Arcani - Useful spec ops or expensive masquerade?

So far, I have been a devoted Julii player, but after beefing up some awesome temples of Mars with the Brutii, I have realized the power of the Arcani. Yes, they are expensive, but not that much in upkeep. And as Brutii, money is rarely your biggest problem. I have found the Arcani VERY useful in battles, as units that "tip the scale". As you have the "meat grinder" of heavy legioneers going, you need something to break the enemy lines, and get them running. Sending in 3-4 units of Arcani, storming the center of the battle, has won me many a victory. They can hide anywhere, and are therefore rarely targeted before you send them in. The sudden onset of these troops, makes the units that are already hard pressed by your regulars break and rout as one, they have a tremendous effect on enemy morale if used correctly, and slaughters routing enemies faster than anything I have seen.

Does anyone else have experiances with these masked and hooded demons?

In fieldbattles I tend not to use them all too much. They fill up valuable slots that could be used by more effective troops. They are however great for surprises and in cities. But in cities I prefer to use gladiators as there are more of them and they are almost as powerful.
But Arcani can certainly make battle more fun, as a few of them can really turn battles upside down at times.

One tactic I have actually used to effect in the field was putting three of them in front of my lines. The enemy would advance as usual but suddenly the tree units were there. So they would reorganize to deal with this threat close to their lines. Since they are small units the enemy was forced to wheel several units in, thus breaking up the line. Perfect for a charge by my legionaries. Of course it was not enough to break the entire army, but their center was suddenly not very effective in resisting my men. I won easily and only lost a few Arcani (those 2 HP help a lot).

True, I also prefer them in cities. Being a small unit, they are much easier to move and position in the narrow spaces, and their speed makes them very versatile and effective.

Small units like Arcani are also cool for doing little commando raids through small gaps in your line to attack enemies charging in. I laughed when I sent in some berzerkers to attack a suicidal general. They were swinging their warhammers at the horses who were falling down sideways.

language, language. I find the arcani pleasant in cities too, but rarely use them. They're nice eye candy, I'll give you that, and three units in a full-stack field army can be incalculably useful.

I use them to take out siege weaponry when defending in field battles. Deploy a bit further back, put the arcani slightly off to one side and forward and the AI will walk right past them as they are hiding. Then when the slow lumbering artillery turns up, slaughter them, and then hide before anything can come back to hit you.

You can also do this with the javelin men in most factions.

I can never figure out how to use them (or cavalry for that matter!) they just end up getting kebabed whenever I try. I gues im not the bestmicro manager. :)

Good to fight alone and get into gaps. Not much good as frontline troops though.

they are also great on walls, that had to be said

Agree with Kraxis about unit stack limitations and usefulness, except for one thing: there's so few of them that the 'experience' rank tends to be easier to improve and thus eventually create a force you CAN justify taking up a stack in your army.

I train them up by using them exclusively against rebels. It's a bonus that 'retraining' keeps the experience level, but without it i'd simply do more micromanagement anyways, so it's nice to have this convenience (especially with 9 ranks instead of the old shogun days)

Arcani vs rebels? Ouch.... meano >.< I'm sure the rebels know their mistake, why torment them with those weird people with two knives and really bad costumes? lol.

Arcani are a godsend for siege defense. Also when the enemy sallies. Or pretty much any time the enemy needs to come to you.
Their 'hide anywhere' makes them the ultimate ambush unit, allowing you to pick a wider range of tactics for an attacking army

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Originally Posted by pezhetairoi

Arcani vs rebels? Ouch.... meano >.< I'm sure the rebels know their mistake, why torment them with those weird people with two knives and really bad costumes? lol.

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If you notice they actualyl only use one knife as a weapon, the other one is apparently idle, but only apparently as teh Arcani actually get a small shield bonus like peltasts and such. That has got to be the other knife. But I must say I'm impressed, deflecting arrows and bullets with a knife... That takes skill! ~:cool:

Well as long as it is there they may as well put it to some use, anyone ever wonder why there is no Arcani myth even though there is a ninja one? Oh right Rome was sacked, nevermind.