Favorite/"Best" Archer?

[Grriffon]

Hello. I am currently playing a Seleukid campaign, and enjoying it. I'm awash in Mining Centers, and have a level 5 barracks in Antioch, so I'm outfitting uber-armies of pure elite spearmen, companion cavalry, syrian archers, and armoured elephants.

My question is: What is everyone's favorite archer unit? I can't decide between the syrian archers, the kretan archers, or the heavy persian archers. I'd be interested to hear everyone else's favorites, or which they consider the best overall archer unit.

Also, if anyone know of a more fun troop combo than elite spearmen, archers, heavy cav, elephants, please clue me in!

edit: "more fun" as in, holy crap i just routed a full stack army in 15 seconds. admittedly some of the fun is gone from the game by the time you reach the point monetarily where you are cherry picking elite troops for unstoppable armies, but it has its upsides too.

[d'Arthez]

Caucasian Archers. They are good, reasonable area of recruitment (lvl 1 barracks help as well!), not expensive; vital infantry support for Hayasdan campaigns.

[Fondor_Yards]

Best? Cretans. High attack, armour and shield to help vs return fire, and has the longest range *yes, even longer range then all the various steppe foot archers with a 201.6 range.*

Favorite? I guess Indians, love seeing them rip apart enemy elites at range and then fight them in meele and still kick their ass with their giant sword.

[QuintusSertorius]

Kretans and Bosphorans are alright, but to be honest I think slingers are better than archers.

[keravnos]

I am split between thureopherontes toxotai (Thureos carrying archers) and the Nizagan-i Eranshahr (Persian Archer-Spearmen)

[MeinPanzer]

Best? Cretans. High attack, armour and shield to help vs return fire, and has the longest range *yes, even longer range then all the various steppe foot archers with a 201.6 range.*

Is this intentional? Because in the Anabasis and in Livy's account of the Roman campaign against Philip V, Cretans are explicitly said to have weak bows with heavy arrowheads that combined to make their archery far from effective. Xenophon relates an episode in which the Cretans were so outranged by the Persian archers that the 10,000 needed to recruit slingers from the Rhodians among them in order to fight back, while the Cretans later on captured Persian arrows and only then began to improve their range.

[Fondor_Yards]

Is this intentional? Because in the Anabasis and in Livy's account of the Roman campaign against Philip V, Cretans are explicitly said to have weak bows with heavy arrowheads that combined to make their archery far from effective. Xenophon relates an episode in which the Cretans were so outranged by the Persian archers that the 10,000 needed to recruit slingers from the Rhodians among them in order to fight back, while the Cretans later on captured Persian arrows and only then began to improve their range.

*Shrugs* I also read a while back *here I think, not too sure* that they were so good at killing because their fired their arrows horizontally, like a crossbow, to penetrate armour better. So probably not.

Also HA shouldn't be counted, since they are too good in the hands of a player vs the AI, not matter what type of HA and no matter the AI's army make up.

[Rilder]

Also HA shouldn't be counted, since they are too good in the hands of a player vs the AI, not matter what type of HA and no matter the AI's army make up.

Unless of course there commanded by me, At which point they turn into a disorganized mob and shoot themselves in the face.

[konny]

Caucasian Archers. They are good, reasonable area of recruitment (lvl 1 barracks help as well!), not expensive; vital infantry support for Hayasdan campaigns.

In this case my vote would go for the Persian Archer-Spearmen: dirt cheap, everywhere in the East recruitable and can do at least a bit hand-to-hand combat in particular against cavalry. From pure archery I find best the Skythians.

When you are searching for a decent all-around infantrist, you need to pick either Syrians or Cretans (I don't think they differ much): good armor, sword+shield and an above-average (but not the best) archer. If you don't care about game balance or accurancy you might even recruite them as your only infantry. I don't think that many enemies will survive a contact with that army.

[Lysimachos]

I prefer the Syrians over the Cretans. The Cretans have slightly higher attack, but the Syrians have more men, more armor, more ammo and more range.

Edit: Well, not more range. Unit documentation said so, but the files say different...

Edit 2: In fact, there are some more differences between the documentation and the actual values... Maybe i should have another look and think another time.

[||Lz3||]

where can I find the skythians?

I've had wonderful results using imperial auxilia archers , in a huge size battle and 4 units of archers , killed like 1/2 of my kills , around 200 each

[jhhowell]

Favorite archer: Thanvare Payadag. Available everywhere in the east, has very good attack and range, level 1 MIC, very cheap. If you want to send your archers into melee, pick someone else for the job, though.

Subeshis, Mardians, and Caucasians are all quite good. Can't comment on the Scythians or Bosphorans - I have some, but the Crimea has been completely uncontested in my Hayasdan game.

||Lz3|| - Scythian units are found basically all around the northern half of the Black Sea, plus the Caucasus Mountains. For factions not named Hayasdan, I believe the standard method to acquire them is to take the Crimea.

On the "more fun troop combo" question - horse archers! Especially cataphract HA, though you're out of luck there with AS. You can get Parthians and I think also Dahae HA in the northeast.

[Caesar the IIIV]

i enjoy the dacian archers

[Apgad]

How about horse archers? Easier to fire over your battle line, can flank and shoot the enemy in the arse, run away when attacked...

[Rilder]

How about horse archers? Easier to fire over your battle line, can flank and shoot the enemy in the arse, run away when attacked...

Meh, I Don't like calvary, I at most have 2-3 units of Calvary, not counting my general.

[Atraphoenix]

even Romans adapted cavalry to their ranks after the seperation especially. and according to a historian
in one battle they were no difference between sassanid and byzantine army (all cavalry dominated)
Romans learned this lesson very painfully :-) I am teaching AS in my campaign I started my rebellion against them thanks to my hero arsaces and at most 20% of casulties belong to my army the rest stupid
AS Army who still think to defeat my cavalry mostly horse archers with their phlangites...
keep up good work I seperated seleukia into 4 after conquest of charax then I will smash this little AS parts one by one :-)

if you do not like cavalry prepare your men a sudden death with a significant cavalry charge!

I charge even phalangites with my dahae riders but of course from front and at back at the same time

I will start my AAR you can see :-)

CAVALRY RULES THE WORLD, ELEPHANT RULES CAVALRY

[Rilder]

if you do not like cavalry prepare your men a sudden death with a significant cavalry charge!

Meh give me a few units of a good old fasioned spearmen over a bunch of horses any day.

I'm not good with calvary and never will be, as such I only use them as supporting units.