best archer

[aem91]

Hi, i was wondering what you guys think is the "best" archer. Archers seem to get overlooked sometimes, but i partcularly like them. There are lots of differnt criteria as to what best is, so maybe favorite would be better. Mine are the syrian archers, they have low dmg, but they have pretty good armor and can withstand enemy vollies well, and they look cool too

[Celtic_Punk]

cretens are my favourite. I am sure there is better... Indian longbowmen?

[Aemilius Paulus]

Cretans are the best archers, but personally, I do not use archers, unless they are mounted. Slingers is what I recruit, and I recruit a lot of them.

[penguinking]

Cretan archers are the best, but honorable mention must go to Persian archer-spearmen.

[tls5669]

Syrian archers, Cretan bows, Indian longbowmen, the roman archer auxila, heavy persian archers with their unbelievable range, saka archers, dacian elite archers, skythian archers, are all really good units.


But by far my favorite is the bosphoran archers

[aem91]

Ya, problem with cretans are their limited aor, and indian longbows are really good, but are so far east. In my seleucia campaign i brought an all indian army to destroy carthage, which it did, but that was for novelty more than neccessity. Heavy bosphorns are good too

[Grriffon]

Indian archers are by far my favorite. Next would be Cretans, heavy persian, and dacian.

[MerlinusCDXX]

Funny thing about missile troops in EB...Rhodian Slingers have the longest range of any missile troops, but in best to least order, my favorites (non-mounted, though I generally prefer horse archers) are

Cretans
Saka Foot or Subeshi
Heavy Persian
Syrian
Caucasian
and honorable mention goes to Archer-Spearmen for versatility.

[Hax]

I believe that the Saka Foot Archers have the longest range of all archer units. My favourites are Thureophorontes Toxotai [those Bosphoreans <_<] and the Indian Longbowmen.

[Matinius Brutus]

Roman Imperial Archers rule!!! And they look mighty pretty!

[Beefy187]

Does heavy persian have better range then persian?

[Gugus]

Just checked stats - best range Saka foot archers next Cretans then Syrians and Persian haevy (last two have the same range). Cretans have 35 ammo others 25 or 28 so that is a big advantage plus their base attack is 6 (equal only to caucasian) they also have 6 armour (only syrians bosporans and roman auxilia have better) so I guess they are my favourite. Their only disadvantage is AOR as it was mentioned earlier.

[MerlinusCDXX]

Just checked stats - best range Saka foot archers next Cretans then Syrians and Persian haevy (last two have the same range). Cretans have 35 ammo others 25 or 28 so that is a big advantage plus their base attack is 6 (equal only to caucasian) they also have 6 armour (only syrians bosporans and roman auxilia have better) so I guess they are my favourite. Their only disadvantage is AOR as it was mentioned earlier.

Yep, and the reason I ranked the Persian Heavies above the Syrians is Base Missile attack (5 for Persian Hvy., 4 for Syrian)

[Chris_]

Not sure about stats, but I quite like Mardian Archers. I like the unit card, they look good in battle, long range, and they always seem to get heaps of kills.

[Zeibek]

I'm not sure about best but I like the Indian longbowmen a lot. Also the Thureophorontes Toxotai not only look cool but can win most arrow duels thanks to their good armour.

Saka foot archers are handy since they are both cheap and have long range, but because you can only recruit them from peripheral areas I use them only as mercs and when playing as the Saka.

Heavy Persians can be quite handy beacuse of the long range, good base attack and decent armour.

Cretans are undoubtedly the best when it comes to stats, but because of the limited AOR I'd rank them lower than some others.

So here's my list:

Heavy Persians
Cretans
Saka foot
Indian longbowmen
Thureophorontes Toxotai
Caucasians
Syrians (IMO overrated, but I've never played with them, only against them, so that might cause some bias)

[SwissBarbar]

sorry for this silly question, but whats AOR?

[Carthaginian General]

sorry for this silly question, but whats AOR?

Area of Recruitment.

[SwissBarbar]

ah ok ^^ thx

[Valion]

Ooh i need to get em indian longbowmen but they are too far from Roma...... oh well when i reach 150 BC or so i'l send a expeditionary FM to recruit all the best mercenaries from India back to Roma^_^

[tls5669]

Ooh i need to get em indian longbowmen but they are too far from Roma...... oh well when i reach 150 BC or so i'l send a expeditionary FM to recruit all the best mercenaries from India back to Roma^_^

Why? By then youll have the Roman Auxila Archer, one of the better archers in the game.

[Valion]

Because i'm too greedy and want everything the game can offer Lol.

[Aemilius Paulus]

For some reason I dislike the Cretans, probably because I am playing against AS with these archers and the Arche Seleukia likes heavily armored infantry as well as phalangites, who have 6 shield, meaning that from the front even the levy phalanxes are absolutely impervious to missiles. So the result is that in order for my archers to do any significant damage, they would have to shoot in the enemies backs, which is difficult unless you have HAs. That is why Scythian Riders are my favorite missile unit.

My favorite foot archers are the Scythian Foot Archers, which I recruit, along with the Scythian Riders, in Kallatis. The thing with them is that I use them in the Baltic and Eastern Europe where my enemies have ridiculously weak units. All of the units opposing me in that region have no armour except a shield, meaning that the Scythian have a field day slaughtering them. My Baltic armies in general are 70% missile (mostly Accensi) and the rest is Cordinau Orca. I normally have only 1-2% casualties when assaulting full-stack towns.