Favorite/Least Favorite Bodyguards

[Tyrfingr]

Least favourite: Saba bodyguards. They are just lame and weak in comparison to others.

Almost forgot about them, yeah, they blows big time!

[glouch]

my fav is the good ol' Somatophylakes Strategou.

they're great all-around for me.

[General Aetius]

All of the bodyguards have their uses and strengths but I think my favorite ones are Pahlava, Greek and strangely enough the Casse chariots. I think the least powerful and least useful, for me, is the Romani bodyguards but they have their uses in the Roman army too.

Like Cavalry, if you don't use chariots properly they suck but I"ve achieved some massive slaughters with my Casse chariots. Their ability to shower javelins at the same time as charging right through the enemies lines makes them extremely useful. Besides it looks awesome when they send men flying. Like these campaign pictures show, my main # of kills was by my Chariots:

http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img....jpg&srv=img29

http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img....jpg&srv=img33

General Aetius

[desert]

http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img....jpg&srv=img33

54 casualties...
Yes, if you have no other cavalry, they would be useful for chasing down routers.

[kekailoa]

I personally enjoy the Gallic bodyguards because they're consistently powerful cavalry throughout the game in the western regions.

But the Swebox and KH bodyguards are ridiculous to fight. If I was in a dark corner, I'd rather have a bunch of them than some pretty boys in checkered pants saving my butt.

And the Getai bodyguard suck the big one. They're a bunch of wusses.

[Laman]

Have no real favorite, but my least favorite is the Lusotannan bodyguards, for those that remember the old Pontika Spahbet and all the talk about how bad they where, the Lusotannan guys are in essence the same (but in my experience maybe even worse). While not really bad, they don't do what at least I want from a bodyguard. All others atleast have something going for them, the infantry ones are real though guys, the Casse chariots have the whole fear factor (at least the last time I played Casse in one of the previous versions) so the fact they aren't impressive in combat aren't that important. The other cavalry bodyguards all are able to charge and break the enemy. The Lusotannan guys, no charge whatsoever, get eaten alive by Curisi, not to mention anything that remotely looks like infantry. The javelins are useful but really, do one want a bodyguard that is just a really good Hippakontistai?

[Grriffon]

Have no real favorite, but my least favorite is the Lusotannan bodyguards, for those that remember the old Pontika Spahbet and all the talk about how bad they where, the Lusotannan guys are in essence the same (but in my experience maybe even worse). While not really bad, they don't do what at least I want from a bodyguard. All others atleast have something going for them, the infantry ones are real though guys, the Casse chariots have the whole fear factor (at least the last time I played Casse in one of the previous versions) so the fact they aren't impressive in combat aren't that important. The other cavalry bodyguards all are able to charge and break the enemy. The Lusotannan guys, no charge whatsoever, get eaten alive by Curisi, not to mention anything that remotely looks like infantry. The javelins are useful but really, do one want a bodyguard that is just a really good Hippakontistai?

I dunno. I like the Lusotannan bodyguard. Their javelins have a high enough attack value to actually be useful, unlike the Cassee generals, and they have a really nice high attack value sword melee attack, so even though they don't have a massive charge bonus, they are WELL able to fight most units in prolonged melee, something I usually avoid doing with my cavalry.

[Celtic_Punk]

I love the Spartan body guards. i dont like that only the starting spartan characters have them :(

[moriluk]

My personal favorite is the Koinon Hellenon's Somatophylakes Strategou. They can handle just about anything. However, the Hayasdan are probably the best and I have not even reached the reforms yet. Their charge, defense, and melee are all very effective. I do things with them I simply won't do with bodyguards from the Romani, Averni, Makedonia, & Epeiros. Early on they are one of the most important components of your army.

To be fair, I must admit I have not played with Pahlava, Baktria, Saka, or the Arche.

My least favorite is the Casse, and they are one of my favorite factions. Yes I know. They have their uses. All factional bodyguards do! People get very defensive about them. But in truth they are worthless in sieges (except with a wooden wall they can pepper the enemy all while getting peppered themselves). Overall they are the least effective factional bodyguard in the game. Chariots are slow, clumsy, and tend to not stay together very well (especially inside a city). My only role for them is to stay close to the battle line, pepper the enemy, and keep hitting 'f'. With some factions I will have 2, 3, sometime 4 generals (early on) as a main component of my army. 3 or 4 chariots just seem to get in everyone's way, and they seem exposed and vulnerable. With Casse I actually prefer Celtic lesser kings once I am off the island.

