YES, ARMORED HOPLITES! I absolutely love these guys. Versatile, cheap, look amazing, and amazing against all kinds of units including cavalry and most forms of infantry.
In campaign they are good overall however they lose to legionary cohorts ( with the correct tactic) royal pike sacred band urban and Spartans and get routed extremely easily by hammer and anvils
You're list makes sense for online play, but I feel like recruitment time, location, and building needs should be addressed too. Spartans can only be built in Sparta and Syracuse, which means you can't take them on campaign and replenish them. Sacred Band and Berserkers both need temples to construct. I have never once recruited an Urban Cohort in an actual campaign because of how expensive an Urban Barracks is - compare this to Praetorian Cohorts which come with EVERY huge city. Royal Pikes, Silver/Bronze Shields take 2 turns to recruit versus 1 turn for Phalanx Pikemen - 2v1, my money is on the pikemen that can turn a flank. Top 3 in my opinion: Chosen Axemen (Monster Can Openers), Armored Holpites (Laughs in Damage Resistance), Praetorian Cohort (Fabulous Stats, easy recruitment)
more than that, the real cost of a unit is its upkeep. sure, doom stacks of cohorts or elephants are fun but when you can field multiple endgame barbarian armies at the price of 1 doomstack, you get infinitely more value on the campaign map. and in terms of efficiency, even on harder difficulties, a chosen swordsmen + chosen archers + a bit of cav will wreck even the lategame roman armies, if properly used. if you play thrace, the bastarnae have an upkeep of only 130 denarii. the 2 hit points means that they don't die fast or against pillum attacks and once they engage, their massive damage will destroy anything. due to the 2HP, armor upgrades and XP are twice as valuable meaning that they become unbeatable beasts once you get in high silver-gold XP range. good morale (that can even be improved by thracian temple), fast moving so you can outflank any other infantry and bonus in woods and snow. once you get these guys in gold XP, they will mow down pretorians and urbans, elephants and any phalanx, regardless of enemy troop XP or upgrades. all that for 130 denarii. this has to be the most OP unit in the game in terms of effectiveness.
The legionary cohorts are amazing too… kinda made me sad they were low on the list. Yeah their stats are a little worse than the urban or praetorian cohorts, but they cost significantly less to upkeep… like 300+ per turn for Urban and praetorians, while legionary cohorts are only 210 denarii per turn. Plus they can be recruited almost anywhere late game as level 3 city barracks are all that’s needed. Granted, praetorians can as well. Though the extra point of defense and attack for an additional 100 gold per turn isn’t worth it, though urban cohorts are the coolest looking division. Lastly legionaries only take 1 turn to make while the others take 2… and the legionaries also have the first cohort which is nice numbers wise but only recruitable in Rome
Agree with most choices for online battles with limited money.In campaign however the best will be: Armored Hoplites, Greeks strategic location can generate the most money per turn in the game, armored are cheap, one turn build and greek cities are easy to get gold-gold upgrades, sacred bands come close but they take 2t to build. Spartans are too expensive, take 2 turns and the maintnence cost is huge, for the romans the best in campaign is legionary first cohort and praetorian cohort, the first carries the eagle, arrives at a good time in the game and carries mores troops, thus more pila, the second gives more quality for less money and can handle missile fire, very good stamina and can take on heavy fortified enemy positionsI learned this playing multiplayer huge scale campaigns against other people, the money per turn greeks can conger in the agean as no match in the game
For Rome: Pre-Marian: Hastati (dirt cheap, big shield so good against missiles and resistance against charge (9 def) having pila to beat down most armored infantry and sometimes even chariots/cavalry, tend to survive long enough to get vet status) Post-Marian: Legionary cohort (everything Hastati is but with more armor and testudo) Preatarian cohort for extra bulk and damage.
@@angquangnguyenthac2833 i have no idea what the charge thing u r talking about. missile resistance is the defense without defense skill. against charge its the normal defense.
