RTW:Barbarian Invasion unit guide

[Yojimbo]

Barbarian Invasion
guide

Thread version 1.0 Text from RTW series guide v3.0

Welcome to my guide for barbarian invasion. This is the thread version of the guide so a few elements will be missing like unit cards and this thread may not be as updated as the pdf version is. For general notes on using unit classes and tactics check out my RTW guide under strategy guides. This PDF contains all of my RTW guides in one!

Copyright

This guide is exclusively the property of Allan Curtis aka Forlornhope, Forlornhop3, Trueforlornhope and sites I CHOOSE to allow to host it. Do not sell, make mass copies of, make derivative works of, bundle or charge access to this guide. This guide will remain free and may not be sold, except when I deem it allowable. Any breach of copyright will be met with the full extent of the law. I take my work very seriously and I will find you if you steal it as this took a long time to write. If you want to use it on your site CONTACT ME FIRST and make sure I’m credited.

Contact

You can contact me via PM on TWC as Forlornhop3. My Xfire is DarknessofFate feedback is greatly encorauged!




New Formations

Barbarian invasion includes two new formations the Shieldwall, usable by the better trained spear and sword units, and the schiltrom which most spear units can do.

Shield Wall

The Shield wall. Note the captain and banner carrier in the back out of harm’s way.

This formation causes the unit to tighten up into a very dense formation, shields held forward. The banner carrier and captain (if present) or unit leader moves to the rear center. In this formation the unit stays as dense as possible and gets a large defense bonus, it takes much longer for men to be killed as long as the formation doesn’t completely fall apart. I tested this using Auxilia Palatina, against gothic warriors: first without shield wall the unit was dead in about 3 mins as the formation broke up quite easily and the men were shredded. In Shieldwall the men stayed in formation and held out for ages about ten mins of solid melee except for once time where the Goths pulled back a short distance and charged at me against immediately. Even though it took longer, the Auxilia killed roughly as many as they did in normal formation, though they did eventually lose as they are spearmen fighting swordsmen. The unit doesn’t seem so inclined to fight flankers: only the closest turned around to fight when they were very close and most of them stayed in formation.

Guard Mode makes the formation even more brick like. The unit will stay rigidly in formation, even if they are attacked from the flank or behind, just the man being attacked will turn and fight and maybe his neighbors if the enemy is very close. Some men will even just stay in formation, facing the front and not react before the flanking enemy has killed him. Guard mode makes a huge difference as it increases their survivability even more. After 15 or so mins of melee, the unit actually routed the swordsmen, the battle was in a desert map and the spearmen were still at fresh fatigue, as Shieldwall doesn’t fatigue men faster and since they were very tough for the enemy to kill they won by war of attrition slowly wearing down the swordsmen’s numbers. The swords routed with about 60 left the spears had about 90 left, both units out of 162. The Goths also kept withdrawing every minute or so and tried to flank me, but I turned to face them as men can run in shield wall

You should use spearmen in Shieldwall with guard mode turned on, if they are defensive, such as holding your line or blocking a breach, as it increases their usefulness many fold. The unit won’t kill as quickly however so if you want them to attack effectively you should keep them in standard formation.

Thus Shieldwall is an excellent formation for when you need to hold a location or a line as the spears will be able to hold out for the longest time possible, while you flank or something. The fact that the captain moves to the center rear of the unit and stays there out of harm’s way makes this a good unit for captain led armies, if the captain is in their unit as he is safest at the back.


Schiltrom

Multiple Schiltrom, Scottish style.

The schiltrom is a common spear unit formation that most spear units can do. In this formation the unit forms a circle with spearpoints pointing out in all directions. This means that the unit doesn’t really have flanks anymore and they can fight back in all directions. Schiltrom is more a defensive formation; because the units weapons are more spread out it can’t focus as many men in one direction to fight against the enemy, so there are fewer men in battle at a time. This is balanced by the fact that in this formation the unit seems to have better defense and their phalanx type attacks seem to work better with the very closely packed formation. This formation is also great to prevent flank attacks, as a schiltrom has no flanks or rear as they have attack ability in all direction making them very effective at resisting cavalry attacks. Units in this formation can march, but not run, and forming the formation takes about 10 seconds, as the men close in and form up making it hard to react to sudden cavalry charges. When a schiltrom is moving the men all point their weapons in the direction they are moving, meaning they are vulnerable in all directions besides the front. When enemies are close keep a schiltrom stationary so they can brace themselves.

