Surprisingly good units

[QuintusSertorius]

Peltastai - ummm.... I am embarrassed to say that i never really used these guys to their full potential. In all of my campaigns, I thought that they were basically useless, and irrelevant to the battle line. Only after reading about how great they are in other people's campaigns did I ever try to use them. Now I am a believer. For me, these are surprisingly good units - easily the equal of the archer-spearmen of the east.

It's their armour, the lethality of their sword and their stamina. It's a pretty lethal combination, especially because swordsmen are automatically 4 points of attack up on spearmen.

[QuintusSertorius]

I'm musing over whether these guys qualify:



Uazali are in a similar spot to Peltastai - medium infantry who can duke it out even with heavier ones for a time. Great flankers, though not as versatile as the aforementioned skirmishers.

[Mediolanicus]

I'm musing over whether these guys qualify:



Uazali are in a similar spot to Peltastai - medium infantry who can duke it out even with heavier ones for a time. Great flankers, though not as versatile as the aforementioned skirmishers.

...and not easily retrained if you take them away from Karia.

They are good light infantry, but always take heavy casualties in my armies.
If I use a few units of them in an army outside Asia Minor, then after three battles or so I only have half a unit left. And then I replace them by Peltastai.

[QuintusSertorius]

Not easily retrained (I don't anyway), but available more widely in a merc variant anyway.

[Mediolanicus]

Good point.

What about morale? I find them a bit more prone to rout than my Peltastai.

[QuintusSertorius]

Good point.

What about morale? I find them a bit more prone to rout than my Peltastai.

According to the unit cards, they're the same on morale. Basically Uazali have less javelins (3 compared to Peltastai's 6), but higher attack (by 1 point) and defense (by 1 point). Otherwise they're broadly the same.

[Mediolanicus]

How about this one?

I'm using them in my Romani campaign as medium assault infantry. However, due to their axes they are uncapable of holding the line. If I can use them to their full potential they can kill around 200 enemies while taking less than 50 casualties themselves.


Tekastos (Rhaetic Axemen)

[Olaf The Great]

How about this one?

I'm using them in my Romani campaign as medium assault infantry. However, due to their axes they are uncapable of holding the line. If I can use them to their full potential they can kill around 200 enemies while taking less than 50 casualties themselves.


Tekastos (Rhaetic Axemen)

The Alpine Iphrikates Hoplites have axes as their secondary weapon, so use them as line troops and Teskatos as flankers


They are awesome btw.

[Ibrahim]

Iphicratean hopites are uderrated IMO; they are more flexible than a classical phalanx, they're more cohesive, and make for good melee fighters, should the phalanx break. all in all, excellent unit, yet rarely mentioned by many a player in greece.

also, camilan Hastati are underrated; true, morale, stats and otherwise are mediocre, but they make great frontline troops, tiring the enemy, so that their superiors can finish them off.

[Olaf The Great]

Iphicratean hopites are uderrated IMO; they are more flexible than a classical phalanx, they're more cohesive, and make for good melee fighters, should the phalanx break. all in all, excellent unit, yet rarely mentioned by many a player in greece.

also, camilan Hastati are underrated; true, morale, stats and otherwise are mediocre, but they make great frontline troops, tiring the enemy, so that their superiors can finish them off.

Yeah I had a very good experience with a mercenary unit of Iphricatean Hoplites as Hayasdan, along with a unit of Thessalians. Made a very good minature version of Hammer and anvil that worked very well.

There are many varieties of them too...

Normals..
Mail armoured
Mail armoured elites(Ptolemies)
Indogreek..
Alpine...
Helvetii..
Getai Light
Getai Heavy :P

..Is that it?

[Zarax]

Iphicrateans are good but imho I preferred them in 1.0 as they were a quite flexible phalanx (gotta love the getai and helvetii versions).

[Che Roriniho]

How about this one?

I'm using them in my Romani campaign as medium assault infantry. However, due to their axes they are uncapable of holding the line. If I can use them to their full potential they can kill around 200 enemies while taking less than 50 casualties themselves.


