Cataphracts or Cat Archers can win just as well.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Hopefully Rome 2 will be more accurate, but RTW is a brilliant game for what it is. A lot of the mythical units aren't too far fetched either. A friend of mine was telling me that Marcus Aurelius had a pack of dogs he used in battle. (And they were even sculpted in a monument.) So the wardogs were never really... too far fetched. A person could unleash dogs on an opponent.

The Scythian Amazons, I think are totally legitimate. The Briton's head hurlers? Well while they did hurl heads into battle occasionally, a head was a prized trophy and would rarely be used in such a manner. Rome did have gladiators, what was to keep them from making units of them? Nothing really. The Arcani are a bit strange. Roman Ninjas. But I guess we can allow it. I can allow it, they're cool lol.

The strategy is still great, campaign map is good, and obviously it was a classic game. As much as I did like it, I do hope Rome II will be more accurate to history.

[ReluctantSamurai]

The inclusion of "fantasy" units does not bother me in the least.......as long as there is a way to disable the use of such units. I have to admit that even from STW-the original, I would occasionally use fantasy units as a fun diversion from a "serious" campaign. My "bridge-busting" army was a Kensei general and 15 BFN. In a heavy fog, there was no army the AI could amass that could withstand these guys. My "big red guy" could stand on the bridge by himself and smoke a cigar while the BFN chopped the opposition to shreds

Head Hurlers?? With a base missile attack of 17??? Okaaaaay Incendiary Pigs??? There were a few hilarious pics in the photo funnies topic that summed up their inclusion in the game.....Screeching women?? Now what's not to like about a kick-a$$ barbarian woman with an ax in her hand.....but unfortunately the AI spams this silly unit for Germania because they have an AP attack, but with a defense of 1, cavalry run them over without breaking a sweat.

And so on.......

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Head Hurler's attack is really high lol. And armor piercing? Sure it's a big projectile... but to guys in armor, I dunno. Just silly.

I have also seen the AI spam screeching women lol.

Flaming pigs lol. I've seen a few people bring those into multiplayer battles and I always wonder why a person would bring them lol.... they are cheap though.

[Myth]

Personally I could live with dogs, gladiators and amazon women, but incendiary pigs are just too much.

I'm also rather dismayed at the lack of cultural diversity for Thrace, and their appalling lack of cavalry.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I'm also rather dismayed at the lack of cultural diversity for Thrace

This extends to rather lame temple choices, as well. Combined with having only Greek Cavalry available, they are the two reasons I dislike playing Thrace. Love the Bastarnae, but those guys are available as mercs, so I can have my cake and eat it too

[DarkKrusty]

I like the seleucids on rome most. They have good Foot troops and Good Use of Cav, Not to mention their locations give them access to a good supply of Horse Archer mercs if the situation is needed for them

[GigeliusMinimus]

So far I've only played as the Julii in RTC and as Gaul in Extended Cultures for a bit. The Roman army became really boring after I got all the good units. Not a lot of tactical options. The Celtic army was much more colorful and interesting. Well this was also thanks to the much more interesting array of units XC has to offer compared to RTC.

Now I am playing Carthage on an overhauled version of RTW I made myself. So far the only thing I've changed about troops is their numbers and I made mercenaries recruitable in their respective areas at specific buildings. I made the numbers XC-like with slight variations. I've found that Carthage's army sucks big time except for the sacred band and elephants. Still, using mercs I was able to add a lot of variety to my army and this gave me countless tactical options and allowed me to face the Romans straight on, even with just small elephants. All the variety and tactical possibilities have clearly made this army my favorite so far :D

EDIT: Oh yeah. I guess my ideal army for Carthage would be comprised of sacred band, armored elephants, sacred band cavalry, Rhodean slingers / Cretan Archers, all about 4 units each, some Poeny spearmen and general. But then again the ideal army could look very different depending on what you're up against.

[Farid]

10 heavy infantry
3 archers
5 Heavy cavarly
and 2 Siege machines