Getting attached to units.

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

Hve you guys ever gotten kind of attached to a particular unit of something because you've had it for a long time and it's helped you countless times?

I've found myself attached to a unit of Iberi Caetrati as Carthage. I've conquered Sicily and the Italian peninsula now, and they are down to 72 men and have 3 chevrons. They were in my first army and are one of the few units left from then. I find myself recently reserving them as skirmishers (because of their AP javelins) because I don't want to lose them, even though those little bastards can hold (and have held) a line against principes. I'm going to send them marauding through the desert now after a quick vacation to sweet mother Iberia.

It seems stupid, but I'm sure some of you have had dear units...right? I guess I'm just a sad EB junkie now.

[LordCurlyton]

Well there was this one Polybian Hastati unit that held an elite Epeirote phalanx (can't remember exact name) for quite some time. I was damn proud of those buggers. They didn't break or even waver for almost 10 min while my army chewed on the other elite phalanxes there before finally getting to that one. By the end they were down to 10 men, but they held, dammit! I believe in that campaign they are in Nubia or so, finishing off the Ptolemaic remnants there (yes I did retrain them), though it is now the Marians so all losses now are permanent.
And I also have this thing for Numidian Skirmishers and Numidian Skirmisher Cav now, after a full stack of em (12 inf, 7 cav, 1 gen) held off countless Ptolemaic incursions, using auto-calc no less. And even against elite armies with nothing but elite phalanxes and galatian heavies.

[deadmeat36]

I am attached to my Pantodapoi unit in my AAR because they have taken on two units of the Arabian javelin calvary and survived long enough to be reniforced by other units and allowed me to take the city.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I don't have a unit, but I have an army I can't disband. Even though I'm in the Avgvstan Era I have a Polybian Legion that conquered Gaul for me. I just can't bring myself to get rid of the guys...

[I of the Storm]

As history taught us, keeping your best veterans and keeping 'em happy is wise...

I don't have such a special unit now, but I remember this one unit of triarii you got at the start in the vanillla Julii campaign - the mere mentioning of them caused fear among my enemies back then...

[blank]

i always have a few uber-elite missile units from the start to the end of the campaign
Once they get gold chevrons i can massacre a whole lot of naked barbarians with them

[The Celtic Viking]

Of course I get attached to units! Since I started with EB, I always have. In my Sweboz campaign I have a unit of Skandza-Swaiut that has saved my general more than once, and given a very good account of themselves. As they're not easily retrained, that just further increases their value for me on the battlefield and I would not risk them unless I had to. Damn fine lads they are.

In my Arverni campaign I instead have a unit of well experienced Botroas that I just won't let die. They were the first (melee) unit of mine to get a silver chevron, and were usually the ones to first enter a settlement in a siege before I got access to gaesatae. Currently they're down in Iberia fighting the Lusotannan and Carthage (who has sent several 3/4-full stack naval invasions against me, btw) and honestly, I've become too scared to lose them to use them (on my own initiative) much. I usually put them in the second row to flank or take over when the enemy tires down.

I also have an equally experienced unit of gaeroas in the same army. That one is usually guarding my right flank, doing a darn good job at it too. More than one enemy general has fallen to their spears - they even killed the roman leader before I took Rome and made the Romani my protectorate.

Other than that I can get a real love for my generals. It's a very sad day for me when they die.

[hoom]

This has always been one of the greatest aspects of the Total War series

It was easier to keep tabs on those favourite units back in Shogun, the unit officers were named in the battle summary & as long as he didn't die, would carry across battles.

One of the saddest things is when an Elite army gets split to firm up green armies & you wind up expending the elite to save the rest from obliteration

[keravnos]

This has always been one of the greatest aspects of the Total War series

It was easier to keep tabs on those favourite units back in Shogun, the unit officers were named in the battle summary & as long as he didn't die, would carry across battles.

One of the saddest things is when an Elite army gets split to firm up green armies & you wind up expending the elite to save the rest from obliteration

Yes, I totally agree. It is one of the worst aspects of the game to have a really badass unit "go down" in rank after they have saved you lots and lots of times.

My golden chevs Baktrian hippotoxotai are examples of that. Dunno why, but those buggers never failed me even when slaughtered down to 5 or so. Of course when I re-inforced them, they are 3 bronze chevs, but at least they are alive.

Naming them, while super cool could often lead to "fuzzy wuzzies of Kophen", not a a pretty sight at the battlefield.