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Legions





Stupid funding cutbacks can’t even afford bows!

Even though legions look very different now, they are still used in the same way: as tough, heavily armored infantry used to crush the enemy in melee, after weakening them with thrown pila, or hold the enemy in place. There are some new ideas like Plumbatarii, but for the most part the Roman army’s legions at least are mostly the same, even if the armies make up itself has drastically changed from RTW, what with horse archers and camels. They have very good morale. Legions have very poor charge bonuses, probably because of their slowness, so don’t worry too much about charging with them. All legions have very high upkeep and you should always be using them if possible. Like RTW’s Legions their pila are ap and devastating to pretty much anything so you should order them to fire at will and halt them near the enemy so they can throw all their pila into the enemies,. This will cause a lot of causalities and leave fewer enemies to fight in mêlée so you take fewer losses. Legions come in handy to absorb missiles as they have loads of armor and will take very few losses from arrows. Just watch out for the new crossbows.

British Legionaries
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 9 Defense: 21 Charge: 2 Armor: 8 Cost: 590 Upkeep: 319
Factions: Romano-British

British Legionaries are local copies of Roman legions and are quite effective because of it. They are heavily armored and have a good attack and missile attack. You should put them on fire at will and allow them to throw all their missiles before charging. They are weaker than actual roman legions, like Comitatenses and will lose to them, but they will be a match for many other troops.

Comitatenses
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 9 Defense: 25 Charge: 2 Armor: 10 Cost: 680 Upkeep: 389
Factions: Roman

Comitatenses are the infantry of the line for Roman factions in this period. They have good attack and are heavily armored. They are made to hold the line and kill other infantry and spear units. Plumbatarii are just as tough, but have the advantage of better and more missiles for just a little more money. You should start replacing Comitatenses with Plumbatarii when you can. They also have very expensive upkeep so don’t leave loads of them around. You should only make them when you’re going to attack or use them in frontier cities at high risk of attack.




Comitatenses First Cohort
Attack: 10 Missile attack: 11 Defense 27 Charge: 3 Armor: 11 Cost: 1200 Upkeep: 680
Factions: Roman

Much like Legionary first cohorts in RTW, Comitatenses First Cohorts are tougher troops than normal, with more attack, missile attack, defense and slightly more armor. They have 240 men rather than 161. They raise the morale of nearby troops, and with their large numbers can be a real job to kill as they have such good stats. You should use these units as the center of your army, putting them in the middle of your line to affect as many units as possible with their morale bonus and to ensure their killing power is put to good use. Just ensure that this unit isn’t destroyed as their legionary eagle will be taken by the enemy and give the commanding offer terrible traits. For this reason you should still be somewhat careful with them in particular, keeping them far away from armor piercing troops.This unit has INSANE upkeep, more than many units cost so you really shouldn’t leave them in a settlement taking up cash unless you’re saving them for something.

Plumbatarii
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 10 Defense: 25 Charge: 2 Armor: 10 Cost: 720 Upkeep: 369
Factions: Roman

These men are exactly like Comitatenses except that they have iron darts rather than pila. They carry 10 darts, compared to 4 pila for pila troops and have the same range. The darts pierce armor just like pila and do slightly more damage. Since this unit is just as good in melee as Comitatenses, costs just a tiny bit more and has more missiles as a bonus you should use these men as infantry of the line and use a lot of them as soon as you can start training them en mass.


Swordsmen




Elite swordsmen make for a titanic battle.

Swordsmen in BI are different to RTW. They tend to be heavily armored and have high defense, compared to the many lightly armored swordsmen in RTW. They are best used as your main tough infantry to hold the line and fight against the enemies’ units in general. Much like rtw swordsmen are versatile and can hold their own against most enemies. They tend to have good morale and attack, making them effective troops. Usually you should have the majority of your army swordsmen, except for factions like the Huns, and Romans. Make sure to watch out for ap units with the heavily armored swords.

Druids
Attack: 11 Defense: 12 Charge: 5 Armor: 4 Cost: 310 Upkeep: 154
Factions: Celts

These are a lot like RTW’s druids. Use their chanting ability to support your troops: it raises morale and lowers enemy morale. They can however fight in melee rather well, as they have good attack and decent defense. Their sickles do not pierce armor.

