Britannia

[Empirate]

Concerning cavalry-heavy AI armies: The only ones I've ever really seen were, strange to say, Macedonians. Full stacks of Light Lancers and Companions. The "horse archer factions" rely on their few kinds of infantry a lot. I've seen Pontus and Armenia fielding stack upon stack of Eastern Infantry and whatnot, only occasionally supported by three or four horse archers. Same goes for Parthia. The Scythians seem to love Axemen, but they'll also field a lot of horse archers alright.
The only thing I ever had to worry about with these factions is the super-heavy Cataphracts or Cataphract archers. But these will come in small numbers, so never fear.

Elephants are a similar matter: I've never seen the AI field a lot of them. Fire arrows and swamping with massive numbers work like a charm to set them into panic mode. After that, just keep out of their way if you can. Still, a nuisance, I must admit. Try luring them with light chariots.

To be honest, my beloved rush strategy that I employ with all factions I'm playing whenever possible may make me a bit biased on these topics. I've yet to play a campaign that takes a hundred years...

[aWisler]

ive never fought britannia or played them, do they have archers at all? i love using archers so i wouldnt play them if i couldnt use them. also, i dont know why but i cant post a new topic so while im asking about archers, what factions can make them? i know roman factions, greece, egypt and macedon i think. ive never seen macedon use archers but all other factions ive played ive never seen any form of archers and ive played 3 campaigns where i conquered even more than 50 provinces.

[Roman_Man#3]

briton doesnt have archers, and macedon doesnt either if i remember correctly. scythia does, and i think dacia and thrace do too. gaul do, im pretty sure germans do, egypt does, numidia do, armenia do, pontus do, parthia do.

[aWisler]

ahhh ok thank you, now i just have to decide germania or gaul i geuss.

[Roman_Man#3]

np. but remember, im not sure if germania does, and gauls takes 2 turns to train but is one of the best archers in the game.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Britain, in Vanilla, does have chariot archers. They are standard ranged, need a larg edeployment aream and only have 36 shooters (unless you superload) but their hitting power is in the Cretan clas, so they hit hard -- especially against the lighter armored opponents of the early game. Because they fire from up on chariots, they actually cause less fratricides than a foot archer unit when positioned behind the battle line.

Chariot archers can also be used very much like horse archers. Again, fewer shooters (36 v 54) but they hit at 10 v 7 so the power index is pretty close.

[Calgacus]

Guys - this may seem like rather a novice question (and is almost certainly the wrong place to ask it), but can someone please explain to me the concept of hit points? I note that British Chariots get 3, Spartans get 2 and Elephants get ridiculous amounts, but how do they actually function? I understand that it makes the unit, in some way, more difficult to kill, but given that my chariots get turned into a nasty paté of sawdust and Shergar if made to fight in a static defensive position, how do hit points function as distinct from attack and defence points? They don't seem to be toughening my brave blue charioteers up at all...

Any advice on this point would be gratefully received.