Faction with best Army

[Lord Winter]

What in your option is the faction with the best army in RTW. I think cathrage because they have good spear inf., Heavy Cav. missile calvary plus elepehents.

[Papewaio]

No real best one, but the Selecuid empire has such a good range in both which they can raise and hire.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Yeah, depends what you want in an army tbh. It might be lots of heavy cavalry as a shock force that you can send in to break-up enemy skirmishes for example, or counter an AI/human cavalry charge. In this case, Parthia, Seleucids, Macedonians, Scythians etc are what you need.

If you want a core of specialist heavy infantry, the Germans are probably the best choice since they have effective shock troops (Night Raiders), misc (Screechers), as well as close-combat specialists (Chosen Axes, Beserkers).

Then again, you might want to overload with archers in your army, so a faction like Dacia, Scythia, Gaul etc will do a good job against vunerable enemy infantry with low armour ratings.

If you're playing multiplayer, let your opponents chose their factions first, then pick a good faction to counter them with.

[Lord Winter]

Yeah, depends what you want in an army tbh.

Good point A better tiltle for this thred would be what is your favorite army.
In a army i like good mobile calvery and fair inf.

[Garvanko]

Carthage don't have specialist archers. But they probably have the best army overall. Just.

Depends on your preference, though, as others have said.

[Dutch_guy]

Imo SE have the best army , allong with the Romans.

The SE has the best units all round, maybe not the best archer units, but infantry and cav. is on par with the Romans.

And better than other factions.

[Yukon Cornelius]

If you want a core of specialist heavy infantry, the Germans are probably the best choice since they have effective shock troops (Night Raiders), misc (Screechers), as well as close-combat specialists (Chosen Axes, Beserkers).

Eh, you seem a bit off here. Chosen Axemen and Berserkers are better shock troops than Night Raiders while the raiders are more likely to survive a prolonged melee. The former both have crazy high attack but pitiful defense (though the 'zerkers do have multiple hit points) while the latter has strong attack (14 IIRC, which matches Urban Cohorts) but tolerable defense as well (10-ish instead of the 5 or 6 of the others). Note that the raiders have armor and shields, unlike Chosen Axemen and Berserkers. Armor counts for a lot more than "defense skill" since armor is non-directional while shields bring arrow protection ("defense skill" and shield points are about even in melee -- both protect the front and one flank, the only difference being which flank).

[Slicendice]

I think the Germans have the best. You can play the entire game with just their spearman. Plus by the time you get halfway through they are very tough troops. The German Cavalry is cheap and good. While some of the more specialized infantry are nice to have around they are slow to build, require special structures, and if you are an advancing army this will make them hard to reinforce. The Axemen are good enough and only slightly less capable than NightRaiders. By the time you get them you should have sufficient leadership and experience to make them work. Remember you have to keep your army moving and take those provinces fast or the enemy will counter-attack. Germany has that ability.
Carthage, (and others) are resource restricted. They just can't build elephant units anywhere they want. This makes conquering Europe a little tedious if you put your elephants into the fray.

Countless times I have smashed armies 5 times my strenght with just German noble cavalry and barbarian cavalry. If I have spearman they can hold the line long enough for my cav to flank and the powerful charge bonus does the rest.

[Garvanko]

With Carthage you only really need elephants to fight the Romans, the Greeks and the Egyptians.. depending on your expansion. Otherwise, Rond Shields/Long Shields are good enough. And you get Sacred Band Cav..

Nevertheless, I agree German Cav are excellent.

[Rodion Romanovich]

In multiplayer, Romans win most of the time. Seleucids also got a pretty good army.

I think the flexibility of these two is more important than the strengths in individual aspects that the other factions have.

[Abokasee]

(slaps everyone who thinks sythia or romans or anything are the best) The truth is that.. it depends what kind of player you are!

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

As far as the frighten_foot feature of Night Raiders, I feel that it makes them even better as line infantry since the morale penalty will apply throughout the fight. I think frighten_foot applies whenever you're within a certain distance of the frightening unit, so it probably doesn't matter whether you flank with them or not (so long as you keep them close). I just prefer to use them as the main fighting force due to their additional staying power. The absolute certainty that the fear factor hits my opponent is icing on the cake. I generally don't use a unit *because* it causes fear so much as I do it because they have other perks.

I understand your tactics - your enemy will be continually insecure whilst fighting against the frightfully appearing raiders. Have you played BI yet? One of the best features CA have included here is a visible morale indication of both your own units, and that of your enemies (when they are in close enough proximity to your army that is). Simply leave your cursor over any unit in your own or another army, and there current state of mind is displayed. For example, "Feeling safe knowing that the flanks are secure", "Unhappy over taking casualties", "Fleeing in panic and oblivious to the world", "Dismayed at losing the battle" etc.