Again, to be fair I must admit I have never played as Lusotannan which I hear are worse. At least the chariots create fear in the enemy.

[MerlinusCDXX]

My Favorites are:
Early mounted-Sauromatae
Late mounted- Hai, Pahlava, Baktrian, Saka

Least favorite mounted:
Romani

Favorite unmounted:
KH Spartan

[artavazd]

My favorite is the Late Armenian BG unit. I like the other Elite cataphract units as well, but the mace for the Armenian version is what makes this unit my favorite.

[Hax]

My favourite: Molosson Agema
Least favourite: Those Iberian guys.

[Dayve]

People keep saying that Casse chariots are supposed to simply sit back and scare the enemy, or cause gaps in their line for your infantry to exploit.

The first one is fine, scaring the enemy, yeah. But after playing RTW for years, EB for years, and knowing that on the recommended difficulty settings, one can annihlate the AI when vastly outnumbered against vastly superior troops, all this fancy, opening up gaps to exploit shit is pointless.

You're still going to win every single battle. The point is, to have fun doing it, and you can't have fun with the Casse because their generals are not only shit, but they get in the way. Their unit alone takes up half of the battle map. They're impossible to move from one place to another in siege battles.

Casse generals are my least favourite.

I can't say that i have a favourite though. They all look splendid, so i guess whatever faction i'm playing as are my favourite bodyguard at the time, except Casse.

Actually, scratch that. Maybe KH are my favourite. I've always been an infantry commander, i'm clumsy with cavalry and it's not my thing, at least not en masse. The Spartan hoplite bodyguards are great. They take casualties very very slowly, so you can use them as bait to tie up as many units as you like while you position other units around them ready to strike, then after the battle they regenerate to their original size. Awesome.

Just as a bonus, my other least favourite would be Lusotannan. I don't know if those guys get a reform at any point and get those Kataphract-esque Iberian cavalry as bodyguards later in the game, but the early ones are just rubbish. And they look bad.

No disrespect to the guy that made the skin for them, the skin is fine, all nicely detailed and whatnot, just the way they look offends my eyeballs.

[Havok.]

Just as a bonus, my other least favourite would be Lusotannan. I don't know if those guys get a reform at any point and get those Kataphract-esque Iberian cavalry as bodyguards later in the game, but the early ones are just rubbish. And they look bad.

Dont think they do.

[Watchman]

They didn't the last I saw.

My personal favourites would probably be the Baktrian ones. Just because they look so over-the-top funky.

Also, I actually rather like the Casse chariots. Sure they're a pain in the ass tactically, nevermind now if you have to maneuver them in built-up areas, and hardly awe-inspiring, but that's sort of the whole point - you can't use them like the usual elite-cav BGs, period. Makes for a dramatically different approach to things, indeed to even how you have to plan, which is good.
Plus I have a hard time not yelling "ROAD RAGE" when I launch them on a foe tossing charge...

No real "least favourites", although both the Brihentin and Hetairoi BGs get a bit boring to look at after a while - if only because they look the exact same as their non-FamiCav colleagues, and not that different from their peers in cousin factions, so the look tends to get a bit old eventually.

[Beefy187]

Carthy BGs are my second favourite. But my favorite is Baktrian late BG.

Also I was surprised at how good my Spartan body guards were when assaulting 800 men settlement with 3 body guards (around 80 man). Athenian general died first but the two Spartan generals massacred Scythian nobles and several other cavalry plus several spear mans.

My least favorite is the Casse BG. Though I know how to use it, im too used to Eastern style, charging my BG with my heavy cavalry. I just can't be bothered to use them in battle

[The_Brittunculi]

I like the Casse chariots, they may be horrible against infantry but they are amazing against cavalry. They may not have scythes, but they still have the same effect. Cavalry that come into contact with the chariots just seem to die right away. Try charging a unit of Cidainh (sp?) against a unit of cavalry and watch all the horses get knocked down like bowling pins. Just make sure the chariots are always moving and not standing idle.

My least favorite are the Iberian body guards, using javelin-armed cavalry is a big pet peeve of mine.