Surprised by the Hashashin!

[Scurvy]

small units are great fun to mess around with, although i really stress the need to use them in groups :P 12 are useless but if you have 36 they can take on most units.... similar in beserkers in that way...

[Geezer57]

The most creative use I've read about, involving little units that have the "hide" ability, is in castle assault defenses. One fellow used Hashishin, hidden just inside the outside ring wall and well away from the gatehouses, to keep all his arrow/balista/catapult/etc. towers firing long after other troops had retreated into the inner keep. Sherwood Foresters should work as well - just make sure that "Fire at Will" is turned off, so they don't give themselves away prematurely.

[ajaxfetish]

Is there any ambush advantage if they start firing from hiding, or does it only do any good if you order them straight into a melee attack?

As for cool mod units, in XL I like the Wallachian Mercenary Cavalry, just as fast as steppe or saharan cav, but with some decent staying power. They make excellent scouting/pursuit/envelopment troops. Then of course it's hard to beat Klibanophoroi. Armor-piercing kataphracts with bows have few natural enemies and a wide range of prey. It almost feels like cheating to use them!

Ajax

[Third spearman from the left]

Is there any ambush advantage if they start firing from hiding, or does it only do any good if you order them straight into a melee attack?

As for cool mod units, in XL I like the Wallachian Mercenary Cavalry, just as fast as steppe or saharan cav, but with some decent staying power. They make excellent scouting/pursuit/envelopment troops. Then of course it's hard to beat Klibanophoroi. Armor-piercing kataphracts with bows have few natural enemies and a wide range of prey. It almost feels like cheating to use them!

Ajax

Wallachian cav are good, just managed to build them recently with 1+ valour. Which faction build kataphracts with bows?

[ajaxfetish]

The Byzantines (only in XL, though). They're about as multi-purpose powerful as Boyars and Steppe Heavy Cavalry. Their one weakness compared to these others is their slower speed (and swifter fatigue). You can't run them around quite as much, but their armor and AP makes them even better in hand to hand, so you don't have to run them around as much.

Ajax

[Poleaxe]

I only played as the Byzantines in XL once and if I remember correctly the Klibs dissapeared early, which was a major headache because all my heavy cavalry was Klibs and not Katatanks. Lesson learned.

[ajaxfetish]

Hmm . . . I'd forgotten about that, but now that you mention it they do disappear in late, along with Varangians. So they're very handy in the early game, and if you build enough of them they should be able to last, but will start to get much more precious as of 1320!

Ajax