Even in very hard difficultly, they are a solid unit. As well as the Ilyrian mercenaries, in my very hard campaign as greeks, thel held the line against medium tier infantry and on occasion, beating them
It has to be said, they are scary beasts, who make great reserve units, to throw in with decisive effect. The only problem is, they end up being an under used trophy unit because replenishment is too tricky. I buy 6 packs of Barb mercs and they stand up well for me, probably because I actually support them with other units.
@@lugotorix6173 you should look at the peninsula italica mod for medieval 2 it shows the samnote, Etruscan and other wars that led to times rise on the Italian peninsula very well
@@mredmond8393 I would say usually probably not, but if you play as Greeks or Seleucids you can use them to carry the battering ram (or other siege equipment) in a siege.
I've always felt Illyrians are underrated. Pretty sure they are the most cost-effective non-mounted javelin unit in the game (going by upkeep cost, which is the important cost stat). They're also pretty okay at fighting in melee.
4:20 Just noticed that the Rhodian's in your pic have an xp advantage over the Baleric slingers. So if you take that into account, the units' stats are literally identical. Otherwise, a very cool vid
About the slingers: The good morale is also nice because it means you might be able to save the unit before it flees. This can have a great impact, since in Rome a unit of infantry breaking against cavalry will see horrendous amounts of casualties in just a couple of seconds. Seriously, on large unit scale (80/120inf,54cav) twenty or thirty models might get killed in about 3 seconds after they start fleeing.
That would be interesting but i don't find any mercs with special stats apart from holding the line in that expansion. I like the golden band and grail knights but they work as support units and very rarely win a 1 on 1 fight.
Barbarian mercenary can be used as shock troops they really good at hiding. If they are hidden and attack an enemy unit that is close you can really knock the enemy’s morale
mercenary hoplites with a weapon and armour upgrade plus 2 experience and a morale bonus general can smash through Roman walls with no problem.Their defence for early pike factions and barbarians is a must if you fight Romans and Carthaginians.
If it comes down to a fight between some bogged down equites or other mediocre cavalry unit and the Rhodian slingers, my money is on the slingers. That 7 attack is important; early cavalry are actually pretty rubbish at killing skirmishers if the skirmishers can keep them in melee and withstand the initial charge impact.
You're literally spending the extra 1k gold on that second hitpoint. With Armor 2 and Shield 2 they need that second hitpoint so they don't melt under indirect fire like the Thracians do.
When comparing defence stats the break down is important. Armour always counts, Shield counts fully in the direction the shield is facing, half on the sides and zero at the back. Defence skill only counts in melee. Hence a unit with a high defence skill will be much more vulnerable to missiles then the straight defence stat implies. A unit with a high shield bonus will suffer more greatly to flanking attacks or missiles hitting the unit at anything other than shield side on. That’s not always the front of the unit! If the unit is marching with the shield held on the left, the left gets the full bonus the right side none at all. A unit with lots of armour will have a good defence in all situations.
Right. Generally armour is good against anything non-armour-piercing especially most missiles, defense skill is good in melee, shields good for melee and missiles if hit from the front. Armour seems superior, except against armour piercing, then maybe you'd prefer melee defense or shields.
I like cretans for their range and slingers for their armor piercing. What i hate about the slingers is the amount of friendly fire they cause when i put them behind my lines
Nobody should ever underestimate what extra HP will give you in RTW. They're more "extra lives" than health, so having more than one is just amazing. Bastarnae are also one of the only full sized infantry with multiple HP.
@@Dan-uf2vh there are also the berserkers and several chariot and elephant units. The roman gladiators as well. Every unit like that is worth its money.
@@misaka3468 Yeah,and the amazons surprise attack/ambush u when u go through that one way passage to the secret easter egg settlement in the upper middle of the map(what's it called again?lemme check real quick...) Edit:Got it.Its themiskyra in the hyperbolae?region lol.Or borae idk lol
They get bonus vs elephants because they have javelins. Javelins are the elephant killing weapon in the game. So they dont get the bonus because they have experience fighting elephants, but if they somehow do their javelins would be good weapons to take them down. Bonus only applies to the missile attack iirc
This is slightly inaccurate. I think CA gave all jav units a bonus against elephants and chariots, because historically javelins were used against those units, and CA coded it generically rather than to units specific to cultures that fought elephants and chariots. Attack bonuses against unit types in this engine only apply to melee attacks though. Javelins, however, do extra damage to units that have multiple HP. Skirmishers can wreak havoc on Spartan hoplites if they can attack from behind.
I hate it that Cretan archers need to get babysitting constantly and you cannot auto resolve, especially during sieges, unless you send them away, or else they will get wiped out; one of the reasons legions are amazing is how good they do with auto resolve EDIT: you failed to see 2 hp on bastarnae ALSO: pharaoh's bowmen > gallic elite archers (forester warband) > cretan archers; their attack is similar but the first two are much more resilient
Why did they make the Rhodian Slingers better then the famous Balearic slingers? (Ancient sources claim that the balearic spheperd boys could hit an eagel while flying in 60m distance with their sling!) Or is it just the experience the rhodians have that makes the difference?
There are litterally the same unit in the game. The only difference is that the Rhodian Slingers can be recruited with 1 level of experience. But I agree. The should give to the Balearic slinger 1 more point in range. The where very know for tossing their stones more farther that any other mercs.
