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I recently started a campaign with Dacia, and I have to say that the Drapanai are a very powerful unit. I love these guys. I have been fighting the maks, and Epirus and their Phalanx units no matter how elite they are fall against the Drapanai. I think the only weakness these guys have will be against missle fire. However in hand to hand (including cavalry) they are a powerhouse
Are they? Interesting, because I always thought that due to their low armour they would suffer overly heavy casualties. Even the elite armoured Thraikioi Rhomphaiaphoroi die a little bit faster than I would like them to, with their minuscule shields and 24 defence. Don't you have to merge and retrain the Drapanai quite often?
I'm playing as the Romani currently, so the only way I could get Drapanai is to hire them as mercenaries, which I actually will not, mainly because they are not my type of troops (I like well-armoured units better) and because Druhtiz Basterniska are better (stat-wise).
Its about 50:50 their high skill (I think actually too high for a two handed offensive weapon)
and their high lethality, armour-piercing attack.
Can't fight back when you're dead!
They can have problems if you send them frontally against certain units that have sufficiently high defence.
But who cares if they lose some guys in a frontal attack, they are cheap as chips & available widely :2thumbsup:
Yessir, for a troop type you can recruit from a level 2 MIC, Drapanai are second to none. Lack of armor doesn't hurt them in melee as much as you'd think. . . it does hurt them vs archers every bit as much as you'd think. No armor and no shield makes Jack a dead boy in missile combat. Even those otherwise useless toxotoi will massacre drapanai at range.
... which shouldn't be that much of a problem when facing Hellenic faction, but against Sauromatae... well, things could get very ugly.
Their power just neglects their low armor and lack of shield. Sure they die easly, but when you have two units of these guys hacking away at an elite phalanx unit, the phalanx start droping like flies. Seriously if Im facing an enemy who doesnt have any missle units, or very few an army full of Drapanai is all I'll need.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aemilius Paulus
Drapanai are trully awesome. Quite cheap also, something that makes their usage even more attractive to my northern neighbours... But of course, no naked barbaros can stand against a wall of sarrisai or a well-aimed barrage of missiles!
Maion
I agree, Drapanai are real cool and cutt through soldiers like butter. sadly i can only requit there tracian neighbors, but well i don't complain. In the last few battles I combined them(the tracians, should work with Draps aswell) with hoplites to catch of missiles and some of the blows. It worked out rather well.
Yes, they work even better when something else is fronting the enemy. Late campaigns, I often use the thacian peltasts as my line infantry and drapanai as flankers. Remember, drapanai have a very high charge bonus for infantry, so using them like cavalry (find a flank, then charge) works very well.
They would have to be one of my favourite units - I love all falx unit (particularly the cheaper ones - you throw them up against heavies in hand to hand and they dice the enemy heavy armour up into little bits).