Bucelarii

[Laman]

What do you think of these guys. I recently used the two the WRE starts with to aid a city besieged by the Alemanni, in the battle the Alemanni retreated but their spearmen formed a Schiltrom very near the edge of the map, so let my Bucelarii have some shooting practice. They reduced the Spearmen faster than I expected. But are they useful in other circumstances?

Their melee capabilities may be better then standard roman archers, though who isn't? They are stated to be good against armored units, but the angle of fire (like slingers) means they can't sit behind your units. Their cost are the same as Foederati Infantry, so are they useful to train instead of the stable Foederatis? I assume they could be used against enemy Comitatenses and similar, but are they worth it?

[econ21]

Schiltroms get massacred by regular archers too.

I've found bucelarii too fussy to use in general. However, I noticed some AI ones ripped up my 2HP generals. So they might be handy against Sassanid Immortals and other generals' units. They are AP whereas regular archers struggle against armour.

[x-dANGEr]

But AP means that the armor of the enemy is cut to half. Their is a HCav unit that the Eastern Romans have which's armor is 20, cut that to half and it'll be 10, which's still high to our dear archers, who BTW have limited range of fire.

[KrooK]

bucelarii should be in every army - they are good against strongest enemy units - especially generals. their weak point is short range so they should be cowered both by infantry and normal archers

[HalfThere]

Including Bucellarii is difficult to do well. You have to give them a good shot: if you do they'll serve you well. However, their slow rate of fire and relatively short range relegates them to a sideshow in most of my battles.

That said, they serve well in bridge battles.

[Garvanko]

Not thaaat useful. Only use them if I need a unit that can sap. Otherwise, there are much better Mercs out there.