Best mercenery Unit

[tibilicus]

What do you think is the best mercenery unit? Personly i think cretan archers ~;) :bow: :bow: :bow:

[The Stranger]

sarmatian mercenary knights

[Siris]

I've killed so many samilte guys, Cretan's have to get my vote on this one. I love those green fella's! They kill Roman archers so nicely. :charge:

[The Stranger]

not samnite but sarmatian

[Dude_uk]

War Elephants. I kept a unit of them for 50 years as the Juli just to have the upper hand once the civil war started ~D

[Siris]

What did they do when the war started, keel over & die at age 70 or so?!

I'd imagine that they would have been around 20 when they were trained, so around 70 or so when the war started, if it started 50 years later.... lol!!!

[mfberg]

Scythian horse archers

[Beefy]

Mercenery Hoplites,

Lovley when defending cities, espically against elephants

[Dude_uk]

What did they do when the war started, keel over & die at age 70 or so?!

I'd imagine that they would have been around 20 when they were trained, so around 70 or so when the war started, if it started 50 years later.... lol!!!

They were living through their second childhood at the time ~;)

I must have had some merc warbands under arms for 100+ years in some of my campaigns! And there was me thinking people died younger in those days! LOL!

[Romeus Petrus]

My vote goes to the cretan Archers Playing as the greeks, they are your best chance against the pharoe's bowmen and other over powered archers who would otherwise wreak havoc on your densely packed phalanges.

[tibilicus]

:bow: I even love the cretan archers so much i would send a little ferry to create hire a load and send them to disperse along my armies. I think that by the end of my campaign there were createn archers as far out as briton !

[HarunTaiwan]

Illyrians & Thracians - they are cheap and good

[The Stranger]

bastarnae mercs are good too

[Arrowhead]

Spanish Mercs.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Cretans, sarmatians, scythians, merc hoplites, merc war elephants, balearic/rhodian slingers and bastarnae. I can't really choose... Early in the game, merc hoplites, slingers, scythians and sarmatians own, while cretans can be crucial battle-winners. A little later, cretans and sarmatians are good. Very late, the cretans aren't as superior any more, at least if Egypt and any of the barbarian factions are still around. The bastarnae are always good but less so late in the campaign. Their vulnerability to missiles makes them less interesting after 230 BC though IMO. War elephants are the only merc that can still be better than "home-made" troops late in the campaign.

[Craterus]

I like Yubtseb Elephant Mercs, lol ~D

My favourites are Scythian Horse Archers, Sarmatian Mercs, Bastarnae Mercs, Rhodian Slingers and Cretan Archers.. I have at least one of these in most armies.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Cretan Archers and Sarmation Cavalry, although at times the hoplites are far more effective.

[Craterus]

Cretan Archers and Sarmation Cavalry, although at times the hoplites are far more effective.

At times regarding foolish cavalry ? ~;) :bow:

[cunctator]

Spanish mercs, cretan Archers and hoplites in this order. For me pila infantry is the most versatile unit type in RTW.

[Somebody Else]

I have to say, in terms of usefulness, war elephants - when a faction can't usually get them, they're excellent - mobile battering rams for to break gates, palisades, formations...

When playing as the British, any form of cavalry mercenary is much appreciated.

Non-horse archer nations also benefit from sarmation mercs, as well as those camel riding types.

Basically, I see whichever mercenaries that don't come with the faction I'm playing as better than those that do.

[Dutch_guy]

cretans and bastarnae

[Sas_Legion]

I have to say, in terms of usefulness, war elephants - when a faction can't usually get them, they're excellent - mobile battering rams for to break gates, palisades, formations...

When playing as the British, any form of cavalry mercenary is much appreciated.

Non-horse archer nations also benefit from sarmation mercs, as well as those camel riding types.

Basically, I see whichever mercenaries that don't come with the faction I'm playing as better than those that do.
you beat me first ~;) I agree with you about filling tha gaps in the millitary sides .. Imagine you are playing aginst Armenians and u cann't caatch those nasty H.A , I think mercenery H.A best counter for them and go on ... :charge:

[phred]

I haven't met a mercenary I didn't like. ~:)
But I always hire calvalry mercs.

[Kraxis]

For looks I absolutely love the Samnites, and with a few upgrades and a good commander they make for a nice addition to almost any army.

