Regarding unit uses and stats

[econ21]

What I recommend is pick your faction and start a campaign. Go to the building browser for a settlement and right click on the troop producing buildings. They will list what troops you can get at what level. If you right click on the unit, it will pull up the unit card with a full description and the key stats. That way you can see your entire unit line up and what buildings you need to get them. I copied down the stats for England and posted them in the English guide:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...09&postcount=7

Beyond that, M2TW seems very like RTW. Let me take you throw the English roster.

You have the following types:

Missiles - pretty much the same as in RTW; for England in M2TW, these are a key strength.

Swords - relatively more powerful than RTW, although I guess you could say armoured swordsmen are England's cohorts. Perfect for sieges (attacking or defending). Arguably the toughest units in the game.

Poleaxes - AP heavy infantry without shields; higher attack, lower defence than swords. Good flankers.

Spears - best for receiving a cavalry charge, but otherwise pretty lousy for England.

Cavalry - devastating charge like RTW, but much less robust to counter-attack

Artillery - I haven't played around much with these, but helps reduce losses in sieges: blast towers, units on walls etc before sending in the breaching parties.

Within each category, just shoot for the best in class. This makes billmen pretty redundant, for example, when you have dismounted English knights. Purchase price may be a good summary statistic, as it is supposed to be balanced for MP.

Other factions have more "exotic" (to English eyes) stuff - pikes, halberds, missile cav, skirmishing infantry etc. But most of that was in RTW.

But to be honest, I would not worry about stats. Use the units as they should be used historically. (Then come back here and start grumbling when they don't perform as you expect... )

[JeffBag]

Do not use billmen, or any 2-handed axemen, for they are bugged and do not attack cavalry. Therefore, England is pretty much hopeless until those units are patched, since it almost entirely relies on billmen.