Surprisingly Good and Bad Units 1.2 Edition

[Brennus]

Jewish infantry

Possibly the most beloved and praised unit in EB.

[mikepettyrtw]

Oh yes. Those mofo's can kill a clean 20 noble cataphracts in a prolonged melee, have a nearly infinite number of javelins & ridiculously high morale. Heck, thay can take a Cat charge from both side at once!

Unlike these guys who think they're each individually Michael Jordan:


C'mon, don't these guys realize the Jordan thing only works if they all do it at once!

[seleucid empire]

oh yeah also ligurian infantry

They are pretty solid considering their stats dont look too high. I created an army of these in my AS campaign to protect the western border of italy. They held against fullstacks of professional and elite troops of the Brown death and Aedui

[Frtigern]

I will throw in some here. These units represent what I've come to rely on in tight spots and continually surprise me by their durability and cost efficiency. Some I recruit for their forest and ambushing abilities. I avoid levies if I can because I want versatile units that can throw javelins or pull out an AP sidearm. Being half the upkeep of some elites, they make up what they lack in discipline or morale with numbers and well rounded stats. It costs too much to maintain an army of units with more than 400 upkeep each. Spearmen are the natural, unrewarded underdogs of ancient warfare. Anyone can make a spear, swords take much more resources, time and skill to make. Bad thing about sword units is that they can't counter heavy cavalry charges. Spearmen can. Cavalry... well you need horses, and dudes who can ride them. Archers... uh, you need dudes who can shoot bows well and they can't do much else. Also spearmen, both pike and non-pike can fill many roles. But spearmen will always be the backbone, if fighting Greeks I always bring along some pikemen but for most uses the short sticks will do.

Good cheap units <300 upkeep
Thracian Light Spearmen
Iberian Light Spearmen
Dacian Light Phalanx
Alpine Phalanx

Good cheap units >300 but <400 upkeep
Celto-Hellenic Infantry
Noricum Spearmen
Belgae Spearmen
Hellenic Native Phalanx
Machimoi Native Phalanx
Babylonian Heavy Spearmen - I love their maces and old school-ness

[seleucid empire]

just remembered some more:

Good:
Armenian spearmen
Belgian spearmen
Boii swordsmen
Indian spearmen (held off a Saka cat charge, didn't suffer half as bad as i thought it would)
Parthian Hellenic infantry (im surprised no one has mentioned these. They kill twice as fast as Princeps but have much lower morale. They are fast, flexible and deadly despite their lower stats. I only wish they would have higher morale, then i would start a parthian campaign just to make an army of these and sail them to Italy to see how they do against the legions)

Bad:
Thessalian cavalry, Greek noble cavalry and their roman equivalent (not completely bad but let downs)

[Ca Putt]

Parthian Hellenic infantry (im surprised no one has mentioned these. They kill twice as fast as Princeps but have much lower morale. They are fast, flexible and deadly despite their lower stats. I only wish they would have higher morale, then i would start a parthian campaign just to make an army of these and sail them to Italy to see how they do against the legions)

Bad:
Thessalian cavalry, Greek noble cavalry and their roman equivalent (not completely bad but let downs)

Orly? for me it always was the other way around. Maybe it's also because of differing expections, Parthohellens afterall are what Parthia gets as factional "heavy" infantry so I was hugely unhappy with them and got back to babylonian Spearmen(hellyeah) + Eastern axemen as my infantry. Western Heavy lancers never let me down, I prefer their cheapest version(KH) but If i get my hands on Tessalians(premium edition) or the Equites Extraordinari(the overpriced ones) I'm really happy. They probably are so popular as they are THE heavy Lancer for two factions with real cavalry deficits: Romans and Koinon hellenon.

[huth]

someone should make a summary from all propositions :P

[moonburn]

that would be 80% of all non elit units

my favourite is the haploi

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

The Parthohellenikoi Thureophoroi perform poorly in my experience. They have a shortsword but don't have gladius lethality and their morale and discipline leave much to be desired. That being said, they are really the only infantry the Parthians get that has armor and javelins so they do have some use, especially as garrison units.