Tekastos (Rhaetic Axemen)

They are really very very good. to date the only unit that as been able to rout an Epirote Elite Phalanx. On their own. In a FRONTAL assault. (I HATE those frigging EEP's... Hate 'em)

[Tartaros]

first in my current greekgame, i just want to test them how they fight without phalanx (many peopel think that there´re useless now), but i was really surprised how good they perform with the sword in hand to hand battle (the performance was even better than thorakitai or normal hoplitai). they kill most of the macedon elites very soon.
i do most of the hard jobs with them and they never break or let me down. they are very flexible (sword/spear) and grizzled.
with the sword they fight similar like heavy scutarii or marian legions, so that really surprised me.

[fenix3279]

I've always had good luck with Massaliotai Hoplitai



Not once do I recall these guys routing despite taking heavy losses. They hold the line every time. Look pretty good too.

[kambiz]

Both Tabargane Eranshahr



And Kofyaren-i Verkhana



really surprised me in my current Baktrian campaign. They are lightly armoured and thus are cheap ,but are tough fighters and very good flankers. I have destroyed many of Selukids Phalanx armies with purely iranian armies (many times outnumbered) and these guys always saved me I suggest you to try them ,They won't disappoint you

[Tristrem]

I don't have pictures for them, but i have two units that i have found to be surprisingly good. They are the Asya Badarai (Saka Heavy Cavalry), and the Aspet Hetselazor (Armenian Medium Cavalry), and they are just simply awesome. They have a great charge, and those axes really make mince-meat out of any armored unit, cav, or infantry. After the horse archers tire the enemy out, charge these guys in and the carnage begins. They are also good because these two factions are on quite a tight budget early on, and this unit can fill multiple roles on the cheap, armor piercing cav, and psuedo heavy cav without the usual heavy armor found in eastern armies.

Anyone else agree with me?

[ibleedgrenchese]

How are we bashing the Phalanx, my elite phalanx has taken countless battles from all the factions. Use the hammer technique from Makedonia and its automatic victory for me, every time. If you want to degrade the Phalanx with your useless banter you better look elsewhere, or else my Phalanx is going to come for you and everybody you know. My Phalanx has no heart and it cannot disseminate between good and evil, right and wrong, or innocent and guilty. It only has one mission objective and that is to kill without mercy. So be forewarned or you shall fall victim to my omnipotent Phalanx system. Watch out for snakes.

Check out my AAR on the Makedonia Spartan league based off the campaign
"Take of a Makedonia Spartan"

[Fondor_Yards]

Eh? No one said pikes were bad.

[Disciple of Tacitus]

Putting in my two bits for the Iberian Medium Spearman. Can hold the line, recieve a cav charge, stand toe-to-toe with the Principes, encircle phalanxes AND "Fast Moving". For me, they are the perfect combination of tough and fast.

A related question however, how does one get those nifty pics that you all are posting, I should like to accumulate my favorite troops into a folder and make that my screen saver folder - oh yeah.

A sidenote, a heavy emphasis on Eastern Factions in this thread. I am assuming that this is merely a reflection of most people's preferences to play "out East". I admit, I love me some barbarian factions, but the inability to fully "develop" my civilization always causes me to return to the "civilized" factions. Thus, I will often play a fringe barbarian faction, frustration will set in, and my next campaign is inevitably a center faction. Just a sidenote.

[Fondor_Yards]

For the pics I just go the that faction's page in the EB site, look for the unit/unit pic there, and copy it's location.

[abou]

Cataphract elephants: I don't care how much they cost; any unit that can take on 600+ men and win rock in my book.

[Tiberius Aurelius Cotta]

what faction are they for???

[Swordmaster]

what faction are they for???

IIRC, it's Seleukids, Ptolemaioi, Baktria, and Saka.

EDIT: It seems the Seleukids are the only ones able to recruit them in the Mediterranean area (Antioch).

