Your favorite unit

[fomalhaut]

What unit do you just smile or feel confident when you see them on the field on your side? They can be your old faithful, the foundation of your formations, really versatile or just plain cool looking!

for me it is the Thrakian Peltast


To me, personally, they are the coolest looking unit in the entire game. They look rugged, dark armor and cape and a damn scythe! They are incredibly versatile as warriors as they are better peltasts than any other Hellenic Peltast i've used and are very reliable infantry and usually do a great job of holding the line, or better yet, flanking.

As Epeiros playing as Syrakuse migration campaign, i can't yet train these guys myself. But a certain general of mine has always been accompanied by at least 2 Units of these guys, going personally to Helles to handpick any replacements. I always have this cool thought that they are this feared and respected arm of my Syrakusan army, as they are regarded as barbaroi by everyone else but they would never tell them that to their face as they are only kept back by their allegiance to my Agrianne General (i don't know if historically Agriannes and Thrakians got along or what, but ill assume theyll cooperate more with a 'barbarian' than a Molossos or Hellen)

[Olaf The Great]

I've always been quite fond of the Germanic Pikemen...and the entire Baktrian roster, especially the Indo-Greek Elites.

[Harkilaz]

Gaizoz Frije (Germanic Levy Spearmen) are my favorite. Reliable, numbers and do most of the hard work for me, holding the line for my other units to attack from rear and flank.

[WinsingtonIII]

For me, it's Dugundiz (Germanic Spearmen)



They are extremely versatile. They can hold a line if need be, they can block flank attacks, they can take a cavalry charge and beat cavalry in melee, and they are mobile enough to flank on their own. Plus, they are quite good in close-quarters melee, they tend to be very difficult to rout, and they have javelins. Their only downside is their lack of armor, which makes them vulnerable to missiles.

In general I find all the mobile spear units like this (Theurophoroi, Hoplitai, Celto-Hellenic Infantry, etc) to be very versatile, I just have a special spot for Dugundiz because they seem nigh-unbreakable in a Sweboz campaign with the amount of experience they get when trained and how great your generals tend to be.

[fomalhaut]

damn the german units must be pretty good for all three of you to love them so. i've only played on barbarian campaign as the Lusotan and i was really disappointed with their small unit roster

[Ca Putt]

the sweboz roster is even smaller yet about all of their units are very usefull, even the skutjans, second worsed archer but really usefull in the early sweboz campaign and thus ultra veteran later on^^

even tho there probably were myriads of these threads already, I'll join the fun:

Illyrian hippeis - second cheapest lance cavalry(aorsi riders afaik) availible as mercenaries in the hottest spot(ie most provinces and factions) of the map. good charge cool secondaries and great stamina. perfect unit to bolster/replace your cavalry on campaign especially for KH and Sweboz(and saba) or to train how to use cavalry in EB :D as they die otherwise^^.

runner up: Hoplitai haploi,Germanic swordsmen, Chatti youthlings, baltic frontiersmen, all horse archers with a lance, Parthian cataphracts, Early baktrian BGs, babylonian heavies, lusotann rastamen, Kinsmen cav several getai units and the utterly useless massilian hoplites(but they look cool and have a nice concept^^)

[WinsingtonIII]

damn the german units must be pretty good for all three of you to love them so.

Part of it is the fact you get lots of nice experience bonuses from buildings in a typical Sweboz campaign, so your units start with 3-4 chevrons when trained and are much better than you would expect. On the other hand, they tend to lack armor so against any missile-heavy faction you will quickly see their weaknesses (or when they take on a phalanx frontally).

Illyrian hippeis - second cheapest lance cavalry(aorsi riders afaik) availible as mercenaries in the hottest spot(ie most provinces and factions) of the map. good charge cool secondaries and great stamina. perfect unit to bolster/replace your cavalry on campaign especially for KH and Sweboz(and saba) or to train how to use cavalry in EB :D as they die otherwise^^.

I do love these guys, they're so fast and cheap, and they can do a lot of damage if used correctly.

[Randal]

Thirded!

In my Roman campaign, I keep a small a-historical rebel-mopping stack composed of 8 units of Illyrian cavalry and nothing else.



Hunting down small rebel stacks can be a boring chore, and I often auto-resolve those battles, but any rebels around the Balkans get attacked by these guys instead. Deploy in two 4-unit wedges, frontal charge, and even half-stacks of rebels break pretty much instantly. Never gets old. Makes for a fun change from my "serious" battles.

I imagine these Illyrians are like the cavalry in those old western movies, charging in at the last minute to save the day. They even have the right kind of hats.

[The_Blacksmith]

Im a great fan of the Illyrioi Hippies as well Randal... they just saved my Epeirote campaign...

[DaciaJC]

These fellows, Drapanai:



Effective as hell, cheap as dirt, and plain fun to watch when they're chopping up poor blokes with their falces.

[Molinaargh]

If it's just the one favorite, then:

Cheap, can retrain almost everywhere, extrmely powerful.