Gallowglasses
Attack: 13 Defense: 17 Charge: 5 Armor: 7 Cost: 500 Upkeep: 124
Factions: Celts

Gallowglasses are a two handed swordsmen unit technicality because they lack shields. Their swords are so large they look like they should be wielded two-handed, but they aren’t. Gallowglasses are well balanced in stats and should crush quite a few sword units and obviously wreck spear units. Use them as your infantry of the line for Celt armies, but remember with their lack of a shield they will die rather quickly even though they are well armored. They have good morale










Golden Band
Attack: 16 Defense: 16 Charge: 5 Armor: 5 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 144
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Despite their great attack, Golden Band can’t really stand up to elite swordsmen of other factions. They have too little armor and they are very vulnerable to missiles and die quite quickly in melee since they lack a shield, which is very odd for melee dedicated swordsmen, since they only use one handed swords there isn’t really a reason why they lack shields, especially since the unit description says they are the tribe’s heroes and get the best of everything. They will kill fast and die quite quickly so you should flank with them on an already engaged unit if possible. They have great morale and won’t rout till most of the unit is dead. All up they can be an effective unit, but don’t expect them to beat Chosen Swordsmen by themselves. It seems this unit was meant to use an axe and a sword and no shield, judging by the unit pic, but in game they just have swords.

Gothic Warriors
Attack 10 Defense: 20 Charge: 4 Armor: 7 Cost: 560 Upkeep: 189
Factions: Goths

Gothic Warriors are another backbone line infantry type unit. They can survive easily in a melee and have good attack to dish out the pain. You should use them as the bulk of a Goth army, backed up with foot archers and Gothic Spearmen.

Lombard Berserkers
Attack: 14 Defense: 9 Charge: 7 Armor: 2 Cost: 810 Upkeep: 188
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Berserkers are crazy! They have a very good chance to go berserk when told to War Cry, or ordered to attack. They will go berserk, you’ll lose control of them and they will start ripping the enemy to shreds. Watching berserks fight is a sight to see, as they use combo attacks spinning though the enemy sending men flying and hardly ever stop swinging at the enemy. They cause fear to nearby infantry. Once the unit they are fighting is routed they chase the routers, if there is no standing unit nearby but if there is they move to the closest standing enemies and attack them next, regardless of who they are or how many casualties they have taken, as berserks are immune to morale loss while berserk and will keep killing, though if they are out of combat for a little while they may stop going berserk and become controllable again, at least until the next time you tell them to attack, when they will probably go crazy again. They have a deceptive attack, as it hardly matters with their devastating attack animations. Lombard berserks have almost no armor and no shields so even though the berserks will cause a load of casualties very quickly and rip units apart; they will die very quickly as well if bogged down in a protracted melee, also because they never stop attacking long enough to block incoming melee strikes. You should flank with berserks if possible, using fodder to keep the expensive and rather fragile berserks out of direct melee or missile fire and allowing them to crash into the flank or rear causing tons of causalities with their powerful melee attacks. Berserkers are an all or nothing unit. You either rip the enemy apart, or they hold and the berserks get cut down because of their low defense and small numbers. They have 64 men in their unit and those 64 are very expensive.











Praeventores
Attack: 12 Defense: 16 Charge: 3 Armor: 4 Cost: 330 Upkeep: 273
Factions: Western Roman Empire

Praeventores are much like Arcanii in the original RTW. They have very good attack and a lot of defense skill matched with 80 men, half of the average unit size. They can hide anywhere and are fast but have little armor. These men aren’t really that good for fighting in a battle line, as they are too few in numbers and their lack of armor is a handicap in a protracted melee. The idea with them is to ambush with them using their skills at hiding anywhere to fall upon the foe from behind or attack the enemy general. This isn’t a common occurrence in RTW and BI, as units are easy to see and armies start so close together. Really you’re better off using normal legions rather than these troops, though they can be fun to mess around with. They have good morale. They have good morale. Their upkeep is not worth their limited use so only train them if they are actually going to serve a purpose or your just messing around.

