Quote Originally Posted by jhhowell
I have a few questions about EB's missile units.

1) Archers - why should I build any? To the best of my knowledge, they are inferior to slingers in every way - lower range, less ammo, weaker stats (esp. accounting for slingers AP), and needing the same or higher level MIC. Since EB skirmishers vaporize elephants, the fire arrow ability just isn't much of an attraction (anti-elephant duty was all I ever used it for in vanilla, anyway). I'm probably missing something, though.
The archers in the western half of the map are, pretty much, inferior to slingers. In the eastern half of the map however there are some very good archers (some IMO better then slingers). Any type of archer is useful in defensive siege battles because they can use flaming arrows to destroy siege towers and rams, so I like to include some as garrisons in my frontier cities.


2) Do the Romans ever get any artillery? Carthage has a 3-cubit bolt thrower in Gades in my game, but Rome with a top level Camillan MIC can't build any equivalents. Not that I'd necessarily want to, at this point, it just seems slightly odd that Carthage and (I believe) some Hellenic factions have the option while I don't... Perhaps this is an artifact of Rome having late units coming after reforms, while other factions with no reforms get access to every possible unit they can build as soon as they build up their MICs?
They can get them in Hellenic settlements, and they can get them in their homelands after the Marian reform (I think...)

3) Not so much a question as a comment: the FAQ says that the AI doesn't spam slingers. In my game, the Celtic factions and Epirus do. Epirus is the worst offender, keeping their two cities at population 500 as they crank out more and more slingers and archers. For most of the game a stack has been sitting outside one city, fifteen units of which nine are slingers. Recently another stack came out to sit next to them, nine units of which seven are slingers and two are archers. The Celts may be getting better, it's hard to tell as their war is in a bloody and active phase at the moment. But for quite some years my spies saw armies moving around consisting entirely of Lugoae and slingers in roughly equal proportions.
That's strange, I haven't seen that with either Epeiros or the Celtic factions myself. I did see the Romani recruit armies with droves of slingers in one campaign, but that was because I had raided some of their cities and destroyed their barracks, and they can always get their slingers from their governors' residence.