Fairly New to EB - Some questions

[Spartan498]

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.

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

Thanks everyone!

[Ca Putt]

Welcome Spartan498,

1: often it is mentioned in the unit name or at least in the discription. but beeing Elite is not everything : Elite armenian/pontian swordsmen.

2: Afaik the moral bonus is bugged and does not really work.

3: basically everything with an axe a club/mace or a fancy shaped sword(the Kopis/falcatas or the falx or the weapon the indian guild warriors) is armor piercing. Sling projectiles are Armor piercing aswell.

4. I think the strongest would be the late bactrian ones but in terms of efficiency I'm not sure at all.

[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.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

1. You can't. Basically, 'elite' troops always cost more than than regular units of the same basic type (spearman, swordsman, cavalryman, whatever) from the same faction. Don't compare with other factions since their pricing structure could be different. Greeks have to pay more for everything than Gauls do, for instance, Greeks demand more pay. There are no cheap elites!

2. The morale rating isn't listed, so you have to rely on unit descriptions. Buildings that add morale to units built there will improve the rating.

3. Units which say 'effective against armour' definitely are. Other units may be, or may not be. Slingers are armour piercing, archers are not.

4. Best cavalry bodyguards? Lots of them are the best in their local region. Gauls are the best in the north-west, Macedon are the best in civilised Mediterranean, the Parthians, Sauromatae and Saka all have very good bodyguards too.


.

[Drunk Clown]

3. Units which say 'effective against armour' definitely are. Other units may be, or may not be. Slingers are armour piercing, archers are not.

But which unit is better? Slingers or archers?

4. Best cavalry bodyguards? Lots of them are the best in their local region. Gauls are the best in the north-west, Macedon are the best in civilised Mediterranean, the Parthians, Sauromatae and Saka all have very good bodyguards too.

Iberii Lancers?

[artavazd]

But which unit is better? Slingers or archers?

Iberii Lancers?

slingers are better against armor while archers are better against non armoured or lightly armoured troops.

[Duguntz]

sauromate FM are the best cav in the whole game.... they're the Tanks Tiger IV of antiquity, immo4rtal to arrows with a 42 charge... (when not retrained)

[Fluvius Camillus]

Well most of your stuff has been answered already so I add some stuff.

1. Most elite units can be recognized by their name, they usually have elite or royal and sometimes noble. A unit with heavy in the name is usually not elite but a level lower (still very strong).

Apart from that it is quite easy to guess. Sacred Band for instance is easily catagorized.

4. Sauromatae all the way, I did a custom battle test, one group of Sauro BG (heavily upgraded) against 2400 gallic swordsmen. I think the Sauro's barely lost half.

But really, a good cavalry commander can use Sauro BGs to wipe the enemy off the face of the earth. Also the ultra armoured late Hayasdan, Pahlava and Baktrian fms are near invincible in the hands of the player. Saka late BG is just almost as good as the Sauro, only thing is they don't shoot arrows.

~Fluvius

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

sauromate FM are the best cav in the whole game.... they're the Tanks Tiger IV of antiquity, immo4rtal to arrows with a 42 charge... (when not retrained)

They are definitely overpowered. I just used a 41-strong Sauro FM (who was out of arrows) to charge a full strength unit of 162 Greek levy hoplites head on - and they annihilated the hoplites in straight-up melee (no repeated charging) without losing a single man!