Good Roman ranged units?

Anyone who has got the game care to comment on what ranged units are good for Romans? In the MTW early campaign, 3-5 archers were very useful when fighting the AI. I get the impression that the Romans are more reliant on melee, but I am just wondering about the options.

Specifically, how useful are the war machines on the battlefield (not sieges) compared to vanilla archers? Is it like MTW, where archers are better? I got the impression from some videos that the war machines were pretty useful - CA folk seemed to take grand batteries of the things.

Also, how do you get Cretan archers or similar mercenary ranged units? Do you have to actually occupy Crete? These rocked in the demo.

I don't suppose the Romans have ready access to merc horse archers - is that right?

Finally, how easily do Romans get slingers and how do they rate compared to archers?

Thanks for any information (from an envious Brit).

I actually find that archers can be quite useful. And I NEVER used them in MTW (except longbows). I was actually very sruprised of the amount of kills I get using them. As for arty I have no clue cuz I am not teched up enough to get them yet. I still only take a few of them per arm though.

Pre-Marian Tier 1 missile units are the Velites; javilen skirmishers
Pre-Marian Tier 2 missile units are the Roman Archers; vanilla archers
Pre-Marian Tier 3 missile units are Scorpion/Balistae field pieces

Pre-Marian Tier 2 Horse are Jinetes-like light jav cav. I doubt they're as effective as Jinetes (I haven't used them yet) but the basic description is very similar.

I've used the Velites and the Archers are both seem pretty crappy to me, even vs. light infantry. The Velites seem doubly worthless as the Hastati and Pricipe each have 2 javs they through before charging anyway. The Vels probably have more than 2, I just don't use them enough to know.

I have no idea how good field artillery is. The accuracy was abyssmal in MTW so I haven't even tried.

No idea about Cretean Archers, I'm playing the Julii. The Bruti are much more likely to get to Crete.

I got Balearic slingers on Sardinia. They're not much better than regular Roman archers and I only got one.

The Auxelia Archers seems better than the plain romans. I am not sure how to get them though.

Cretan Archers of Greek Cities aren't the best, Pharaoh Archers are.
Chosen Band of Archers (more or less) of Scythia are lesser than the Pharoahs but actually cost more.

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Anyone who has got the game care to comment on what ranged units are good for Romans? In the MTW early campaign, 3-5 archers were very useful when fighting the AI. I get the impression that the Romans are more reliant on melee, but I am just wondering about the options.

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It's all hand to hand combat vs Gaul. Hastati and archers are only useful when you outnumber the AI badly. You can shoot the backs of engaged enemy units with pila and Javelin, but you risk your blocker to routing, so you have to flank quickly before the crazed barbarians rout your inferior troops. However Hoplites are literally snails (they can't run). Those I imagine are very easy targets. Haven't fought Hoplites yet, but I've used it as a mercenary.

With the charging speed, you'll be lucky to release one pilum/javelin/arrow before they hit you. And I'm referring to infantry ~:eek: Cavalry are even faster.

I can't comment on the others since they are far down the tech tree. I only had 1 (free) archer the whole game because it is a tech level 3 unit. Onagers I've used in the tutorial. It is very powerful againts gates and walls. Haven't tried them against units. Hope that helps.

I'll be building Principes, Ballista and archers in a couple of years though, so I'll post back on that.

:charge:

I've found Velites to be OK. I worked hard getting some up to 3rd and 4th XP lvl and they really dice up light inf. and if you use them right it's not hard to get off 3/4 or all thier shots. They are decent on castle walls too. All in all they are OK if you get them some XP but you never need more then 2-3 in any army becuase after they throw all thier ammo they are pretty useless.

The stardard roman archer is decent. Again I progressed some to 3-4th XP lvl and they became quite useful in many situations but not powerful really unless on a castle wall.

Onagers are really good for breaking into a fort/city, you don't have to wait an extra turn to assault and they can destroy 2 towers, the gate and two walls in the time it takes a ram to destroy the gate and a wall. Thier range is also quite far. I havent to try this yet but I imagine 3+ onager units (6 launchers) fired into the town square would be devastating to the defenders and with the AI always sitting there you could take thier general out easy. Using them on the open field is not so good unless you are the defender. One onager by itself is not very accurate but when start adding 2 or 3 they do hit often.

Scorpions and ballista are fun but it's questionable how many kills they bring, I would only consider them for seige defence and maybe assualt if you devise some strategy, but seldom use for open field. They arent too accurate.

I had some aux cav trained but didnt get a chance to use them before I won the short campaign and I'm sick of rome factions now :)

It depends on the armor of your opponent. The gauls will fall with an arrow barrage, a Post Marian First Cohort won't even flinch.