Surprisingly bad units

[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.

[Kuningaz]

I was actually quite disappointed by my carthaginan sacred band infantry... I made one unit of them to try them out and used them in my army against the ptolies. In the first battle I was attacked by a single unit of hellenic native spearmen 'reinforcement' in the back, so I decided to try my shiny sacred band against them. What happened? After about 10 minutes of fighting they finally managed to rout those crappy spearmen, loosing half of their unit!

[machinor]

Seriously? Against those Pantodapoi spearmen? I never had the chance to use them in battle, but this sounds aweful. There must have been an other reason for them doing so bad.

[Cullhwch]

I was actually quite disappointed by my carthaginan sacred band infantry... I made one unit of them to try them out and used them in my army against the ptolies. In the first battle I was attacked by a single unit of hellenic native spearmen 'reinforcement' in the back, so I decided to try my shiny sacred band against them. What happened? After about 10 minutes of fighting they finally managed to rout those crappy spearmen, loosing half of their unit!

Shenanigans. What difficulty level were you playing on? The stats are balanced for medium battle difficulty. You probably played on VH, which gives the AI +7 to attack, defensive skill, and morale. On medium difficulty it's about as lopsided as prison sex.

[Kuningaz]

Actually I played on medium difficulty, the only advantage the pantadopoi had was advantage of height. I even charged them btw (from a small distance)

[Watchman]

They didn't happen to be some of those gold-upgrade gold-chevron OMGWTFHAX monsters settlement revolts often spawn? The last time I had to deal with such, they were Missile Target #1 for the whole army...

[Aemilius Paulus]

Actually I played on medium difficulty, the only advantage the pantadopoi had was advantage of height. I even charged them btw (from a small distance)

Advantage of height, eh? How big was the advantage? RTW engine vastly overrates height advantage IMHO. Not only this, but terrain in RTW can be ridiculously steep. Anyway, I remember doing tests in vanilla, and an unupgraded unit of Ppeasants destroyed a unit of Mercenary Hoplites in phalanx mode on about a 20 degree slope, suffering only 40 casualties out of 120!