And the winner of best defensive unit goes to.........

[Kamakazi]

Im making this thread to show my love for hillmen! That's right those surly bastards who have saved so many of my settlements. During my Parthia campaign (which I just finished) I had several instances of having to hold a settlement with only 2 units of hillmen and eastern spears and some good ole' mobs. I tell ya put hillmen in shieldwall and they are unstoppable unless they are flanked. Mine have racked up over 300 kills with only a loss of a quarter of a unit!! So what do you think? What defensive unit makes your eyes sparkle with pride?




Now for the most retarded unit! I give my personal award to the Eastern Spearmen!!! Terrible moral. Even with protected flanks and with superior weapons and armor they route in seconds! Here's a candid of them climbing my own walls to defend them! They went outside my walls durning the siege, walked through the enemy army and climbed the ladders..... god I hate them



Oh and go Parthia!

[AntiDamascus]

Maybe they wanted to make sure the outside wall was safe? :p

[Myth]

Best defensive unit? A throw between fully trained and upgraded Pretorian Guard, Heroes of Sparta and Macedonian Foot Companions.

[fallen851]

Best defensive unit? A throw between fully trained and upgraded Pretorian Guard, Heroes of Sparta and Macedonian Foot Companions.

Cost relative to effectiveness is the most important attribute when determining what unit is the best, and I think that is his point.

Most expensive ≠ best unit

[Jarmam]

Cost relative to effectiveness is the most important attribute when determining what unit is the best, and I think that is his point.

Most expensive ≠ best unit

I disagree with the statement itself, but none of the top elite units are particularly expensive as it is compared to standard infantry (excluding things like Eastern Spearmen, who are awful).

Other than that I thought the point of this thread was a love story! Sadly all my heroic defenses have been by elite Pikes, which... yeah. There was a unit of Velites at one point that somehow locked down an enemy squad of Oathsworm for roughly 30 seconds, giving my two Equites time to wedge the Oathsworn from a couple of angles. Now the Velites were annihilated and were auto-disbanded post-battle, but their heroic saving of Legio I Victor Liberatoribus' right (very weakened) flank is yet to be forgotten. I think they might have won me that fight. K/D ratio, not so much.

[andrewt]

Pikes are really good at defending behind castle gates. Even hoplites in square formation work. But pikes, there's just no way to flank them when they are guarding a gate.

[antisocialmunky]

Any half way decent unit that you can prevent getting shot to pieces or having the AI run through usually is pretty good.

[Kamakazi]

Pikes are really good at defending behind castle gates. Even hoplites in square formation work. But pikes, there's just no way to flank them when they are guarding a gate.

ive never put much stock into pikes.... might need to try them out....

[Myth]

ive never put much stock into pikes.... might need to try them out....

Pikes give Heroic Victories aplenty. In my Seleucid campaign I took on 3:1 odds against me, by corner camping with my pike line and sallying out with cav to finish off the throngs of slingers after the enemies die at the pike wall.

[Kamakazi]

Ill give it a shot... Im doing Pontus on VH right now and im at war with Seleucid (only cuz I decided I wanted their champion =P) So im probably going to need a heroic victory or 3

[Slaists]

Pikes give Heroic Victories aplenty. In my Seleucid campaign I took on 3:1 odds against me, by corner camping with my pike line and sallying out with cav to finish off the throngs of slingers after the enemies die at the pike wall.

[Empire*Of*Media]

YES !

at least at rome1 BI wrote KURDISH HILLMEN & Armenian Hillmen but now they only wrote Eastern hillmen


Kurdish Hillmen but not as u see in total war & in the games, were truly brave and dreadful, as a bit of it is in Xenophon's impression (in that region Ancient Kurds were called Karduchis) the name about moving his 10.000 army, that before the battle a heroic ancient music was song with an heroic ancient Kurdish dance then both Men & WOMEN rushed to fight from the high mountains and dropped Great Fear among advanced greek heavy army of Xenophon with Phalanxes & Pikemen & Cavalry!! but they defeated them all and returned shaken with and frightned to Greece!!

Absolutely heroic!!


a little in wikipedia but very few and not detailed!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_dance

(go for other LANGUAGES for more info & pictures)

but their history is unknown because they were not greek or roman that europe call them representatives of their Continent!!

[Myth]

Admirable, though hardly isolated. We have many accounts of a strong field army moving trhough rough hostile terrain whcih is unknown to them and getting manhandled by the locals. The Basques inflicted a similar wound on Charlemagne's otherwise vastly superor army as they crossed the Pyrenees.