I would have taken one of the phalanx units out to pick Forester Warbands. These guys are ridiculously good and pretty cheap for what they do, most people tend to forget about them though. They are basically the best archers in the game while also packing a serious melee punch, and they use spears in melee so they can even be a threat to non elite cavalry.
@@male_maid5951 Infantry means troops that are fighting on foot. Soldiers using machine guns are technically ranged, yet are still referred to as infantry, as the ranged infantry is a sub species of the common infantry.
Spartan hoplites take two turns to recruit and are more than twice as expensive as armoured hoplites, while not being twice as good. Armoured hoplites are objectively a superior unit
actually, the silver shield legionaries have the same attack and defense stats as the Roman legionary cohort, but it actually costs slightly less: 710 to Rome's 740. the Armenian and numidian legionaries, though, are on par with the Roman principes, and they also can not form testudo. however, while the numidian unit is slightly more than the principe's cost, the Armenian is 440, significantly cheaper than the principe's 490. while these units are decent on their own, they are really used to guard the flanks and form the mobile arm of the lines of heavy spearmen, protecting the cataphracts until the best moment for them to flank.
Only problem with the silver legionaires is they take two turns to recruit. So in the campaign they'll always be out-produced by the Romans, same with Silver pikemen. So its necessarily to bulk one's armies up with some levies and regulars.
They dont have defence they get fucked by every missile and cav , and once you give an order they dont obey to you anymore ( even if your order is the war cry) and they are really coslty. So yeah not so great in my opinion
the choosen axemen have a funny weakness bec. they are strong at enemy powerful units and their weakness is weak units too bec. they dont have high armor like falxmen, bastarnae and other units that have high damage but low armor
your point about the heavy axemen halving the enemy defence is not true. it is only the armour and possibly the shield rating that is halved. melee defence is unaffected by bonus against armour
Hastati and light cavalry for me... so cheap... i always run into problems when that n00b Marius decides to reform my ultra fast cheap zerg rush armies in the middle of a blitz campaign :(
This is helpful for when you play and fight these factions thanks for the tips If these units r as effective in total war rome 2 divide et impera against other units will make a great army
+Ain't no Slice There cost puts me off them (790 ) plus I don’t think they have warcry. If you compare them to Chosen Axemen at 580, plus their warcry and amour armour piercing axe - (18 attack, 6 defence, 5 charge).
This really isnt fair at all because the ai doesnt keep the phalanx down. The spartan wouldve won in most of these if it was controlled by a player because the player would have them stay in formation
I am just wondering... what difficulty do you use in battle? is it medium bec. medium is a balance battle with no bonus stats both the player and ai....
ohh thanks for answering my question and your listing are awesome too :D keep it up!! :D ohh I forgot are you planning to make listing of cavalry too or do you have already?...
Normal (and silvershild) legionairs behind bronce and silver pikemen? Pontus vs seleucids is considered a balanced matchup in cwb. Pontus has better missile cav and access to ca. The only advantage sele has ,are the silvershild legionairs. With pilla and testudo they usually win against bronce pikemen. You forgot the preatorian guard. Thy are the worse urbans, but they are still better then most of this top 10 units.
+Spitfyr I did mention the praetorian guard, but why bring them when you can bring Urbans. I do agree the praetorian guard are better than some of the units that mentioned in the top 10.
At first I thought this list would be solid, but now I see why its not. You're mostly just ranking pike units as the top 10. The moment they get hit from the flank and they will break. I wouldn't add more than Spartans and Royal Pikes to the list as top 10 infantry. Berserkers should also be higher as well, even with how much they cost. Its worth the cost unless you are going up against heavy cavalry.
They will absolutely destroy spartans? Man you really are stupid or trying hard. The spartans basically went into sword mode against pikes and got destroyed.
