Infantry Question

[JeromeBaker]

I am very infantry focused. Who in your opinion has the best overall infantry for:

1. Best overall from start to finish of the game with economics included. Whoever takes the vote here quite possibly might have poor elite troops, but a very affordable contingent of troops to build powerful armies with.

2. Best top/elite units to build an amazing army late in the game if money was no option. (this is more of what I interested in for my next game)

In looking at the encyclopedia, I am interested to try the Franks, Jutes (has axe wielding units that the Geats didn't have in my first campaign), Ostrogoths (can also use some Roman units), Huns, and the ERE. I have only tried the Geats and WRE so far.

What do you guys think? Do you have a favorite?

My next campaign, I want to put together at least 1 very high end stack of troops focused on infantry. I don't care how expensive it is, I will cheapen other stacks as needed to afford. I plan to use this stack to role play with my favorite faction member/s.....

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

The answer to both would be ROME.

Best early infantry by fa, best elite heavy cavalry and heavy infantry late game - if you can afford them.

[Bramborough]

I've only played the Saxons, so can't compare to others by first-hand experience. But I've been pretty satisfied with their infantry. They start with a primarily spear-based flavor, but soon evolve into a melee-centric composition, supported by still-capable spears and javelins.

The Nordic Spearmen (common among many factions) are decent, affordable, and available early. At the mid-tier level, The Hearth Guards (which I think is faction-specific) are quite good for their upkeep price, while Nordic Warriors are a bit more expensive but not bank-breaking, and have a useful Scare ability. I haven't gotten to top-tier units yet, but the stats on Chosen Warriors, Gesitha, and Nordic Spearmasters look quite good. (Edit: since writing this a couple days ago, the last statement no longer true. An army composed primarily of these 3 units with some Elite Saxon Javelins and Nordic Horse Lords is, well, quite a juggernaut. It's also quite expensive.)

As far as missile support, Saxons are woefully bereft of archers, but have quite a nice selection of javelin units.

Right now, I'm running with mostly-midtier armies that look more or less like this:

1x General (the low/mid bodyguard units aren't particularly noteworthy, but they're not bad either).
4x Nordic Spearmen (provide flank protection vs cavalry)
2x Nordic Warriors (I like to have a couple in the mix for their Scare ability)
4x Elite Saxon Javelinmen
2x Cavalry (whatever I can pick up short-term from the merc pool; I find cavalry just too damn expensive to maintain in the standing armies)
7x Hearth Guards; my main battle line. I would classify them as "Good" overall, but "Excellent" for the price.

At high end, the Nordic Spears and Warriors will upgrade to their Elite versions, while the faction-specific Hearth Guards will upgrade to Gesitha. I don't quite know yet how I will incorporate the Chosen Warrior unit. (Edit: The Chosen Warrior is the apogee of the "Melee-attack-plus-Scare" line, so am using these in lieu of the Elite Nordic Warriors. Likewise, am using Nordic Spearmasters instead of Elite Nordic Spearmen. In both cases, the stats are only slightly improved but still close; the real bonus is some extra useful abilities.)

There's also some Raider units whose chief characteristic is that they like to burn stuff during town/city battles. Which nicely complements the Saxon faction trait of getting extra income from battle damage to settlements. I really haven't experimented with these as much as I should have.

Edit: I had forgotten to mention the Saxon-specific spear line. The Saxon Spearmen are weak (although cheap), I didn't use them much. They upgrade, however, into Elite Duguth Spearmen, who are good quality; stats virtually interchangeable with Elite Nordic Spearmen, at slightly lower cost.

[Oleander Ardens]

The Franks get pretty much the full package when it comes to missile troops as well as IIRC the cheapest garrison troops of the game. The Franciscas are arguably the best anti-infantry precursor missiles in the game and overall their melee infantry is pretty good. They lack true shock troops with might charge, attack and damage but those Franciscas do shocking damage into unshielded troops...

Overall in the campaign I enjoy the Frankish unit rooster very much.