What's your favorite Total War unit of all-time?

I started thinking about this, and it's hard to say (especially since my memory is a bit gone from the older ones).

I think first I have to narrow it down to my choice for the best unit in each game (I'm going to include expansions with the mother game for the sake of simplicity).

• Shogun: Kensei

Probably the most ridiculous unit in TW history but still awesome and really fun. I loved making custom battles of big armies vs. just a few vetted Kensei.

Runner up: Battlefield Ninja. They're ninjas. They threw ninja stars and shredded in melee. Awesome.

• Medieval: Viking Berserkers

Viking Beserkers dude...they're Viking Beserkers! What else is there to discuss?

Runner up:Varangian Guard. Incredible melee unit that I recall being unmatched in the early period of the game.

• Rome: Spartan Hoplites

This is an extremely easy choice. I don't recall anything even coming close to them in the game. They seemed almost invincible. It's too bad their uniforms sucked in the game.

Runner up: Legionary Cohort. Probably my favorite "standard" unit of any TW game. The awesome uniforms, the javelins, testudo ability. They're the iconic Roman infantry and they captured that perfectly in RTW.

• Medieval II: Ritterbruder

Coolest knight unit of either Medievals. And there are a lot of armored horsemen between those two games, so that's saying a lot.

Runner up: Reiters. I'll never forget how deadly these things were in my HRE campaign. More than that they were just really cool and very fun to watch. It felt like something out of the 17th centiry had crept its way into a Medieval game.

• Empire: Walloon Guards

Most of the guards have comparable stats but the Walloons are the ones I did the most fighting with and I've seen kick the most ass, so I'll give it to them.

Runner up(s): Native American unique units from Warpath. I can't pick just one. They were all really, really cool looking and detailed and were an absolute blast to use. I didn't exactly play the crap out of Warpath but the awesome units gave me my money's worth for sure.

• Napoleon: Old Guard

While not as ridiculously godlike as the Spartans in Rome, this is definitely the first time since Rome where there's a unit in the game which is unarguably superior to everything else. It puts other guard units to shame and can rout entire lines just by running across them from left to right. Also they have big fuzzy hats and snazzy uniforms.

Runner up: Cuirassiers. I like any unit in NTW that wears the Alexander-style helmet so I just sort of picked this one out of a hat. Heavy cavalry seems to have had a great sense of style in that period.

Right now I'd have to say Old Guard. But while I'm very aware it just might be the newness of NTW making me say that, I'll settle on a tie between Old Guard and Ritterbruder.

How about you?

One word sums up Total War for me.

Thousands and thousands of red, thousands of thousands of blue. green and purple Hastati.

Hastati are the best unit ever, in anything. Thats why I love my avatar so much.

I liked the M2TW fuedal foot knights. Those guys were so effective and versitile, especially if you could raise them before the other factions. They could even hold their own against calvary, if but for a short time. Looked great when you could upgrade them to plate armor and a sword from the swordsmith guild! STW had to be the ND's, those brilliant red-shirted shock troops decimating some ashigaru, unafraid of arrow sustained casualties. Rome would be the Triarii, those brilliant veterans and the brave centurioun and the cool looking 'bear guy'. I like the versitility and competency of ETW's line infantry, don't mind that they are rather generic to all the factions save the muslims and Indians. In MTW I liked, I think it was a crusade unit, but I modded it to be producable without a crusade...hospitaliar foot knigts, mabey not them but the one that had the same skin but with shield. I think that's it...haven't tried Napoleon yet.

For me there was nothing like the RTW Cataphratics.

Whole stacks of them. The M-1 Abrams of the era. And I love tanks! :laugh4:



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MTW Huscarles. Wind them up, let them go.

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Originally Posted by Fisherking

For me there was nothing like the RTW Cataphratics.

Whole stacks of them. The M-1 Abrams of the era. And I love tanks! :laugh4:

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I still remember the Sassanid cataphracts from BI. Those guys' stats were bordering on the absurd. In a good way.

Oh, those Cats!

They were a tiny bit over powered, I have to say.

I took 16 of them and was moving some where in Greece when I was attacked by 3 Roman Armies. I don’t think all of them were full, so call it 2 and 1/3rd stacks.

I routed them all and still had 14 left when all was over. Of course they had like 6 or 8 men per unit. :laugh4:

I'll use your format Graphic :beam:

• Shogun: Mongol Heavy Cavalrymen

Best cav, best offensive units overall (apart from the 2 you mention) they are from the expansion but there a overpowered add on, love these.

Runner up: Musketeers, cheap, controversial and make a cool sound, these are actually quite brutal unlike the cowardly arqabusiers.

• Medieval: Byzantine Infantry

Lethal starter units, there stats look average but they are an asset at the start and never become completely outdated

Runner up: Swiss Heavy Pikemen, skill wise there excellent, they look and sound so professional and is the only foot bodyguard I think for the awesome reduntant nation of switzerland.

• Rome: Cataphracts

They look stunning, they are dangerous, they have it all.

Runner up: Head Hurlers, skill wise there average, but THEY LOB HEADS! Just beautiful... :laugh4:

• Medieval II: Hashashim
  
  Give me these and some turkish archers and I can best 90% people online, which equates to 100% on AI, plus I like hiding units and they have 1% more coolness than hungary's assassin version.
  

Runner up: Reiters I have to agree, they look advanced, carry spears and muskets, great unit to look at and to fight with.

• Empire: Ferugeon's Riflemen

They were calmed down, but there stats were so amazing, killing 2 full armies on your own is fun even if a bit of a swiz.

Runner up(s): Winged Hussars, look amazing, deadly with a good charge.