Saxon Hearth Troops
Attack 11 Defense: 23 Charge: 4 Armor: 7 Cost: 590 Upkeep: 220
Factions: Saxons

Hearth troops are the elite swordsmen of the Saxons. They are basically tougher versions of Chosen Swordsmen: they have slightly less attack but more defense, though their charge isn’t as good. They will beat Chosen Swordsmen. Their charge is rather weak for such a high tier unit, but they serve well as your tough heavy infantry.

Steppe Swordsmen
Attack: 9 Defense: 15 Charge: 5 Armor: 5 Cost: 360 Upkeep: 122
Factions: Huns, Vandals, Slavs

Steppe Swordsmen might look to have decent stats, but they are actually the weakest swordsmen in BI. They have lower attack than the others and only druids and berserkers have lower defense. If you fight against other swordsmen you should make sure they have a numerical advantage or attack from the flank or rear. They are useful for killing spear units and parking in front of cavalry archers to use as a barrier vs. charging enemy units, though spearmen are better for this.

Sword Heerbann
Attack: 9 Defense: 20 Charge: 5 Armor: 7 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 144
Factions: Franks

Sword Heerbanns are the infantry of the line for the franks, along with Axe Heerbanns. They have better attack than the axemen but obviously don’t pierce armor. They have very good defense and can stay alive in melee for a long time, making them perfect for holding enemies while you flank with your axemen. Use a lot of these troops.


New Axemen



Catch!

Axemen are, like BI swordsmen usually more heavily armored than in RTW. Besides that and the fact there are a unit of throwing axemen, axemen are largely like their RTW brethren and should be used in the same way.

Berber Axemen
Attack: 6 Defense: 12 Charge: 3 Armor: 3 Cost: 280 Upkeep: 96
Factions: Berbers

Berber axemen are the Berbers only AP unit. They have otherwise rather weak stats and light armor making them vulnerable to missiles and have rather crappy stats when going against unarmored units. If you’re playing as the Berbers, target the axemen at armored units only, if you can help it and use several, because they may not be strong enough to win. They cost very little upkeep and are cheap, so if your playing as the Berbers they are good for garrisoning. Remember though they are cheap because they basically suck.

Chosen Axemen
Attack: 14 Defense: 14 Charge: 5 Armor: 6 Cost: 500 Upkeep: 134
Factions: Saxons, Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Chosen axemen aren’t as powerful as the RTW unit of the same name, but they are much better defended being well armored. Their axes pierce armor and they kill quickly with their very high attack, though with their lack of shields they will take causalities rather fast. You should also try to keep them away from missiles, particularly the new crossbows. You could flank with them, as this offsets their lack of a shield.

Axe Heerbann
Attack: 7 Defense 17 Charge: 5 Armor: 7 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 124
Factions: Franks

Axe Heerbanns are good axemen with a low attack for axemen but good defense for such an early unit. They are also well armored They pierce armor, so they work well against armored units, but their attack is a bit too low for them to stand against elite lightly armored foes. Thus it is a good idea to deploy Axe Heerbanns with Sword Heerbanns and send the axemen after the armored targets, while the swords with their higher base attack and greater defense crush any lightly armored enemies. Just remember: there are tougher armor piercing units out there and Axe Heerbanns are well armored so if you run into say Sughdian Warriors who pierce armor, don’t count on the axes winning. They have cheap upkeep for such a good unit.


Francisca Heerbann
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 6 Defense: 19 Charge: 4 Armor: 7 Cost: 650 Upkeep: 163
Factions: Franks

Francisca heerbanns are fun units to use. They have a good attack for one handed axemen. The game doesn’t say they pierce armor, but their missiles seem to as they do the same amount of damage vs. legionaries as against lightly armored targets like Praeventores. Their hand axes also seem to pierce armor This unit is the only unit in the game to use thrown axes and like other thrown weapons it gets +6 attack vs. elephants and chariots making them very effective at taking them down. They have very high defense, are well armored and can handle themselves in a melee. They also have good morale.

