"Worst" Unit

[Laman]

What is in your opinion the "worst" or least useful unit, and why do you think so?

Personally I would say Pantodapoi.

The Good: They are numerous and cheap, so are relatively useful as garrison troops.
The Bad: They can't fight, sure their attack isn't to bad relatively, but they have no armor, no skill and a shield that is useless and provides almost no protection against arrows (or anything else for that matter).

Edit: It seems it became "wors" unit. Well could be worse.

[blank]

Armored elephants

[kalkwerk]

pontic bodyguards. Look strong, turn out just to be silly.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Any and all chariots.

[antiochus epiphanes]

galatikoi kludidon. i hate em, they rout in 5 seconds...

[ElectricEel]

Pantodapoi

Certainly the weakest unit I've seen so far.

[Thaatu]

Any and all chariots.

Try scythed chariots combined with heavy cavalry charging the weakest flank. Especially with Seleucids.

[Fondor_Yards]

Hmm there are a lot for this.
All Eastern Javelin Cavalry, Toxotai, Balearic Light Infantry, Hoplitai Haploi, etc

But my number one is Celtic Chairots-Can't kill anything with their missiles or meele, and a slight breeze can wipe out whole units.

[LusitanianWolf]

Hum, I have to disagree with most of you, since I dont think any unit is useless.
There are some very weak units like the pantodapoi, but I can always give some use to them, using them to distract enemy phalanxs to attack them from the back with cavalary (even skirmisher cavalry are good enought to this job) or shock troops.

And with the elephants or the scythe chariots I have to fully disagree since they are an battle winning force , you just need to use them right and carefully.

And the toxotai, they helped me an lot at the start of my epirus campain, helping me to have greater numbers with small costs while facing the lots of mak stacks and they worked very well.

[Sygrod]

Anyone who recruits Pantodapoi on purpose for garrison duty, when there is an alternative, has to be out of his mind (or a stickler for historical accuracy, which is OK). Archers and skirmisher units are cheaper to recruit and keep on hand and much more useful, and make fine garrison troops. They even manage to fight off phalanxes, which is more than can be said of Pantodapoi.

I personally prefer to use Eastern skirmishers for garrison.

[QwertyMIDX]

Pantodapoi are much better garrison troops than slingers or archers in terms of keeping order in the city. The game determines the effectiveness of a garrison by number of men not number of units. Slingers and archers are better for actual defense though.

[Watchman]

Although truth be told you can usually well afford maintaing two units of slingers or archers with the upkeep of one Pantodapoi unit, so...

[Magister Militum Titus Pullo]

Would say that any and most types of eastern infantry units are the most mediocre in the game. But truefully, even they could be a war-winning force if properly supported by specialists. Only a bad workman always blames his tools. I would use soldiers like the pantodapoi to form the bulk of city garrisons. But if they are available to me, then I would recruit missile troops to assist them in the city's defence. In theory, archers, slingmen and such would be standing watch on the city's ramparts, while the pantodapoi companies, in addition of their defensive duties, would police the local populace and discourage rebellion.

[pezhetairoi]

Toxotai for me. Enough said. Toxotai have no use in my army as anti-slingers, too, since I readily avail myself of whatever slingers are available. I have no qualms about using them, but I do have qualms about how much missile units I use per army: two. Especially my Romani now, who have only 2 units of Iaosatae, who are about to phased out in favour of another two units of Neitos.