Quote Originally Posted by seienchin View Post
Numidian cavallery would be the most usefull one, but I always get them from regional mics.
The mercenary I am using the most are the mistophoroi pezhetairoi. You can never have enough phalangitai, when facing factions with heavy cavallery
But my favourite are the caledonian skirmishers, the Balroae. They are incredibly strong, esspecially in woods and they are cheap and spawn incredibly fast. Man I beat a full stack of casse, just with mercenaries and the Balroae did most of the damage.
I do not see all the hype over Numidians. They do not happen to use their spear overhand, do they? Because that basically kills the charge.

Also, the Phalangites' only weakness is heavy cavalry. In EB, infantry can almost never get through all the pikes and it will normally stay at the edge, getting slowly whittled. Only when presented with height advantage or gargantuan numbers can the normal infantry push through the pikes. Heavy cavalry (26+ armour) can easily push through the pikes and wreck havok on the phalanx. I have had a 35-man 1 experience Seleukid General's Bodyguard defeat a 120 man Merc Phalangitai. Even when two units manage to defeat the cavalry, they suffer horrendous casualties. The best thing against heavy cav are elite spearmen such as Triarii, etc.