Now tested myself even against a noob AI, Spartans almost win always. Berserkers mop the floor with Urbans. Upgraded berserkers with weapons to price the same with Spartans and even tho they flanked me at hard difficulty, my 2 spartan units won over the Berserkers. So Spartan > Berserker > Urban. And logically in the game this is the same more or less, cause you need to know when to use the berserkers. Same reasons why spartans are still first.
furthermore this guy bits the others because of course he puts the rival with no good attack or defence...it is pretty ridiculous to see the spartans being slaughtered so easily by the sacred band or the roman legionary cohort by the chosen axemen..
I find it peculiar how armoured hoplites can thrash royal pikemen but Spartans cannot. Spartans are indeed less armoured but they have higher attack and 2 hit points. Rome II also failed to honour the Spartans with enough strength
More police than fire brigade, if i'm not mistaken the Vigiles were fire brigade, they were also there to counterweight the power of the pretorian guard.
I once annihilated a full balanced Roman army played by my older brother in custom with just berserkers. They are seriously undefeatable against everything except for horse archers and war elephants.
@@FaravusGaming well of course Spartans borned for war If they ever need to retreat they won't, they fight to death or never be a spartan ever again only if they heroicly die at battle they get rememberd as spartans
You mean those units with little to no armor, weak offensive stats and poor morale? The only advantage they have is manpower and that can be blunted quickly even by some of Rome's weakest units (like hastatit).
Steamed Hams Yes, you are right. That was the original meaning. However, like a lot of things it's gotten bastardized over time. These it's used almost synonymously with destroyed. I am not saying that's good or bad. It's how things change over time thru wrong usage.
No, what annoys you is that you think you have learned what 'to decimate' means, and you like to tell people that decimate means to kill 1/10th. Except in modern day English, according to online dictionary, the definition is this: 1. kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of. "the inhabitants of the country had been decimated" 2. historical kill one in every ten of (a group of people, originally a mutinous Roman legion) as a punishment for the whole group. "the man who is to determine whether it be necessary to decimate a large body of mutineers" Do you notice how your #2 definition is #2 and not #1? Why do you think this is? I'll tell you. Because most people use decimate to mean the first definition. And not the 2nd. Yes, the 2nd definition was the original meaning of the word. Except languages change and words change. So next time you decide to be cool and tell people that decimate means to kill off 1/10th, please remember that that's only one of the meanings and that words can have different definitions and that you're being nothing but an arrogant shit who thinks he needs to lecture people on the word decimation. So next time just shut up instead of being only quasi correct in your shitty arrogant statement.
Correction : axes in Rome TW (as in medieval 2) have "armor piercing". They don't divide the ennemy defense by 2, they simply ignore the "armor" stat of the unit in question, which means that for this unit : a scored HIT ends up always as a scored KILL on any unit, even the most armoured ones like legionnaries. Edit : it's 3 years later now, and I've realised that my comment was actually wrong. Sorry about this mistake
@@cobrazax As the comment was made 3 years ago I wasn't expecting to get another answer. But yes I did make a mistake here (and didn't know back then). In Rome and Medieval 2, "armor piercing" trait cuts the armor value of the target by half, not ignore it completely. It was a mistake on my part that I had forgotten I made. Thank you for reminding me of it, I'll put an edit on the main comment ^^
@@RoulicisThe I see. So basically the reason they are so deadly vs armored troops, is that their armor is much less useful, and the axemen attack is very high. Also flanking attacks would be especially deadly as the shield and defense skill would be much lower.
I'm late af but if you go a few seconds earlier you can see the Spartans are in phalanx, but phalanx units often break phalanx formation and fight with swords
Phalanx units drop their phalanx if they get too low in numbers. And as you can see early enough they dont have the numbers needed for staying in phalanx long enough
The ai dropped them out of phalanx right before they engaged if it was a person Spartans would of stayed in formation and would have been a lot more effective
This happened because the Macedon unit uses a pike not a spear and the pike is longer, it’s historical, it’s what Phillip and Alexander built their empires with
In the early game the falxmen trained with Ares with Thrace are unbeatable when you use them with miltia cav. They can be recruited in large towns and no other unit at that level can handle them. You can take 50 settlements so fast you don’t even need minor cities or higher to dominate. And they can be retrained on the fly since most places taken are at least a large town.