When I play Germania (and I haven't in quite some time -- I enjoy the speeches and Senate politics too much as the Roman), I typically build Night Raiders for my line infantry since Spear Warbands make battles far too easy (generally, phalanx = player wins, regardless of who fields the phalanx). I sometimes add some Chosen Axemen or Berserkers, usually as flankers though sometimes as part of the main infantry body.

I'm currently playing an Allemani campaign (VH/VH - this is Very Hard ). You can train almost identical units to the original Germans in RTW. Main differences are that they wear more armour, but the new beserkers especially can tear through formations:





The Allemani can train Spear Warband (no phalanx capability now, but they can run with spears and can also form Schiltrom), Chosen Axemen, Night Raiders, Lombard Beserkers (who can go into Heroic Bloodlust state of mind ), Wardogs, Barbarian Cavalry, Burgundian Lancers, Noble Cavalry, Chosen Archers, Lombard Archers, Onagers etc.

You can always take phalanx capability away from existing spearmen in RTW, thats what I did to Nubian Spearmen - unrealistic in the first place.

I usually choose Chosens over Berserkers because of their AP bonus and size. Berserkers count as roughly triple size due to their three hit points, so I consider them a "36" man unit instead of 12. Chosens, however, have 40 men per unit. Since retraining a unit does not lower its average valour, the fact that any given berserker is more likely to survive a fight than a single axeman is irrelevant. In terms of combat power, 'zerkers aren't really much stronger than Chosens anyway (+1 attack, -1 defense).

Chosens as you say have the advantage of armour-piercing attack, which essentially halves opponents' armour values. This is why I like to use them in an opening, as I'll know they'll cut through opponents (even Romans) like there's no tomorrow. Once you've carved a path through the enmies lines, send your cavalry through the hole in wedge formation and then you can do some serious damage. Alternatively, pin the enemy in position with spears / wardogs, then flank / assault at mercy from several angles with heavy infantry and heavy cavalry. And so on...

IMO, all of the Roman factions in RTW are too overpowered in the first place. This is why I took up modding, and removed their 'fantasy' heavy legionary and praetorian cavalry (the Romans were reknowned for their infantry after all, and recruited many of their auxiliaries / supporting troops from the borders / conquered regions), arcani, urban cohorts etc.

Egypt in vanilla 1.2 are also overpowered, with their dirt-cheap Pharoah's Guards & Pharoah's Bowmen. Plus their 40 / 80 Desert Cavalry, 60 / 120 Bowmen, and 27 / 54 Chariots per unit. Just spam tbh

[Seleukos]

for Rtw,i think...
romans have the strongest units,for the money u pay for them.
Seleucids have the most completed army-
carthage has a huge minus-not archers at all and the elephants are easy for a solid phalanx some archers or pigs!
anyway,its a bit individual the subject -best army.
personally,i play best with macedonians ,maybe cause i am macedonian :P

[SIGNIFER,LEGIOVIICLAUDIA]

Egypt is also very powerfull and Gaul has formidable archrers,the forester warband.

[Garvanko]

carthage has a huge minus-not archers at all

Armoured Elephants?

[Slicendice]

The archers on the armored elephants are not very effective for the money.

Why mention Gaul at all. Besides the Forester Warband their units are crap. Of course if all you want to do is hang back and shoot up the enemy with archers and go in with their noble cavalry that's fine. But with a determined enemy your forces will be over run.

I still think Germans are the best. No they don't have chariots, but frankly I don't care. I can't stand chariots. It always seems hit or miss with them. Plus they are so unwieldy and not very dependable. I'd rather flank with some Barb Cavalry or Noble Cav. while my phalanx is holding the line.

But to be sure there is no faction I can't play and beat all the others. Which of course is the primary reason I didn't buy BI. There is just no way I can tilt the odds against me without doing reckless and stupid stuff in the game.

[Garvanko]

The archers on the armored elephants are not very effective for the money.

.

Dunno about that. When trained and experienced they offer tremendous versatility, both as missile and in melee. Probably the best support unit for moving infantry I can think off. Plus they fire while theyre moving, unlike specialist archers.

I agree with you about chariots. I disagree with you about BI. Buy it.

[Seleukos]

Armoured Elephants?

Elephant's superiority depends of course on the fear they cause and on their unstoppable charge.

Keeping them back firing arrows for much time,as a true missile unit is not really a wise tactic.

[Petsman]

Seleucid Empire has the best army.
By the way the army would a combination of German/Roman heavy infantry, Greek Phalanx, Seleucid Cavarly , German/egyptian archers and the support troops from Carthage.