Surprisingly bad units

[Decimus Attius Arbiter]

About wild men being weaker than gaesetae? Is the unit guide wrong? They seem identical. They're awesome as part of a Getai stack. The enemy is hacked by falxes and scared by the naked guys on methamphetimines. They once took a facefull of thorakitai javelins and beat them with their own spears. 3 casualities to 80 kills.

[Irishmafia2020]

About wild men being weaker than gaesetae? Is the unit guide wrong? They seem identical. They're awesome as part of a Getai stack. The enemy is hacked by falxes and scared by the naked guys on methamphetimines. They once took a facefull of thorakitai javelins and beat them with their own spears. 3 casualities to 80 kills.

The wild men have 1 less defense, and 2 less morale than the Gaesetae... the difference is not very much, and they are both complete bad @sses, but I was disappointed when I found out that the Galatians were slightly weaker, hence the above post...

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Threads like this make me smile.

[Havok.]

I dont like Casse CHARIOTS! i hate those things!
><'

[Tollheit]

I dont like Casse CHARIOTS! i hate those things!
><'

I absolutely love them. I have won some beautiful heroic victories with nothing but 2 Casse FM. Don't drive them into your enemy; tire him first, then drive them through the enemy. Repeatedly.

[Intranetusa]

One of the worst units ever is the Pontus mercenary spearmen - weak, low attack, low armor, and fairly expensive to train/upkeep.

But I still use them anyways. Why? Because there aren't any other 'plentiful' mercenaries available in those regions, and I need all the troops I can get to beef up my ranks in order to fight off the endless waves of
the silver death. >_<

Thus, basically every unit in EB has its purpose.

[gamegeek2]

Frankly, I actually like Theurophoroi, as they're basically Hoplites with javelins. Sure, they're not as resilient as hoplites, but have good stamina and beat up most things with the same cost. Replace them with Thorakitai if you can, but I like having 1-2 in my Epeirote fullstax to deal with weaker units and to flank without wasting much stamina. They're consistent, reliable, and efficient, especially if you're on a budget.

Gaeroas are actually decent spam-troops for your frontier provinces as Rome and some other factions. However, like many early barbarian troops, they're extremely vulnerable to missiles, and if they're flanked, they will die. They're good at defending cities if you have no other options.

[Intranetusa]

Almost every unit in EB is useful, even if they suck. I often find myself hiring ridiculously expensive and also absurdly weak Pontus Spearmen when I am desperately in need of men in my excursion into Asia Minor. I guess these bastards have a monopoly on the merc market...so the quality of products they offer declines. >_<

[Joszen1]

@ gamegeek2, I hear you, I was just venting cause I lost a pretty important battle and needed something to blame. As I saw it my Hastati had failed to live up to Roman standards of bravery.

@ Centurio Nixalsverdrus, , I am ok. Maybe I'm just not a very good general and will never succeed in conquering an entire map without losing a single battle. I hear you on the historicity though, but shouldn't Hastati become Principes -with experience - if everything were true to reality? I am humbled and will start again, making much use of Hastati. I will also write a nice AAR about it so my historical inaccuracies can be further lambasted. (Bear in mind I am a South African so what I know I have found out in on my own time).

@ Intranetusa, indeed, for all things there is a season. But I don't think that is the point of this forum, I think it offers the opportunity for EB players to discuss how they have been seriously surprized (in their own idiocy) and 'let down' by a particular unit. All the units have a purpose because this is a superb, awe-inspiring mod!

[cultist]

Wow,i feel like in Mythbusters.
Keep it coming boys.
*goes to

[Cute Wolf]

Hippies always beat hastati in a headlong charge!!! hastati is the crappest crap for the romans... even Rorarii is better than them...

[Skullheadhq]

Well... Roman Army's where didn't have any good cavalry(if any). 35000 Romans where crushed at the battle of Carrhae because they didn't have enough cavalry(dispite the romans having the numbers on their side. And so did the Greek army. The 10.000 had only 40(!) cavalry troops so you can't expect that Thessalian troops are the best trained cavalry force in the known world.

[Dayve]

Not sure if they've been mentioned yet, but i was quite disappointed by the Numidian noble cavalry. I'm far from being an expert on this area of ancient history, but i thought that, since Hannibal's Numidian cavalry was so important to him, played such a key part in his battles and came as such a blow when they switched their allegiance to the Romans, i thought they might have been a bit... well, better.

They're not terrible by any means... i mean, you are attacking a unit from head on and a position opens up, that unit can dash in behind them and pepper them with javelins... that's always a useful battlefield role, especially when the odds are with your enemy and every man you can kill without losing one of your own counts.

I just find them to be... lacking. Their charges aren't very good and they drop like flies when fighting even unarmoured skirmishers.

I would like to balance this post out with a surprisingly good unit, however. Maure infantry. You find them in the same areas as Numidian cavalry. They look primitive. No armour, a shield, a sword and some throwing spears.

Don't be fooled, they're a fantastic cheap unit. They're lacking in defense yes, but they make up for it with their numbers and the javelins. You'll get 6 or 7 volleys from them, and if they get all 6 volleys off, whatever they threw them at will be weakened to the point where their numbers tip the fight in their favour, and they will win.

A surprisingly awesome unit!

[Ibrahim]

Not sure if they've been mentioned yet, but i was quite disappointed by the Numidian noble cavalry. I'm far from being an expert on this area of ancient history, but i thought that, since Hannibal's Numidian cavalry was so important to him, played such a key part in his battles and came as such a blow when they switched their allegiance to the Romans, i thought they might have been a bit... well, better.

They're not terrible by any means... i mean, you are attacking a unit from head on and a position opens up, that unit can dash in behind them and pepper them with javelins... that's always a useful battlefield role, especially when the odds are with your enemy and every man you can kill without losing one of your own counts.

I just find them to be... lacking. Their charges aren't very good and they drop like flies when fighting even unarmoured skirmishers.

I would like to balance this post out with a surprisingly good unit, however. Maure infantry. You find them in the same areas as Numidian cavalry. They look primitive. No armour, a shield, a sword and some throwing spears.

Don't be fooled, they're a fantastic cheap unit. They're lacking in defense yes, but they make up for it with their numbers and the javelins. You'll get 6 or 7 volleys from them, and if they get all 6 volleys off, whatever they threw them at will be weakened to the point where their numbers tip the fight in their favour, and they will win.

A surprisingly awesome unit!

no skirmisher cavalry is meant to charge head on into another cavalry or infantry unit-ever. Hence, keep your numidians at a distance, until the enemy's inferior stamina and depleted ranks dull them(badly). Then Charge! their charge bonus won't make too big a diff, but they'll win, most because as missile cav, they'll be less tired than the heavy cav that romans or cathaginians use. and hit from the flanks or rear.

just keep you distance, and tire them out.

[Watchman]

Multiple-unit converging charges also highly recommended. Rinse and repeat until you run out of targets. Scientifically known as "cavalry rapage", I believe.