@@trump-totalwar6509 Yeah Falxmen take losses but slice through everything in the early game. If you play 100% aggressive offense in the beginning they will get some experience which then allows you to just auto resolve one battle after another and replenish the ranks with only a barracks so you can keep rolling. I was fighting Macedon, Bruttii and the Greek all at the some time still beat all of them.
I never liked Hoplites because they simply can't hold their phalanx.even if they get attacked(or are attacking) they break their phalanx and use swords.how hard is it to hold the line with spears pointing forward?i especially hate it when horses attack you and they take the initial charge but immediately go sword against a horse.
the urban cohort is NOT the most cost effective (and they take tremendous building progress to make) and it takes 2 turns to train; the most cost effective are the legion (get out 10 legions before your first urban cohort) and the armored hoplite (which is even accessible on turn 5 by building a barracks upgrade in Sparta); also in a straight up fight spartan vs urban (grass flatland) the spartan will win with an average of 8 men lost out of 80 which means they steamroll the urban is a straight fight (70+ out of 80 men remaining with the urbans routing on several men left)
My list would be: 1. Urban Cohort (versatile, good value, OP?) 2. Sacred Band Hoplites (good value again, somewhat underrated by many) 3. Royal Pikemen (Best long pikes in the game, makes Macedon special) 4. Spartans (dominates high denarii games and still used lower money) 5. Legionaries (versatile, good value) 6. Silver Shield legionaries (as above, good combo with SS pikes in 31K) 7. Bronze Shield Pikemen (Not overpriced Silver Shield Pikes, second best long pikes in game after Royal PIkemen) 8. Armoured Hoplites (Good value) 9. Phalanx Pikemen (Good value, Thrace's only decent unit) 10. Berzerkers (Carries Germania as a playable faction in high denarii games) Honorable Mention: Praetorian Cohort (just doesn't see enough play to warrant a spot, overshadowed by Urbans.) I still like your list :) Chosen axemen were way overrated but the rest were pretty good!
+Kim JongLi Chosen Axemen only cost 580. They have warcry and amour armour piercing axe - (18 attack, 6 defence, 5 charge). I shouldn’t need to sell this unit to you, it sells its self!!I did give the praetorian cohort a mention, but why would you pick them when you can have an Urban. In my honest opion I think the praetorian cohort should have been the Urbans. There no need for Rome to have both Urbans and praetorians.
Biscuits Total War The Chosen Axemen are only good against Rome. Think about it; only against Rome. Against almost every other faction they lose out. Allow me to list some examples: Egypt=insta lose, Armenia=loses to pikes (even though their pikes are bad), Britannia= loses to chars and hurlers (insta lose), Macedon= loses to pikes, Greece= loses to pikes, Parthia= loses to missiles, Scythia= loses to missiles, Pontus= (Insta lose). TLDR; On paper, Chosen axemen are great, but in practise, they suffer against too many common pike and missile units to be of good use in multiplayer. One of the reasons Germania suffers in MP is because Chosen Axemen are the only filler units available, and it is because they are forced to rely on Chosen Axemen in 31K that Germania is so difficult to pilot.
Urbans get 2 more attack and 1 more defense over praetorians, but somehow they also get more stamina and morale than the praetorians. Urbans all the way
Chosen axemen is the one infantry unit that can destroy urban cohort 1v1, spartans are the one unit that can destroy every one if they can from a closed circle of falangs, but... honestly, they all can be fucked by arrow fire, archers rule this game
Any unit can gone easily if you use it in a wrong way. I'm pretty sure that Levi pikemen is very strong not only in a defense battle and become unstoppable if you fight automatically because of the unit size.
with their weak armour and close-packed nature they get torn to fucking pieces by any missile troops. so Roman armies and their Pila will massacre them.
My best non-archer infantry units. All the Roman units from early legionary cohort up (not including auxilia spearmen [hopeless]; Spanish bull warriors; later Spartan phalanx infantry units; Bastarnae; Dacian/Thracian falxmen; Illyrian mercenaries and the ubiquitous barbarian mercenaries.
