Research: the best foot unit

[TinCow]

That's only true if the enemy archers outnumber you. Lately I've taken to packing 8-9 Chosen Archer Warbands in each of my Dacian armies. Any enemy archers that get within range drop to 30 men or less within moments, with minimal casualties on my side. I've been using the Archers to hold the front line... turned off skirmish and turned on guard. Shoot as much as possible until the enemy closes to melee. Let the archers absorb the melee hit and hold the enemy line, then charge Chosen Swordsmen through them into the enemy line and flank with any unengaged infantry/archers or cavalry.

The Chosen Archers can easily hold up long enough against full legionary cohorts that escaped the arrow barrage and keep them pinned while my flanks do their work. I'm almost praying I get assaulted in a captured Roman city... I would love to see my archers defending the walls. Pouring death onto the enemy and then slaughtering them if they scale the walls.

[Quillan]

While my Gauls were conquering Macedonia, I was besieged by the Macedonians right after I had captured Thessalonica from the. I sallied, put my 4 units of Foresters on the ramparts, and unloaded. Their entire army retreated from the field the casualties were so high. Those phalanx units were too slow to get out of archer range. They didn't even do the "sit under fire until destroyed" bit; they started pulling back immediately.

[Lord Ovaat]

Forrester war band is awesome and the best archer unit in my mind but the 2 turns you need to train them is what makes chosen archers a better unit, i would still chose forresters though :D

Totally unfair. It only takes one turn to produce an auxilia archer, though it does take two to produce Pharoah's Archers who have similar stats. That's why I went into the stat sheets and changed the "2" to a "1". Man it's tough goin' up against the Gauls, now.

[slackker]

well a well placed calvary charge and even war dogs make pretty quick waste of archers ;) and almost everything else

[Quillan]

You have to watch out for some of these elite archer units, Slackker. If they are in skirmish mode, they'll try and run, which is fine, but if they are not in skirmish mode, they can cause a surprising number of casualties. I've had the foresters stand up and beat a general with bodyguard in a melee slugfest. They took heavy casualties doing it, but they won.