Hounds of Culann
Attack: 11 Defense: 5 Charge: 7 Hit Points: 2 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 180
Factions: Celts

Hounds or Culann are berserkers! They have a very good chance to go berserk when told to War Cry, or ordered to attack. They will go berserk, you’ll lose control of them and they will start ripping the enemy to shreds. Watching berserks fight is a sight to see, as they use combo attacks spinning though the enemy sending men flying and hardly ever stop swinging at the enemy. They cause fear to nearby infantry. Once the unit they are fighting is routed they chase the routers, if there is no standing unit nearby but if there is they move to the closest standing enemies and attack them next, regardless of who they are or how many casualties they have taken, as berserks are immune to morale loss while berserk and will keep killing, though if they are out of combat for a little while they may stop going berserk and become controllable again, at least until the next time you tell them to attack, when they will probably go crazy again. Hounds have a deceptive attack, as it hardly matters with their devastating attack animations. They also pierce armor. The Hounds are not armored and lack shields giving them very low defense, so even though the berserks will cause a load of casualties very quickly and rip units apart, they will die very quickly as well if bogged down in a protracted melee, also because they never stop attacking long enough to block incoming melee strikes. You should flank with berserks if possible, using fodder to keep the expensive and rather fragile berserks out of direct melee or missile fire and allowing them to crash into the flank or rear causing tons of causalities with their powerful melee attacks. Berserkers are an all or nothing unit. You either rip the enemy apart or they hold and the berserks get cut down because of their low defense and small numbers. They have 64 men in their unit and those 64 are very expensive.

Sughdian Warriors
Attack: 10 Defense: 19 Charge: 4 Armor: 7 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 264
Factions: Sassanids

Sughdian warriors are a surprising unit, as they are Eastern faction infantry which aren’t lousy. They have armor piercing maces, are well armored and have light shields. They have good stats for an AP unit and will crush most infantry with armor and can do a decent job vs. armored cavalry too. This is a very effective unit for the Sassanids.

Night Raiders
Attack: 10 Defense: 9 Charge: 6 Armor: 2 Cost: 342 Upkeep: 126
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Night raiders are a lot like the RTW unit of the same name and are pretty much outdated by BI. They have a good attack like most axes, but their useless defense and armor ensures they will lose to most things and missiles will kill many. They do pierce armor in BI however, unlike RTWs version and they still scare nearby enemy infantry. Still you should only make them early on before you can make some of the better units. They can war cry, and always should. Very cheap upkeep.

[Yojimbo]

Spearmen



Knee deep in the dead.

Spearmen are one of the most different unit classes from RTW as they have access to the new shield wall and schiltrom formation, described at the beginning of the BI section. Some spear units can also throw javelins before melee or on fire at will. These missiles are good for evening the odds like pila and legionaries, but they do not pierce armor like pila does, so remember this.

Auxilia Palatina
Attack: 7 Defense: 25 Charge: 2 Armor: 10 Cost: 810 Upkeep: 369
Factions: WRE

Auxilia Palatina are the best protected spearmen in the game. They have massive defense almost as good as Cataphracts and will absolutely massacre any cavalry they melee with. They can also last for a long time against infantry in shield wall formation especially with guard mode turned on.

Bosphoran Infantry
Attack: 9 Defense: 22 Charge: 4 Armor: 8 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 200
Factions: Sarmatians, Roxolani

Bosphoran infantry are the best spearmen in the entire game, which is amazing for these factions that focus on horse archers more than anything. They have heavy shields and are heavily armored and have a great attack for spears. They are even better than heavy spearmen and are great at ripping cavalry to bits. Try to entice the cavalry into charging them and then flank with lesser spears or cavalry. They can hold on in melee against most troops for a while, as they are so tough. Their heavy armor along with their spear class stats and shields makes them great for absorbing missiles and ensures they will take minimum damage from cavalry. Don’t neglect this infantry, just because these factions are more focused on cavalry, as they can be very effective.

Coastal Levies
Attack: 4 Defense: 17 Charge: 1 Armor: 6 Cost: 437 Upkeep: 184
Factions: Romano-British

Coastal levels are the Romano British equals of Limitanei. They have horrible attack and very good defense for spears ensuring they make good fodder, able to stay alive and hold the enemy in place for quite a while, even if they won’t actually kill many of them.




Foederati Infantry
Attack: 6 Defense: 19 Charge: 2 Armor: 5 Cost: 500 Upkeep: 235
Factions: Roman, Romano-British

Foederati infantry are spearmen with weak attack, though their defense is high and they are decently armored. Use this unit to soak up missiles and hold the flank against cavalry. They can survive for a while with their high defense, although they won’t actually kill that quickly because of their low attack.

