Fairly New to EB - Some questions

[The Celtic Viking]

Hi everyone. Been a lurker for a few weeks but this is my first post. I'm fairly new to EB but a long time Total War fanatic. I have a couple questions i'm hoping someone can help me out with.

Welcome to the world of posting!

1. I hear a lot of talk about "elite" units. How do you tell when looking at the unit card whether it's elite or not?

Reading their description is generally the best way to find that out. Some even have "elite" in their names.

2. Also, when looking at a unit, you can easily see their experience, armor, weapon upgrades but how do you tell what kind of morale they have? I know that the unit cards say good moral, very good morale, excellent morale etc......but does that change when you build a unit in a town that has +3 morale buildings for instance?

Sadly, you can't view the units' morale in-game. To see that you need to open the export_descr_unit file located in RTW-folder\EB\Data. AFAIK the morale bonuses from buildings are bugged (uncurable for the EB team, I might add) and either don't give morale bonuses at all, or only to the units fighting in that city (as in defending a siege assault). This doesn't make that type of temples useless, since they tend to enable traits for your generals/governors there that raise morale instead.

3. I read in some posts how some units are armour piercing but I don't usually see the "Affective against armour" trait on their unit card. Must it say that on the unit card to truly be affective against armour?

No. I don't know the exact reasons for this; it could be that only the primary weapon's stats are shown, and their secondary weapon is the AP one. It could be (which is my belief) that the unit card can only show x specs, and the unit has x+y (where y > 0) specs, and the AP trait is left out. Or it can be both, both + some other reason, or some completely different reason that I simply don't know of. Bottom line is, though, that a unit with AP doesn't always have it shown in the unit card. Once again it's safest to turn to the unit description and remembering that axes and maces are generally AP, as are slingshots.

4. Lastly, what faction do you think has the best Cavalry bodyguards? I absolutely love using killer family members on horse.

Oh, that must be some eastern faction. Sauromatae? Pahlava? Saka Rauka? Hayasdan? I don't hang around there much (my naked guys only want one stick hanging from their bodies, and that area tend to interfere with that goal), so I can't say for sure. Some might even argue for the Greek Somatophylakes Strategaou for their nicely balanced armour:mobility ratio; all those I've mentioned above, though, are excellent choices as far as cavalry generals goes.

Thanks everyone!

No problem.