Cretans are perfect for most eastern factions as they lack the long range archery on foot to deal with rebels and Egyptians. And they are in general just good, so I try to grab them whenever I can. Not unusual for me to have 3 units in my main armies, sometimes 4-5.

But in terms of pure effectiveness it simply has to be the Scythians. They are weaker than the other regular horse archers but a few upgrades makes them good enough, and they make perfect additions to all armies but the Scythian, Armenian and Parthian armies. A few horse archers can ruin the day for any enemy.

The Illyrians are the game's only semi-elite skirmishers (Merc Peltasts and Heavy Peltasts we can argue about). I love to have them in my army. Nice javelin attack and a strong melee that can beat any other skirmisher in the game, even a few melee units. Sadly they are in rather short supply unlike the Merc Peltasts that can be used in a similar role (just not as effectively).

But even the lowly Barbarian Mercenaries are a good catch early in hte game. They numbers and strength makes them great at holding the flanks while your legionaries or other heavy infantry break the center.

All in all, the only mercs I generally keep away from would be the Libyan Mercs (crap skirmishers) and the Beduin Warriors (camels warriors). They let me down almost every time... Well not the Libyans as it is to be expected that even peasants can beat them up pretty easily.

[The Stranger]

most eastern merx are crap, exept eles, cilisians and camel archers

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

I like the barbarian mercenaries myself. They basically make up my northern army in my Julli campaign i'm playing and they can be quite effective once they have some battle experience.

The elephants are great as always. I sent a captain down to africa to hire a unit of them to bring them back to spain where i was fighting the Iberians. They were vital battle winners ~D

[Craterus]

most eastern merx are crap, exept eles, cilisians and camel archers

Arab cavalry are a good eastern cavalry... and scythian horse archers.. ~;)

[Mikeus Caesar]

Bastarnae Mercs, they are great for carving up enemy. I kept a unit for 200+ years, they killed thousands of barbarians and rebels, until they met the forces of the julii. 500+ romans killed, before the bastarnae were killed.

Cretan Mercs. Mainly because they are great arhcers, and make up for the pitiful archers that most greek factions in the region get.

[Gladius of Germania]

Thracians

[Quietus]

Mercenary Hoplites. They are essential to the center of my formation - in keeping it together.

I use three units for my center to protect my archers. One of those is ideally a Mercenary Hoplites (which I put right smack in the middle).

[tibilicus]

Any on ever tried what i call a mercenay march? Get about 4 generels and send them of recruting mercenerys. Bye the time im done i had enough mercenrys to take Rome. 3 full stacks of them to be presise. Bet that really made the senate mad noing that Rome fell not even to romans lol.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Cavalry- Sarmatian Mercenaries
Infantry- Bastarne Mercs
Archers- Creteans

[_Aetius_]

Thank god for mercenarie's! what state would my frontier's be in without those guy's! ~:cheers: anyway.

I think Spanish Merc's are brilliant pretty handy in melee which is alway's good, Illyrians are very useful as are Thracian's and to a greater extent Bastarnae Merc's. Samnite's are decent to.

Cavalry wise, Sarmatians and Scythians Horse archer's, I tend to find a use for most merc's, usually I just put them in fort's on my more hostile frontier's but the Sarmatian cavalry are alway's part of my main field armie's.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I like the barbarian mercs as well. If you have a solid and fearless center, such as armored hoplites and Spartans you can hold the enemy against your lines and flank with the barbarians. Then when they run away your center will hold most, if not all, of the enemy army and the mercs will reform to charge again and again.

[The Stranger]

well mercs are only good if they're combined with other normal troops, cause most armies of mercs only suck bigtime

[The Stranger]

sarmatians are the bomb for cavalry less factions like thrace, greece, spain, brittain and rome in it's early days

[Kraxis]

Actually I don't find the Eastern Mercs to be too bad. They have saved my rear-end several times.
Sure they will get beaten up by most enemies, but normally it will take a while. That can spell the difference between victory and defeat. They simply add numbers, and that can do a lot I have found out. Of course I'm talking about early game. Late game you should have enough of your own troops around, or better mercs.
I have actually found as the Seleucids that the EMs are nice for taking walls as you lack proper infantry for the job, and the other eastern factions tend to jam the walls with archers and skirmishers making battering down walls an expensive chore. Let the EMs take a losses and clear the walls for your phalanxes. So what if 90% of them died or routed... They did what they were paid for.

