What's the point in elite units?

[The Stranger]

the ai is unable to use any missile units properly so its fine. i usually just recruit mass phalanx and autoresolve. but with that army vs a player, i doubt you will do well. you have too few units that can stand up to a charge of a heavy cavalry archer unit such as the FM of saka rauka or sarmatians.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Against the AI, I find a sensible mix of Klerouchoi & Pantodapoi phalangitai is actually very effective when backed up with some heavy cavalry and plenty of missile units of your own.

Some careful maneouvering allows you to create a "crescent" (with plenty of gaps, mind you) of phalanx moving around. The AI will be largely preoccupied with the mass of pikes and spend its arrows on them, but the Klerouchoi are relatively well armoured enough to survive the worst of it and easily replenished anyway. The pantodapoi are useful as moderately armoured axemen that can stand up to most cavalry and medium infantry, even when flanked.

The heavy cavalry must deal with the enemy general, and as the AS you get what is arguably the best cavalry for that job as part of your FM bodyguard forces (Hetairoi). The masses of missile units are there to whittle down the enemy, and again easily replaced.

You'll suffer losses, but you should be able to replenish them fairly easily and also fairly cheaply. Also, you can essentially replace all of these units with the local mercenaries which means a two-stack army can hold out for quite some time.

Ironically, though, this army would never work without its elite component: the heavy cavalry. It's extremely doubtful that you would get lucky enough to see all enemy generals die quickly as opposed to a protracted melee while they attempt to hack their way through your infantry. And to avoid the worst of that, or at least speed up the melee significantly and reduce casualties on your side you need EB's most versatile elite cavalry: the hetairoi. Fast enough, good stammina (and they'll need it), vicious in a melee, with a good shock impact, and crucially: their effect remains even when their unit is downsized. Even in your small 30 men unit configurations, they continue to be simply the most reliable tool to open up and tear apart those 70 men cataphract units that the AI gets for bodyguards while still being fast and resilient enough to chase down light horse archers.

[The Stranger]

hetairoi are really nice, but the sarmatian FM are the best. too bad that their overal campaign is a bit dull. parthia is a good 2nd, but once you get the hang of it, theyre also pretty easy :P in the end ive always liked AS the best