[Brightblade]

LOL Fuzzy wuzzies of Kophen! Pure gold.

When I played as Epirus, I would zoom in on my Elite Chaonion Agematas and just stare and watch as they did battle.. neglecting the rest of the army which got trashed... fortunately 3 of these units could tear up anything.. lol its bad

Now that I got Polybian reforms for Rome, I am building a whole lot of Neitos to take up the brunt of the fighting in Gaul while I stare at my Principes.. I am so picky when I have elite units.. I hate, HAATE seeing them die

hehe

[Dan_Grr]

Ehehe, me too, I often have the levies with considerable amounts of experience, since I always think thrice before sending the sexiest to battle. Go figure.

[Watchman]

I can just see the grizzled, hard-bitten veteran militiamen giving the elité "glory boys who never dun anything for real" a lot of sour looks and rude nicknames...

[Conradus]

I had that with the Koinon. In Sparta you get a unit of Spartiates Hoplitai. I fought many battles against the Macedons and Epirotes with them, they were almost always the first to enter a city, the ones who could hold the line the longest, etc... I didn't dream of losing them. They only suffered minimal losses.

But then in a battle against some descendant of Pyrrhus and an allied army of his, I lost track of them, they were chasing some slingers uphill and I failed to notice they came to close to the Epirotes' second army. Their general charged them (he had more men than my poor spartans). Their numbers started dropping fast. I didn't want to lose them, so I send two units of Thessalian cavalery almost a quarter of the map away to them to help, the heavy cavalery was almost exhausted when reaching them, but luckily so was the general. They managed to slauger the Epirote's second army and save 10 Spartans. No Thermopylae!
NOw I've send those 10 home to act as bodyguards for the king.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Read the Wastelands and you will get very attached to certain units!! It's over at the RTR forums, but they are down at the moment it seems. It's an EB AAR, and it has characters appear over and over. Hope that thing is never lost! New generations of EB players and fans should take a look at it now too. Any chance of getting it hosted over here too (even if it is over now)?

[blank]

Ehehe, me too, I often have the levies with considerable amounts of experience, since I always think thrice before sending the sexiest to battle. Go figure.

odd, i always send my elite troops in early to either whack the enemy general or cut a hole into their line where i could get an advantage

[Subedei]

Read the Wastelands and you will get very attached to certain units!! It's over at the RTR forums, but they are down at the moment it seems. It's an EB AAR, and it has characters appear over and over. Hope that thing is never lost! New generations of EB players and fans should take a look at it now too. Any chance of getting it hosted over here too (even if it is over now)?

Truely spoken!!!

It is a great AAR...I loved reading that one by "Obelics". HE has a talent for story telling & tons and tons of humour!

Oh yes, on topic again:
I really do get attached to Generals & their stacks. As i love to play steppe-folk, it is usually the one general with his HA/ Cav troops who has to rampage in enemy territory and do all the dirty work for the up and coming conquerors. I refresh these troops every now and then, but a core of highly experienced bad*** soldiers [and horseys] builds up.

[Megas Pyrrhos]

In my current Baktrian campaign, I've been trying to hold off the Saka(as they have taken Alexandreia-Eschate and Marakanda while I was busy elsewhere). I sent 3 pantodapoi phalangitai units to the river near Baktra and put them in a fort. Sure enough, 2 turns later a huge Saka army came marauding, and those guys, though they took 46% losses, obliterated the Saka army, and killed 2 enemy family members at the end of the battle with their axes.

One turn later came another army, which killed the remaining men in the fort to the last man, but not before those brave souls killed the one family member of that army and giving their army substantial losses. Their sacrifice saved Baktra, as I had almost no garrison there....a monument will be erected in Baktra to commemorate their heroism for the generations to come to see!

I know that there are no units left to get 'attached' to, but it comes close, or close enough.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I was thinking it would be really awesome to pick up in the middle of a campaign and do an AAR told from the point of view of one unit. Just play with that one unit in your battles too - trying to do what your unit is supposed to do, while setting your other units all to AI control (group them all except the one unit under one group, then put that group under AI control). Picking up a mercenary group of Thraician Peltasts and telling it from one guy's point of view in that unit - what his unit did and tried to do, and such. Playing from the general's camera POV might be a bit much, but still it would be really interesting.

[Dan_Grr]

Interesting enough Teleklos. Have to give that a try.