I tend to stay clear of Scythia, it is a place calling for trouble if you enter. Send and army and the Scythians will attack behind you and harry you untill your army is depleted and far from home.
No I stop at Armenia and place a nice large army of horse archers (mercs), Sarmatians and some foot archers as well as a few phalanxes to keep the axemen at bay. Hasn't failed me yet, though I must admit that I have lost a lot of merc horse archers to their attacks. But hey... at least my land was safe and generating lots of cash.

[Mr Frost]

well mercs are only good if they're combined with other normal troops, cause most armies of mercs only suck bigtime
With a single Family Member you can raise an army made entirely of Samartians and Sythians that can defeat anything it meets .

You can make a ballanced mercenary army in Asia Minor from Merc Haplites , Thracians , Rhodians , Cretans , Barbaian Infantry and Cavalry and Suthian Horse Archers that can handle most threats , especially if you use them as your internal security force {killing rebel/bandit armies} to raise the experience levels .

Numidians are always first class even late in the game and go nicely with a Steppe army {or any other} .

[Watchman]

No such thing as a "best" merc unit. A merc unit is "good" if it's useful and actually *available* to you in the context of your current campaign situation. Even basically crap units like Eastern Mercenaries or Barbarian Mercenaries are quite good enough at times, and far better than any elephant or Cretan could be - simply by the virtue of being available, capable of plugging a hole in the battle-line or serving as a flank guard, and being cheap and cheerful enough that you can throw them into combat without worrying too much about casualties.

The crappy but cheap and ubiquitous Eastern Mercs, for example, make right fine second-line reserves for early Seleucid phalanx masses. Thracians or Bastarnae can certainly fit the bill a lot better and are more generally useful, but that's kind of irrelevant when you're fighting the Egyptians around the Sinai and need more troops now instead of twenty turns in the future.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Any on ever tried what i call a mercenay march? Get about 4 generels and send them of recruting mercenerys. Bye the time im done i had enough mercenrys to take Rome. 3 full stacks of them to be presise. Bet that really made the senate mad noing that Rome fell not even to romans lol.

Not deliberately, but once I didn't want to retreat and await reinforcements, so I hired all mercs I could get in two provinces over 2 turns, and got a full army (I also had some earlier mercs and some regular troops with them). Most mercs were crappy ones like different types of javelinmen, but combined with the good troops I could use the crappier mercs well. The tactic was to make the skirmishers skirmish and pin. If the enemy ran after them, then they just chose to skirmish. If the enemy ran after the flanks of my better troops while they were fighting against enemies in front of them, I'd charge the crappy troops for temporary pinning to keep the enemy busy until my best troops were finished with their work and could be moved to another part of the battlefield and help pinning troops. It worked well, and I'm not sure I'd have been that successful without the crappy mercs, who were excellent at drawing attention and, if/when necessary, pinning the enemy. However I very seldom hire mercs to fill out spots and to get "pinners". Only if I have plenty of cash, or if I'm playing the seleucids, with so many fronts that they have problems filling the ranks. Usually I hire the mercs only for their special abilities.

[Kraxis]

Actually I made a similar move to the 'Merc March'. For many years I had been consolidating my domains in Asia Minor by hiring mercs of all kinds. My main armies were south in the recently conquered Egyptian lands keeping a watch on the Numidians.
Anyway I noticed the Scipii had about 6 stacks of mixed troops in Corinth and was laying a massive punch onto the Greeks and Macedonians (the Brutii stepped in and took them as protectorates shortly thereafter). Being Seleucid myself I found that I couldn't let the inevitable happen and so massed my mercs and surplus family members, sprinkled them with Silver Shield pikes and elephants and a few cataphracts and bam, little more than 3 full stacks of nice troops.

Interestingly the Scipii weren't too keen on going to war with me, so they let me sit and occupy about half of Corinth's province (in fact it looked a lot like a trench war with us having a line from the mountains down to the Spartan border).
When the action finally got on I crushed them with my mercs, and at the same time I sort of weeded out the weak mercs. Lost lots of Thracians and Barbarians, but that was ok.

