Mercs?

[Arrowhead]

Hi, and here's another stupid (and slightly off topic) thead.
What is your favorite merc? Apart from zudean zealots and merc 'phants?
(off topic) BTW If you think that my threads are stupid tell me.

[Dutch_guy]

Creten Archers, their just so good , especialy (?) in the beginning of the game when archer units were hard to get. The stats are better than most archers
and i find that they don't rout on site of a cavalry charge.

[Oaty]

Barbarian mercanaries. There easy to find, come in masses and great for entertaining a flank while your real troops do the work........ at the other flank. Hey who said war was fair even for the winning side

[Red Harvest]

With mercs I find it is not so much what is best, but what does your faction really need or lack? Balearics are the mainstay for my Carthaginian and Spanish missile corps and I use them carefully. Merc Numidian cav are very useful in the Africa (and a must for chasing down Numidians.) Cretan archers are good all around, and should be snapped up wherever they are found, if not needed by you then simply to deny the AI such a potent unit.

As Roman factions early on I snatch up Samnites and sometimes hoplites for anti cavalry--but I modified the Samnites and other non-phalanx spears from +4 to +8 mount effects. The vanilla Samnites should be better than they are vs. cav (same is true for most non-phalanx spears.) I exclude units like townwatch and the like from mount effect adjustment because they are peasant level.

As Germania I desperately need cav early on, so I buy all the barbarian cav I can find.

[KiOwA]

Rhodian and Belaric merc slingers can also wreak some real havoc on enemy forces, if you learn to position them in front of your units so they don't cut a swathe through YOUR units.