Best infantry units IMO: Spartan Hoplites: Phalanx form and superior morale. They fight until last man falls. Bull Warriors: One of the best late game unit. But they can be recruited from only shitty Spain. Excellent morale and high javelin damage. Pharaohs Guards: One of the best phalanx unit. They deal superb damage. Falxmen: Oh baby! I love these maniacs. Berserker: Berserk mode can vanish all legionaries. But they are extremely vulnerable to ranged attacks. Don't use them while storming to the walls. Watchtowers will consume them. Urban Cohort: Historically wrong but best unit in the game. They can vanish infantry, ranged units, cavalry all types of units. Javelin damage is even better than Bull Warriors.
When I wasn't playing as the Romans, the best unit overall was: Iberian infantry. Only average stats but they're dirt cheap and the enemy never has an army full of elite units. Of course, use only in combination with decent archers/slingers and some cavalry to flank the enemy unit or hit them in the back. Iberian infantry will not last for long but who cares if you've got loads of them. Then, after the bloody battle has been won, comes the most important phase: rebuilding your units. Elite units can only be rebuilt in special, high tier barracks. Iberian infantry can be rebuilt in basically any town of importance. If you can only win with elite units, there's something wrong with your tactics. And like I said, strategically, you cannot do much about rebuilding elite units when campaigning far away from home. Iberian infantry are like the Yari Ashigaru of mediëval Japan, any poor sod can be trained to join the Iberian infantry! We need men. They will keep on fighting! Join the Iberian infantry now!!
I remember playing as the romans and after the marian reforms, i had this immense stubborness to build 4-5 armies full of newly recruited legionaires.At that point i had to face Egypt who to my happiness really challenged me (basically captured everything east of italy by 240 bc which is amazing even for a player) and after 10 battles i found myself needing to repplenish my armies in italy.Egypt got the upper hand and i got to win the fight after a 8 year old war with egypt.Looking back i would definetly build "some" armies made of auxilia maybe early cohorts but still, playing an entire game with light infantry gets almost impossible in late game
@@URUNicoM marian reform troops are buffed a lot compared to other factions units.It s not fun for me if i spam armies with same troops, try diversity and counter tactics even if it s not as quick it s more fun.
They're okay. But If you rely on these to win your battles then you need to switch up your tactics because otherwise they're going to lose hard if they're coming up against other early game units like hastati, Gemanic spear warband and early hoplites. All of which I'd pick before Iberian infantry.
@@LyricalDJ Are you talking to me? Anyway, Iberian infantry, like Yari Ashigaru, don't have impressive stats. The only way I used them (as I do use other cheap infantry) is to keep the enemy occupied untill I could flank him with a cavalry unit or some other fast, maneuverable unit. If we're talking about best unit in the game, that's easy. All cavalry armies. And unlike in reality, you can keep changing direction, re-attack while retreating etc. etc. Cavalry in RTW are basically super genius smart missiles like in Hollywood movies.
Kaiser_1488 Protecting your phalanx's flanks is your top priority. I suggest having a second line behind a phalanx wall and cavalry in the sides for defensive purposes.
Playing as Scythia now and I laugh at all infantry. If the enemy has no cavalry or war dogs, I will have less than 50 casualties. Archers with long range projectiles are probably the most dangerous infantry unit to horse archers. Everything else can be worn out and then routed easily, which is why all armies ought to use cavalry. If you have no cav, it doesn't matter how good your infantry are you're going to lose against a cav-heavy force.
Triarii are pretty OP if you play them well. They destroy cav and can go 1v1 with later Marian reform units. Try a gold/gold Triarii against a gold/gold urban or royal pikes and you'll see some interesting results.
I just started playing the remasted game. At the moment I am using Archers and War Dogs. The dogs apparently are treated like ammo. So you just sent them out, and at the end of the battle you get them back. I'm been winning many battles with no loses.
