I think the point is being both poorly explained by the OP and poorly understood by the repliers here.

let me clarify things as I see them.


He's pointing out their are no units similar to the Spartan Hoplites in terms of power and rarity.

The Spartans where effectively limited to just Sparta and (if I ember right, but i didn't play RTW too much before I got M2TW so please forgive me if I get this bit wrong), you Had also to be playing as Greeks.

If a Woodmens masters guild was as hard top get fro England as it is for everyone else then Sherwood Archers would be of suitable rarity.

the Second point he is getting at is that the Spartan Hoplites where incredibly powerful by comparison to the NORMAL powerful and elite units of most factions.

Forlorn Hope/Dismounted Knights/JHI/e.t.c. are all very powerful units. but NONE of these units stand head and shoulders above everything else by a clear and obvious margin as Spartan Hoplites did.

A unit of that caliber in M2TW (using a 2-hander as a basis), would have to be something like 8 Charge 30 attack, 60 men per unit (small unit size), and 20 defense (with over half in Armour).

In reality such a unit would not be balanced, and thats why you don't see units like this in M2TW. The way the game has been set up (especially with regards missile power and Cav charges), means that +2 or +3 missile defense is not a small but significant advantage as it was in RTW, but instead a massive advantage that can render a unit mostly immune to Missiles and Cav alike.

RTW Cav relied very much on their general melee abilities as much as the charge, so a high defense that largely neutered the charge wasn't exactly instantly fatal to Cav, (as it is in M2TW where the charge of Cav is the be all and end all of their damage causing abilities).

Likewise, average missile defense and missile attack values where higher meaning a slight increase in missile attack or missile defense values could provide an important advantage without producing such a powerful effect that it effectively IMBA's the unit in question.