Others I like:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[moonburn]

lusos medium for me

for lower tier nothing beats the old haploi

for cavarly the illirians are dirt cheap and 10 times more cost effective then any other cavarly in the mediterranean but for a proper army lusos medium infantry for the win with whatever you can gather of the castrati for the flanking altough the lusos lighter infantry are pretty good also to tire up the enemy and take out a few skirmishers with their javelins (if you play with 3 lines of diferent soldiers you´ll know how usefull they can be particulary when it´s time to take on the celtiberians of numantia)

[Walle]

These guys. Effective and versatile, they always get the job done against pretty much anyone. The backbone of my Pahlavan army.

[Atraphoenix]

These guys. Effective and versatile, they always get the job done against pretty much anyone. The backbone of my Pahlavan army.

Although they are more expensive than yours I still prefer these guys.

[Walle]

Although they are more expensive than yours I still prefer these guys.

I agree, those are fantastic. They form the elite of my army however, so I can't spam them as much

[Imperator Invictus]

my favorites are the Cantabrian Riders

[Cute Wolf]

hoplitai haploi and sphendonetai will crush most of those uber expensive units anyway

those two are my favourites all time

[G. Septimus]

hoplitai haploi and sphendonetai will crush most of those uber expensive units anyway

those two are my favourites all time

I can crush those with a couple of Polybian Hastati

[Rahwana]

I can crush those with a couple of Polybian Hastati

O really, hoplitai haploi in guard mode tying your hastati and sphendonetai bombarding their backs. Face it, the only way to reliably counter them is catass frontal charge

of course, microing with anything will work for that stupid AI, but anyway, Hoplitai-slinger combo always work well in EB against any AI except cataphracts

[Tyrfingr]

Having played four campaigns recently in western Europe (Sweboz, Arverni, Romani and koinon) I have found that these guys are extremely versatile. AP-axes (which is a must against the romani who usually spams triariis and elite allied infantry), good stamina and good defense.



Also, these guys are a must if you're playing Sweboz:

[fomalhaut]

I think Jewish Spearmen might take the spot for one of my favorites now. Just got to Jerusalem and they are a reliable line infantry unlike ANYTHING else the Sabyn have. Yeah I can get Nobles... from across the desert. And Red Sea Hoplites have proven to be absolutely worthless

[WinsingtonIII]

I think Jewish Spearmen might take the spot for one of my favorites now. Just got to Jerusalem and they are a reliable line infantry unlike ANYTHING else the Sabyn have. Yeah I can get Nobles... from across the desert. And Red Sea Hoplites have proven to be absolutely worthless

Yeah, Ioudai Taxeis are a great line unit in the Levant if you don't want to use phalanxes but need something with decent staying power and good morale.

[fomalhaut]

Yeah the are definitely going to be a mainstay in my army when i can actually build an army again.

[A_Dane]

Eastern slingers. They're god send when playing as Armenia, dirt cheap and do loads of dmg to the sele spam armies of doom.
I don't really have any heavy cav prefferences, the armenian heavy cav are good, but compared to my lovely insanely high xp'ed slingers? no chance :p (although i do use heavy cav extensively to take out generals and breaking the last elites :D)

[Atraphoenix]

Eastern slingers. They're god send when playing as Armenia, dirt cheap and do loads of dmg to the sele spam armies of doom.
I don't really have any heavy cav prefferences, the armenian heavy cav are good, but compared to my lovely insanely high xp'ed slingers? no chance :p (although i do use heavy cav extensively to take out generals and breaking the last elites :D)

But they need at least 4-5 points of exp chevron to have a scratch on elites.
ANOTHER REBEL SCUM! HUNT THEM DOWN
You will like ai rebels, no matter which faction I play I always use them as my cannon fodder for my slingers or archers.

[Duguntz]

Worgozez. DEFINITLY! If we're speaking ONLY about main units, I'd have to say... Gosh, the whole Sweboz roster! Even their levy kick asses when the temples Deiwoz temple is upgraded to the max! you train silver chevron units, fresh out of teh factory! but I've a special hit for teh slogonez. Those club units will hack through anything wearing armour!

[QuintusSertorius]

Tough call. For infantry it's either



Or



Or



For cavalry, it's definitely

[vartan]

Steppe Riders. As Hayasdan online I abuse these guys extensively. Cheap light cav to harass with and close in for the kill. No need for armour. Speed, arrows and a lance are all I need to get the job done.

[A_Dane]

But they need at least 4-5 points of exp chevron to have a scratch on elites.
ANOTHER REBEL SCUM! HUNT THEM DOWN
You will like ai rebels, no matter which faction I play I always use them as my cannon fodder for my slingers or archers.

By the time the seles are throwing elites at me i usually have 3-4 slingers with 1 gold chevron, they're escorted around the battlefield by a fam member while the rest hunt down the enemy cavalry/ archers, once the latter is done, i simply move my inf slowly back so my slingers can shoot the seleucids to pieces :D

Later game i do however switch them out with some AP meele units, too much of a hazzle to micro manage them when i got income enough to actually replace lost untis :p

[Rahwana]

Later game i do however switch them out with some AP meele units, too much of a hazzle to micro manage them when i got income enough to actually replace lost untis :p

and once you start mindless swamping with mass units in melee, your generals start to earn less command stars as well....