Aren't the stats of the Balearic and Rhodian Slingers identical? After all, the Rhodian Slingers you showed came with a unit of experience while the Balearic Slingers cam with none.
well its official im gonna be keeping an eye on this channel for the foreseeable future, for a very simple reason its got good content about a good total war game.
Do Cretan Archers really have good melee stats for archers? I mean, they’re unarmoured and have a defense skill of 4. Yeah they have an melee attack of 6 which is pretty good for a ranged unit, but like... Seems like they’d get hacked to pieces if they’re put into melee.
Great video but why did you call the barbarian archers bad? Gaul has the best archers in the game, and I like the armored archers of Germania. Scythiahas arguably the best horse archers in the Game.
A bit late to post considering the video was posted a month ago but defence of the slingers and why I always get them: They are longer range than the typical archer, have more ammo and are more accurate. Accurate? Yes. As the missiles are fired horizontally then if they miss the guy at the front then it is likely to hit the guy behind him. Watching the animations, archers can miss due to the arc'ing of the shot, but slingers seem to create a lot more "enemy hit" responses. They are also good at chasing down routing enemies due to their fast moving and have the melee to take down enemies relatively quickly. I find them particularly useful on wall defense duty as the height means they can wreck havoc before even the Cretan Archers can respond,
I don't find anything funny there, since Cretans were known for their archery, since mainland greeks and romans kinda disliked that sort of thing. More funny thing is that Roman archers are so good.
bealerics and rhodians are exact copys outside bonus in woods. the stat difference is purely cause you chose rhodian with exp and balearic without bastarnae don't just have good morale they have 2 hitpoints basically a general unit on foot and upkeep isn't high for what you get so once you buy em they more then worth the upkeep top of the list imo when it comes to inf mercs
Does "may charge without orders" actually mean anything? Most people talk about it like the unit in question will attack a hostile unit without player input. I've been playing this game for over a decade and I have never seen that happen. The closest thing I've seen is that impetuous units like barbarian warbands seem to default to running when given an attack order while more disciplined units default to walking.
Might just be tired and missed it completely, but did you just ignore the Bastarnaes 100% increase in hit points? Makes one unit hit like two, staying in combat for way longer and suffering less casualties in most battles.
Couldn't find this among the comments, but you say and show different stats for Balearic and Rhodian Slingers by one for Rhodian which is not, as they simply have one experience. If you take that away - they will be identical.
Hi Lugotorix a long time without see your videos. A very good description from the mercs and, everyone is agree, Cretan Archers are a beast. About the slingers I find the are good in the flanks in open field against slow infantry and other ranged units. But mortal when you lead a siege in a minor city or when you defend yourself a town (mostly the hill in the barbarian ones).
You should make a video after this series where u compare the mercenaries with their most accurate factions counterparts like the mercenary hoplites vs the Greek hoplites or barbarian warbands vs mercenary warbands
It's worth noting that 1hp equals 10 damage, so a unit with 9MATK can't one shot a unit with 0 defence, the breaking point is 11 because one missile can at least mess up peasants
When you click Rome from you library, you get to choose either game mode. Be careful, its buggy as hell. Sometimes Barbarian Invasion launch don't work. Need to edit some stuff.
The Britons use chariots, skirmishers (even velites) plus some solid blocker spear unit like Town Watch or the Barbarian Mercenaries, help deal with them as they scatter Hastati and can provoke routing. A point against Hoplites is how slow they are, if you fight dynamic battles (except in a city) it's almost impossible to keep their flanks secure. If you're going with Mercs against anything but militia, the Merc phalanx will run first...
Something I was thinking would b perfect for your Chanel and I apologize if u ha e done it already. Would b to show each faction and try to determine against what faction it would b the best choice and what faction it would b the worst choice over all. Best and worst as just comparing the full roster from each faction and not the territory or just early units
I could tell you them right now if you really wanted to know on equal skill but if you want to know by campaign. Then it would depend on the difficulty
@@danielbalderrama4137 not necessarily by campaign but as factions for example u could argue Greece might b the worst to fight scitya just because of how weak their cavalry is or on the contrary just because of how ridiculously strong their armor and spartan falanx r on the other hand campaign wise Spain, cartage and numidia suck but their later units r pretty good. That been said Germany easily beats Spain and Spain beats the British
@@danielbalderrama4137 I was just thinking it would make for fun speculative conversations on the comments and would give lugotorix lots of ideas for videos that r perfect for his style
I usually take both samnites and hoplites, i put the samnites in the back of the phalanx and when the battle goes south i just get them into the fights and they usually hold well
I was going to say about the mercenary peltist... You have to remember these are the peltist that Alexander the Great took with him...so the veterans may had taken their experiences and taught them to others
i like to use samnite mercenaries more than mercenary hoplites because the first time i played rome total war years ago i thought they were just cool green triarii lol
I have a theory that the illyrian mercs and peltasts mercs have a bonus vs elephants is because epyrus had purchased some elephants at some poinnt specifically while Pyrrhus was king they paid for them i think thats why
They can undermine walls, it is a build option when you are sieging a settlement. Last option on the right, next to the siege tower. In the battlemap you can send sap units into the tunnel and a part of the enemy wall will collapse.
They can undermine walls, it is a build option when you are sieging a settlement. Last option on the right, next to the siege tower. In the battlemap you can send sap units into the tunnel and a part of the enemy wall will collapse.