[_Aetius_]

Actually I don't find the Eastern Mercs to be too bad. They have saved my rear-end several times.
Sure they will get beaten up by most enemies, but normally it will take a while. That can spell the difference between victory and defeat. They simply add numbers, and that can do a lot I have found out. Of course I'm talking about early game. Late game you should have enough of your own troops around, or better mercs.
I have actually found as the Seleucids that the EMs are nice for taking walls as you lack proper infantry for the job, and the other eastern factions tend to jam the walls with archers and skirmishers making battering down walls an expensive chore. Let the EMs take a losses and clear the walls for your phalanxes. So what if 90% of them died or routed... They did what they were paid for.

Ive found some use for EM lately, im playing the realism mod as the Macedonians, and I find EM's are the perfect cannon fodder in siege's to, there also handy when flanking the slow moving phalanx's im encountering in Asia Minor.

I'm also finding in most of my western field armie's I have more Illyrian's and Basternae and also Sarmatian's in my army then I do Macedonian's and in the east more Cretan archer's, Sarmatians, Rhodian's and even some Arabs than Macedonian's. If it wasnt for mercenarie's I'd never of been able to consolidate my conquest's in Asia Minor and also I wouldnt have been able to launch the devestating raid's Ive been making into the Ptomeliac Empire's territory. Thank's to my taking the Crimea from rebels, I have access to as many Sarmatian horse archer's as there are available.

It's standard practise by me now to hire mercenarie's I must have 2000 Illyrian's and Basterae altogether. They account for a large percentage of my expenditure but without Mercenaries there's no way I'd have so many high quality troop's free to launch raid's and make conquest's.

[cunobelinus]

Bastarnae Mercs, Rhodian Slingers and Cretan Archers,spanish mecenries but my favourite is bastarnae they are amazing there stats are good and they are powerful there swords and hats make them look scary and amazing
but dont u think it would be amazing to have beserkers u could recruit or foresters but i spose that wouyld be annoying!! ~D ~:confused: sorry tlkin crap again :embarassed: :embarassed:

[Craterus]

sorry tlkin crap again :embarassed: :embarassed:

Yep, that's right you are. j/k but I agree with you about Cretan Archers and Rhodian Slingers..
Bastarnae Mercs are a bit overpriced especially considering the Thracian version is better stats and cheaper. 1700 for Bastarnae Mercs is a bit overpriced. However, 700 (1000 less!!) for Thracian Mercs is a great deal, as is 400 for Barb Cavalry Mercs..

[Kraxis]

Thracians better compared to Bastarnae? ~:joker:

There is something you have misunderstood.
Thracians: 10 attack and 6 charge, 6 def. 4 morale
Bastarnae: 11 attack and 7 charge, 8 def. 8 morale

To that comes the 2 HP of the Bastarnae, meaning they can suffer a killing blow and still survive. Just like Gladiators and Spartans (to name a few).

Besides where have you gotten Thracians for 300, I can only see them costing 700.

[Craterus]

700 is correct. Sorry

I'm saying that Thracians are better for the money, IMO.

Thanks.

[Drake22]

numidian mercs, and cretans.

[jsteph]

First post, but yesterday I had Rhodes go rebel on me. So I sent my people, with man units of heavy Roman Cavalry, legionaire cohorts. They marched out three groups of silver sword, gold shield Rhodian Slingers.

I thought wow those Rhodians sure are far from their main line. Send in the cavalry, which then after making contact turned tale and ran as fast as they could. So i sent in the Cohorts, they also ran, I was like WTF is this, I have never seen this before. It took 2 full stacks to take out thier one stack because of those guys. Talk about overpowered. Once I was able to widdle their slingers down, the rest were cake, but dang those slingers.

I will be trying to recruit some myself now.

[Craterus]

Wilkommen, welcome to the org jsteph ~:wave:

[Kraxis]

Don't expect normal Rhodians to be that good, they are good mind you but not like that.
Treat them like you would your 'crownjewels', use them as best you can, but don't let any harm come to them, for that hurts like ****!

[Wishazu]

i love the cretan archers, very powerfull unit early in the game and never becomes obsolete, also if im campaigning in africa i`ll get a few libyans to help deal with ele`s.

