Which ranged units do you prefer?

[Sinner]

I'd go for Archer Auxilia: cheap & very long ranged. I can have 2 of those for about the same upkeep as a single Pharoah's Archer.

[Basileus]

I´d go with Cretian Archers, mostly because i can have them behind my spear line and not take friendly fire as with slingers, i use slingers aswell though

[TheDuck]

I find I like em all. Slingers, archers, javelin men (a la velites and the other assorted types).

They all have their uses.

I prefer to get an opposing army 'softened up' a bit before closing to melee.. Much less casualties because:

o less numbers to face in melee
o they break quicker when thinned down by archer fire.

It follows the MTW model.. the more casualties, the lower the morale. I've gotten so good at this in my normal/normal campaign I'm strongly considering starting over or at least doing a new campaign on hard/hard to increase my chances of losing. Even highly outnumbered situations I'll only lose a few hundred guys....

My typical post-Marian Julii force:

8 leg. cohorts
2 samnite gladiators
2 auxila
4 archer auxilia (these guys do most of the killing)
1 legionary cav.
2 onagers
general

When the AI refuses immediate melee I just use my archers to kill kill kill.

[Dorkus]

forester warband are, imo, the best ranged units in the campaign.

gauls have an exp 3 temple AND a missile 3 temple.

Build foresters in the exp city and upgrade them in a nearby missile city (can't do it vice versa), and you have 21 missile (170m range), 17 atk (missile upgrades affect melee stats of missile units, lol), 11 def, 8 charge, fast moving, hide anywhere. Really ridiculous. Each unit can take on 2-3 urban units without losing a man. Even if you chase them down with cav, they put a serious hurting on even the best cav in the game.

[Akka]

I love the Auxiliary Archers.

They are decently armoured, they shoot far, and they shoot hard.
And they're cheap to buy and maintain.

They aren't the best shoot unit in the game, but they are the STANDARD shoot unit for Romans. For a standard, regular unit, they are insanely powerful.

[DisruptorX]

Is this a trick question?

Cataphract archers. Can't be hurt by missles and are deadly in close combat.

[andrewt]

Well, if you are including all units with missiles, you can't go wrong with armored elephants. They'd beat cataphract archers.