[The Persian Cataphract]

The Kambojans (Indo-Iranian light cavalry) can not be praised enough. These guys kick aaaaaaaaaaass! They are quick, and their value as "Eastern Prodromoi" is a sure winner. Here are a few others who take the bill as well:



They are bang for the buck. Now, I consider the Bactrian Hippeis to actually be extra-heavy cavalry due to the added barding, but their field of use is of such similar nature, I must excuse myself. The two last ones are the Steppe Hell's Angels as I call them. If I play as Saka, I make sure to at least have 25% of these guys formed up for one gigantic charge, after the horse-archers have finished with loosening up the enemy, and "closing the sphere" with horse-archers enveloping for butchery.

Celtic factions should consider themselves lucky for not having to face nomads early.

[konny]

With 462 upkeep and only level 3 barracks needed, absolutly not elites - but fight like devils. In every assault on a city I used these in my Casse campaign they get out with about 1:10 kills against mediocre enemies like spearmen (the record was some 450 killed enemies in one battle, by one unit of Milnaht of course), and still use to win against better units like Botroas or even Druids.




Another must-have in early Casse armies. They die like flies under missle fire and won't survive against regular swordfighters, but are able to kill lots of (much more expensive) spearmen like Cemmeinarn.

[cmacq]

The rorarii might be discarded as crappy garrison units, but think again!

Very underrated. As the role of the actual Rorarii remains somewhat unclear, and at the scale EB is played, I view this unit type as a form of Italic auxiliary or allied light infantry. Rorarii units along with the Accensi, which I also view as auxiliaries, typically make up about half (in the number of men) or more, of my pre-Polybian armies. That’s unless I use Hoplitai units as auxiliaries. Actually, all three units are very useful as part of a combined arms team. Individually, not so much. I never use them for garrisons because of the cost.

[Socy]

Yet again no pictures (Actually, I'll sneak in a question here, how do you upload them anyway? ) but:

Kavakaza Sparabara - Caucasian Spearmen

Hai Nizagamartik - Armenian Spearmen

Kovkasi Lernain Netadzik - Caucasian Archers

Neither of these units have ever disappointed me in my Hayasdan campaigns (Early game that is) and I've been able to conquer the entire Caucasus-region (The city where Hayasdan and the nearby settlements, 5-8 something, not sure and dont have EB available for checking) with armies consisting only of Kavakaza Sparabara and Kovkasi Lernain Netadzik in my early games (And family members, wich.. Might be tad bit better in terms of quality.). The Kavakaza are really good considering their price, same goes for the Kovkasi, in my oppinion In all my Macedonian/Seleucid games I also make sure to hire some Caucasian archers, I just think they are plain awesome .

[QuintusSertorius]

Yet again no pictures (Actually, I'll sneak in a question here, how do you upload them anyway? )

Go onto the EB website, and browse the unit rosters for the factions. If you can't find it there, chances are it's in the Eleutheroi roster.

[Chirurgeon]

Putting in my two bits for the Iberian Medium Spearman. Can hold the line, recieve a cav charge, stand toe-to-toe with the Principes, encircle phalanxes AND "Fast Moving". For me, they are the perfect combination of tough and fast.

A related question however, how does one get those nifty pics that you all are posting, I should like to accumulate my favorite troops into a folder and make that my screen saver folder - oh yeah.

A sidenote, a heavy emphasis on Eastern Factions in this thread. I am assuming that this is merely a reflection of most people's preferences to play "out East". I admit, I love me some barbarian factions, but the inability to fully "develop" my civilization always causes me to return to the "civilized" factions. Thus, I will often play a fringe barbarian faction, frustration will set in, and my next campaign is inevitably a center faction. Just a sidenote.

In my Lusotannan AAR the medium spearmen are my mainline troops. They hold up to most anything long enough that I can either withdraw them after taking a beating or try to flank with lighter infantry. I have been very impressed with their performance! Very durable troops with good morale

[Spizania]

This is probably a partial thread hijack, but what would you say was the best foot archer unit available to the Seleukids in the Eastern half of the map?