[_Aetius_]

I guess it depends who you go that determines if a mercenary unit is expensive or not, if you go the greeks or macedonians they are usually incredibly rich so 1700 for Bastarnae isnt so bad if your the dacians or other nearby barbarian factions then 1700 denarii is to much and Thracians will have to suffice.

Bastarnae are worth the cost though I think, id rather spend money on them and let them occupy forts and ambush positions on the frontiers than have much more useful and important troops playing frontier duty instead of campaigning like they should be. I have thousands of Thracians Bastarnae and Illyrians sitting in forts and in mountain passes whilst my Phalanxs are off crushing yet another enemy in a far more important part of the map. Its expensive but by releasing your proper armies to go on campaign it proves worthwhile. ~:cheers:

[MajorFreak]

on the Bastarnae note: I've taken to the habit of playing with the HUGE unit scale. This allows me to play around with the export_txt file thingie and halve the soldier number and double the health/hitpoints, especially for mercenaries. (this has the nice touch of lowering deaths from charges and such)i'm using the CVP and BUGFIXER (cvp superceding), plus Ballistas of Dumbo slaying, 4turns/year and the Vlarge campaign map that goes east.You should see my berserkers! lol I think they're 10 soldiers and 8hps each.


Mercenary March + General Bribe: ever sent a diplomat and a spy out to recruit a decent foreignor? And have him recruit a horde of really nice mercs? It's pretty funny to see your main empire and waaaaaaaaay over there you've got so-and-so and his city of mercs

[Zatoichi]

Well, ever since downloading Warspite's 'de-greened' mercenary skins, I find I hire them all, just to look at how nice they look zoomed in during a battle... Sad, yes, but fun all the same.

However, I like having the hoplite mercs when playing as the Romans, especially since they lack anti-cav troops early on, and they're also handy at pinning oposition phalanxes during fights with the Greeks. I guess the Cretan archers give you more bang for your buck over all though - why bother pinning the phalanx when you can decimate it completely with Cretans?

Now if only there was a way of replenishing your mercenary unit losses by hiring replacements at the same time you hired whole new units of mercs...

[Somebody Else]

Something I noticed the other day, pretty obvious I suppose... Rhodians and Balearics are absolutely devestating when defending stone walls. Pretty handy elsewhere too, though in field battles I prefer Cretans, or normal faction archers...

[Paul Peru]

Urban Foresters!
:dizzy2:
no, wait....

Elephants! :charge:
I really, really need them to do a bit of cohort-trampling on those post-marian romans.
I'm playing Pontus with SPQR mod, btw.

Generally, it depends on what you need to fill out your own faction's weaknesses. I needs them elephants.

[eyez00]

Best Merc unit available are ELEFANTS and you'll KNOW Why they're the best if you ever get chance to fight them or WITH them!!

But finding an Elefant unit aint easy! i've only ever got one unit to enlist, in the wastes of N.Africa.

2nd Best are Balearic Slingers, ‘cos they have vast ammo supplies & rarely if ever rout. Just set them to skirmish on Loose formation & tell ‘em to Attack & they’re happy just slinging away until the end of the battle/unit they’re aimed at.

Even charging Elefants don’t get ‘em routing. They (The Balearic Slingers) fall back & back & back & take the Elefant/HeavyCav/Chariot unit with 'em!

Plus I like the way they say “SLING-ERS” whenever you click on them!

Btw Balearic Slingers are available from the Balearic Island(s) west of Spain.

Imho :bow:

[Craterus]

Balearic Slingers are also available in central Spain.

[Colovion]

Cavalry- Sarmatian Mercenaries
Infantry- Bastarne Mercs
Archers- Creteans

exactly

[Craterus]

I think I'd agree with that too with maybe elephants and rhodians as well.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Yeah, I always get some elephants before I invade Scicily as the Seluecids. It just makes the romans a whole lot easier to bgeat.

[Marquis of Roland]

Yes, elephants are the best. They have big feet. ~:cheers:

[Craterus]

And big tusks which are great for smacking legionaries around.

[dismal]

Plus I like the way they say “SLING-ERS” whenever you click on them!

The Cilician pirate mercs say: "AARRRRR"

[Craterus]

Cretan Archers sound like northerners when you click on them.
No offence intended if you are from the north, I know of some members here who are, I just wouldn' expect some Greeks to sound like that.