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Best Unit Overall I'd say Cataphracts :grin:

How about you?[/QUOTE]

Warrior Monks get my vote for most versatile, and therefore most useful unit. Even a small detachment of them, combined with any other units, were battlefield multipliers.

In 2nd place, in MTW1, plain old Vikings from Denmark.

-edit-
Most fun units for me were the Korean grenade throwers. If you didn't position them 'just right' little bomblets would be going off all over the place, leading to virtual chaos that no player could control. I'd just sit back and watch all plans go up in smoke - and laugh out loud.

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Originally Posted by KukriKhan

Warrior Monks get my vote for most versatile, and therefore most useful unit. Even a small detachment of them, combined with any other units, were battlefield multipliers.

In 2nd place, in MTW1, plain old Vikings from Denmark.

-edit-
Most fun units for me were the Korean grenade throwers. If you didn't position them 'just right' little bomblets would be going off all over the place, leading to virtual chaos that no player could control. I'd just sit back and watch all plans go up in smoke - and laugh out loud.

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Yes, warrior monks, thunder bombers, also korean skrmishers are all fun, mongols don't have many units but they are all overpowered.

I'm surpirese noone has yet to say screaming women, head hurlers or that flame thrower unit yet! I would have but I forgot....:)

Ah RTW wise........

I'd Have to say armored hoplites. So sexy, so convinent, and so how the spartans should have looked like in red. Absolutely gorgeous units
Runner Ups: Cretan Archers more because of their stupendous stats, and sacred band infantry basically armored hoplites on steroids with a cool background..

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Originally Posted by A Nerd

I'm surpirese noone has yet to say screaming women, head hurlers or that flame thrower unit yet! I would have but I forgot....:)

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I said head hurlers. :smiley:

Definitely Alan Mercenary Cavalry from MTW 1. So fast and so deadly on the charge.

I've only played RTW, M2TW, and ETW, so:

RTW: War Dogs. Put a couple of units of War Dogs in your early-game Hastati/Equites spam stack, and it becomes unstoppable. The only drawback is it takes 2 turns to recruit them

M2TW: Welsh Longbowmen/Saethwyr. Their arrows have greater range than catapults IIRC. Put 3 or 4 in your army, and the enemy will never reach your battle line.

ETW: Grenadiers. It doesn't matter what faction they're from. If you micromanage a couple of units of grenadiers just right, you can annihilate an entire AI-run army. Plus, it is very satisfying to watch half a unit of line infantry be blown to bits.

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Originally Posted by Chaotix

ETW: Grenadiers. It doesn't matter what faction they're from. If you micromanage a couple of units of grenadiers just right, you can annihilate an entire AI-run army. Plus, it is very satisfying to watch half a unit of line infantry be blown to bits.

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Forgot about these guys, I love these online because I always manage to sneak a pack in when no one is looking, once they've thrown there grenades in my head its like an instant "RESULT!" :wink:

I like grenadiers too! I've heard some say the grenades and the amout of them are ahistorical but they are very entertaining units to use in both appearance and functionality. I also don't mind when they blow themselves up because that too is quite entertaining!

Probably Muwahid foot soldiers from MTW. They get knocked for not being spectacular at any particular job, but they do so many just well enough that I always have to have some in my army if possible.

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Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan

Probably Muwahid foot soldiers from MTW. They get knocked for not being spectacular at any particular job, but they do so many just well enough that I always have to have some in my army if possible.

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I can't believe I forgot to mention Ghazi Infantry. Those guys were awesome. Super cheap and dropped like flies, but they took tons of guys with them.

Camels.

They made my day every online battle I played.
They eat cavalry no matter what terrain or weather condition.

After they eat the cavalry, they have the infantry for desert.

Camels.

Swiss Pikemen of course :).

Nice pun to the before mentioned...!

I've only played RTW so I'd limited to that.

The answer is incredibly easy though: Cretan Archers. They'd probably hold their own against a mob wielding Kalashnikovs.

Chivalric men at arms they are just a great backbone unit.

MTW 1 is my love and I can talk only about it.

Bulgarian Brigands and the reason for that is not only the fact I come from Bulgaria. By stats, they seem simply useless: weaker than the Trebizond archers and worse, their morale is simply bad. The second is eliminated by building them in Bulgaria (+1 valour), the first is compensated by their versatility (and speed). Flanking in desperate situation, chasing units especially slower after the latter are turned into flight. And fo course, their arrows are far more deadly than most of the arrows around. Basically, I am love with archer units.

Runner up: the Varangians. Why? The Elite Imperial guard, these fierce mercenaries obey only gold and its sorce: the Emperor. And they are unbeatable, invincible... Only desert and time can stop them.

Archers...

I have shogun Total War + Expansion, but i havent played it for ages..

Shogun: Battlefield Ninjas..

MTW1: Huscarls
2nd: WarriorMonks

Rome: Praetorian Cohort
2nd: Praetorian cavalry

M2TW: WarriorMonks
2nd: Huscarls

Empire: FirstRate-Ship Of The Line(Not HMS Victory)
2nd: Rangers/GreenJackets

Napoleon: French Lineinfantry
2nd: All ARTY:) Im an Arty Guy..

I've recently been playing the crusades campaign on M2TW kingdoms and those Hospital Knights with the two-handed sword are amazing! I've noticed they are a unique unit...if wiped out or disbanded can they be trained again? Or are they just one unit for the whole campaign? I've used them in custom battles but have been gingerly using them in the campaign for fear of losing them.

That depends.. if you are playing as hospitaller and cant build them, you most likely dont have a big enough city..

It said unique unit at the bottom of the description, I just assumed you could only have one.