Best Unit in the game?

[Es Arkajae]

I have a soft spot in my heart for the mighty Spanish Bull Warrior.

It has only half the defence of an Urban but it has 2 hit points so it more than makes up for that, it has one less point of attack however with warcry it gets a big bonus (its +4 isn't it?) which is improved further in woods with another bonus. It also has a higher charge bonus (5 as opposed to 4).

Like the Urban it is fast, it has only slightly less stamina (good instead of very good) and it also has excellent morale.

It's also buildable much earlier than an Urban Cohort.

[Craterus]

they are really great mercenaries i agree... they aren't always availabel to recruit though

[Mikeus Caesar]

best infantry=urban cohort/bastarnae mercenaries

Those bastardized mercenaries are great!! Whenever i'm losing a battle, and i have nearly no men left except for a unit of bastardized mercenaries or their counterparts, thracian mercs, then they are just great for throwing in there and getting you a phyrric victory. They just carve through the enemy ranks. I once had a 37 man unit of them, and they killed half of a 300 strong rebel army. That is how good they are. They're almost as good as rodeo singers (rhodisian slingers).

[Es Arkajae]

they are really great mercenaries i agree... they aren't always availabel to recruit though

What?

Spanish Bull Warriors are a unique Spanish unit mate, they're not a mercenary unit.

[Craterus]

u can recruit a merc unit like them if you are in spain.. i forget their merc name... i think it's spanish mercenaries

[Es Arkajae]

u can recruit a merc unit like them if you are in spain.. i forget their merc name... i think it's spanish mercenaries

Spanish Mercenaries are crap compared to Bull Warriors, you may as well compare Hastati to Urban Cohorts.

Methinks you have no clue what you're talking about mate.

[Bhruic]

Spartans? Give me a 1:1 ration on plain old horse archers and I'll take on as many Spartans as you want to field. And that's not even pulling out Scythian Nobles or Cataphract Archers. Spartans may be impressive when you are facing another infantry heavy army, but if you know you are going against Spartans, why would you do that?

Bh

[Someone Stupid]

peasants - they eat up a ton of population (cheaply) in those dire times that one of your cities just decides to surprise you with a revolt thanks to a poor and drunk gov with a small garrison.

[Viking]

Forester Warband could beat up a unit of Spartans easily.

Just stay out of hand to hand combat, and shoot until you run out of ammunition, then charge the Spartans and they`ll flee like flies!

[Spartan117300]

best infantry unit in the game is the spartans bar none, ive sen them get surrounded, hit in the rear by cav, pelted with fire pots, arrows and javalins, you name it and theyve defeated it. historically and in the game, those guys are the best, end of discussion, as for bowmen........ok, lemme give ya a scenario here, i was defending a greek city while playting online, i had one ally who was greek and we played against 3 egyptians, we blocked the roads with phalanxes and every once in a while sent our cav out to attck any weakspots we noticed, i sent 400 cav against 160 bowmwn, my cav was wiped out...

[imdWALRU5]

SPARTANS ALL THE WAY!!!

Cataphracts are cool too

[Craterus]

I like Cataphracts, but my favourite unit has to be Egyptian Chariot Archers..

I'll take on a unit of Spartans one on one with Chariot Archers any day.

[Count Belisarius]

Without breaking my 'favorites' down by unit type, I'd have to go with Cataphracts. They're not as fast as Companions, they're not as much fun to watch as Armoured Elephants (in R:TW anyway, elephants are much more realistic in R:TR), and they're not as hardy as Spartans. However, that superlative armour gives them great staying power in prolonged hand-to-hand combat, a weakness of the Companions. They are functionally invulnerable to arrow fire, they're fast enough to run around the flank of a phalanx, and the sheer weight and killing power of all that armour makes for a nearly invincible charge. I have had them chopped up pretty good by spiked chariots, but that and elephants are their only weaknesses. Plus, you have to look at accessibility and maintenance cost: you can crank them out with a Level 3 [edit] stable, and they cost a mere 140 denarii (I think) to maintain! This makes them easy to retrain and cheap to have boatloads of them in your order of battle.

[katank]

Cataphracts are level 3 stables. They are indeed 890/140 and trains in a turn.

As for spartans, they are quite overrated when facing missiles, especially ones they can't catch.

There is no way they can pin horse archers into a corner and a competent HA user would make it impossible to have you facing them. Arrows will be coming in from all sides and they will continually shift towards your shieldless side, causing the units to involuntarily turn and gradually get destroyed.

Chosen archer bands don't have less range. All second level archers have 170 range. Foresters used to be worse than PB due to the primary secondary bug giving PBs an edge in melee but this is no longer the case. So what if PBs get a bonus in the desert? Foresters get bonus in snow and woods too IIRC.