Faction strengths?

[anubis88]

my Solduros and Hypaspistai units are so bloody useless......

Ahem... What?!?

[Cute Wolf]

Ahem... What?!?

Well, it looks like he want they to act like bloody infantry killers, not just elite horde-holders (spears kills more slowly than longswords ), but beware, when they lose their spears, they become extremely vulnerable to cavalries, so use them as melee anti infantry unit afterwards....

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Hypaspistai = bloody useless? Wow.

[Knight of Heaven]

Hypaspistai = bloody useless? Wow.

lol yes they are far from useless. are great to take walls, and can fare very good against everything, even against AP troops.

[seienchin]

When I made a game, where I fortified myself with a wall made of phalangitai and hoplites the hypaspitai killed more enemies than 2 units of agyraspidai together.
They are anything but useless

[Grade_A_Beef]

Well, no I consider the Solduros near useless because it doesn't take advantage of the longsword's charge, which is almost a trademark move of the Celts.

The Hypaspistai I generally use to attack, not hold the line. Thorakitai and Phalangitai hold the line much more cost-effectively. When it comes to attacking the sword is much better than the spear, and it's exasperating to watch my units switch to spears during a prolonged melee (or even worse during the charge.) I mean, if you have such high lethality long swords, why in the world would you bother to hold the line?

In general the swords first combo is utter pain. As mentioned before they switch to spears when charging and even worse when not moving they stick with their swords rather than go with a much better defensive weapon. It'll hurt to let these type of units absorb a cavalry charge, although considering most units with this weapon combo is at least regular infantry and up......

As I'm in a Seleucid campaign right now, I can choose much better elites than the Hypaspistai, namely the TAB and the Peltastai Makedonikoi. They're better in their roles of line holding and attacking (Peltestai have an added option of flanking utilizing that extra stamina), respectively, and have defense values suitable for their job.

I'd admit Hypastpistai is the better of the three when on walls, but that's awfully specialized. In any case I prefer to stealth capture a gate and have the AI stupidly retreat units off the wall. It leaves my units free to capture the wall with low casualties.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

The Hypaspistai I generally use to attack, not hold the line. Thorakitai and Phalangitai hold the line much more cost-effectively. When it comes to attacking the sword is much better than the spear, and it's exasperating to watch my units switch to spears during a prolonged melee (or even worse during the charge.)

They always charge with spears and that's indeed useful as I was informed long time ago.

I mean, if you have such high lethality long swords, why in the world would you bother to hold the line?

This sentence doesn't make much sense. So if you've got a longsword, you don't hold the line? Holding the line, keeping formation is essential for surviving and subsequently winning the battle, although I admit they would perform much better with spears when holding the line.

As I'm in a Seleucid campaign right now, I can choose much better elites than the Hypaspistai, namely the TAB and the Peltastai Makedonikoi. They're better in their roles of line holding and attacking (Peltestai have an added option of flanking utilizing that extra stamina), respectively, and have defense values suitable for their job.

Peltastai Makedonikoi are much better suited for attacking than for holding the line. Hypaspistai are excellent at holding the line. They are basically excellent in any job that doesn't consist of running around. As are Kuarothoroi etc.