Alan Mercenaries

[BalkanTourist]

I am not even sure if any of the factions can build them. I've seen them in Byz armies though. If they can by build and not only hired, how?
Also what's your opinion on those guys? I thought they were pretty good, but I recently defeated soundly a whole bunch of them with my Avar Nobles. What is their usage? Are they just like Hobilars/Saharan Cavalry/Mounted Sergeants?

[nick_maxell]

Quote[/b] (Czar Ivan Asen II @ April 05 2004,16:45)]I am not even sure if any of the factions can build them. I've seen them in Byz armies though. If they can by build and not only hired, how?
Also what's your opinion on those guys? I thought they were pretty good, but I recently defeated soundly a whole bunch of them with my Avar Nobles. What is their usage? Are they just like Hobilars/Saharan Cavalry/Mounted Sergeants?
check froggies unit guide but I think they are better than mounted seargents but not as good as civ knights( I guess similar to Armenian cav). in 1.1 you can only hire them or bribe them from rebels (inn is building req) - don t know about VI.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

nick

[lancelot]

I would say their closest equivalent are steppe cav but check the stats.

they are a mercenary unit only. trouble is they only show up very occasionally at inns which doesnt see right considering the text says the byzantines considered them the best light cav around-you would think there would be plenty of em

so I modded the game so they can be built in trebizond, georgia, khazar and constantinople.

the are great for a low cost light cav to chase archers

[katank]

they are fairly tough light cav.

don't compare them to knights which are heavy. Definitely don't expect em to stand toe to tow against CK.

Armenian heavy cav is really medium cav and is somewhat comparable to alans.

alans are the fastest cav along with steppe, jinettes, and HAs.

they are closest to steppe although with more morale at 4. the steppe cav is cheaper though and I usually use steppe.

byz start with 1 alan merc and I find it quite useful in chasing down all the routers that result from my byz inf/katank armies' mauling of them.

alan mercs are fast and actually have some lasting power.

thus, one use would be to tie up boyars until some good heavies could be brought to bear on them.

boyars are a major pain being good h2h and HA at the same time. alans help counter that.

[Lord Ovaat]

As KATANK just said, they are better than average, but they ain't knights. Their morale is higher than most cav of their ilk, they are as fast as you can get, and have pretty decent stats. Excellent for running down routers and mounted archers. Yeah, even the Horde's. Same speed. They can't catch them, but the Mongol horse can't get away, either. Will eventually get pinned--and finished off.

[ichi]

My preference is to use Alans as flankers. In SP they can be rare, so I rarely let them go head-on. With their speed and a charge bonus of 6 (which is almost as high as most Knights) Alans can deliver a powerful punch in the rear of the enemy. Lock up the unit on the end of the enemy's flank with a good H2H infantry unit, focus a couple of archers on it, and then run Alans around behind em and smash into their backside = rout.

They are fast enough to harass missile units, but they are light on the armor so they can get shot up pretty fast. The light armor (3) makes them pretty good in the desert.

They start at morale 4 so they work best at V2 and above in MP.

ichi

[PanzerJaeger]

Best light cav in the game, imo. Definately flankers/archer rushers tho. I wouldnt send them vs heavy stuff front on.