First let me say what an incredible mod EB is and that I have wasted (or spent, as I tell myself) hundreds of hours enjoying this great game. The developers really are heroes of the video game industry and its impossible to overestimate the credit due unto them.
Alright, so you are playing as your favorite faction, you conquer your homeland, develop your economy and prepare to subjugate your nearest neighbor. You have been getting by with early game units so far, maybe supplemented with some heavier mercenaries and you have finished constructing higher level barracks in your core regions. You crank out an army of your factions more expensive troops and send them out to battle! Your enemy grudgingly musters his forces and marches to meet you in combat. If you're the Romani or Pahlava or Lussutannan your triarii, or cataphractoi or dunaminica tear through the enemy with unprecedented impetus, hurling the lifeless bodies of your foes onto the cold earth like so many dead leaves. If however, you (like me) are a die hard Hayasdan fan you notice something a little different happens. You charge your hardcore-looking Armenian Medium Infantry into the shoddy untrained ranks of Seleucid levies, only to see your magnificent army routed like a bunch of perfumed effeminates! True, your deadly armored horse archers will eventually win the battle but you are hugely disappointed by the performance of some of your coolest looking units!
Armenian Medium Infantry
primary weapon= sword
Cost= 1800ish, upkeep is 450
damage= 12
javies= 6
Charge bonus= 6
defense= 21
Both historically accurate and visually awesome, the Armenian Medium infantry looks good on paper, except their defense does seem a little low for someone so expensive and armored in iron. But my question is, why do much cheaper spear units slaughter them? Their description says they are "designed for a frontal assault on Hellenic pike infantry", but Parthian spear men beat them 1 on 1 about 70% of the time. Germanic levy spearmen rout them half the time for Armazhad's sake (don't get me started how easily real "Hellenic pike infantry" kill them). After fighting dozens of campaign battles with them, and finding Anatolian hill-men way better for flanking at half the cost, I disbanded all but a few of the unit I was most excited about using. With a few notable exceptions (Celtic lesser kings, dunaminica and such) I have found swordsmen in general inferior to their spear wielding equivalents of the same cost, especially considering how swordsmen get slaughtered in cavalry charges.
So what is the problem, the low lethality of the short sword? multiple ranks being unable to attack simultaneously? they need to be crappy to balance the powerful Hayasdan Cavalry? my poor tactical decisions?
I yearn to hear everyone's thoughts on the matter, and hope people will give a quick post if they too have a unit that did not live up to their expectations.
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