Gothic Spearmen
Attack 7 Defense: 20 Charge: 3 Armor: 6 Cost: 405 Upkeep: 163
Factions: Goths

Gothic Spearmen are better than Foederati, as they have slightly better attack and defense. You should still use them in the same way.

Hillmen
Attack: 7 Defense: 10 Charge: 4 Armor: 2 Cost: 333 Upkeep: 115
Factions: Berbers

Hillmen are weak spearmen with low defense and armor. They fit the typical spear unit role as fodder quite nicely.

Legio Lanciarii
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 10 Defense: 19 Charge: 2 Armor: 5 Cost: 600 Upkeep: 268
Factions: ERE

Legios are tough spearmen they have good armor for the class and an ok attack for spears. They are perfect for holding a line and resist missiles decently. Don’t expect them to kill too much though, as they oddly have less attack than even Levy Spearmen. They carry pila, like normal legions and you should let them throw them by putting them on fire at will and waiting until the enemy get close.

Limitanei
Attack: 4 Missile attack: 8 Defense 17 Charge: 1 Armor: 6 Cost: 475 Upkeep: 173
Factions: Roman

Limitanei are the BI Roman equitant of Town Watch. They aren’t good fighters as their attack is horrible but they have good defense and armor enabling them to hold on for quite a while in melee and making them good at soaking up missiles. They also have pila to throw, though they are not as powerful as other unit’s pila. Use them as garrisons, but consider taking them on campaign as fodder.

Levy Spearmen
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 11 Defense: 10 Charge: 4 Armor: 2 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 115
Factions: Franks, Saxons, Sassanids

Levy Spearmen are another low defense spear unit. They die very fast in melee with their low defense and will take a lot of casualties when charged with their almost nonexistent armor, though their attack is good for spears. They do have 240 men on huge unit sizes compared to the 160 for stronger spear units, which enables them to beat a lot of other spearmen though their numbers advantage and survive longer in melee. They can make Shieldwall and you should do this as it helps them survive just that little bit longer. This unit is not nearly as trained as the more elite spear units so they won’t hold the wall as well. Just use this unit as another meatshield/fodder unit.

Some units of levy spear can throw spears before attacking and help to really even the odds. You should put these units on fire at will and allow them to throw all their missiles before attacking in melee, if possible.

The Sassanids version of this unit deserves mention as one of my most hated units. They have exactly no morale, they rout even if they are winning, if they are slightly outnumbered, they rout if anyone else routs and they rout when fighting camels, they rout if they take more than 20 or so causalities They absolutely suck. They don’t have javelins either.

Mountain Men
Attack: 7 Defense: 14 Charge: 4 Armor: 3 Cost: 297 Upkeep: 96
Factions: Berbers

Mountain men are pretty good spearmen, they have a good attack and more defense than most other spear units. They will still die rather quickly and a direct charge will still kill quite a few, but they have better morale than the weaker spears and are better in a melee.

Pictish Spearmen
Attack: 6 Defense: 11 Charge: 4 Armor: 3 Cost: 315 Upkeep: 115
Factions: Celts

Pictish Spearmen are yet another weak spear unit with the same stats as Spear Warbands. They might be of Celtic stock but you should use them in the same way.

Runaway Slave Spearmen
Attack: 6 Defense: 12 Charge: 2 Armor: 2 Cost: 270 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Huns, Goths, Sarmatians, Roxolani

Runaway Slave spearmen are very basic spearmen. They have no special skills except they are fast and they have average attack for spears and almost no armor. Oddly even they the game says they get the worst weapons and no armor they do have a little armor and steppe spearmen have a worse attack than them, not to mention they have the same attack as a few other spear units. These spears can still hold a line for a little while though their peasant like formation and their lack of skills like Shieldwall make them a spear unit best left unused. They are not however useless. If you use them, remember to try to keep them away from missiles if you aren’t using them as fodder as their nonexistent armor ensures they will get whittled down very fast. They do have 240 men on huge unit sizes, which does allow them to stay in battle for a while.

Saxon Keel
Attack: 7 Defense: 16 Charge: 4 Armor: 4 Cost: 342 Upkeep: 115
Factions: Saxons

Saxon Keels are tougher spearmen. They have a bit more armor and much better defense than most others and they still have a good attack. They are not as useful as Spear Warbands against lighter troops, as they lack missiles. Their 160 men per unit also make them weaker in melee.

Spear Warband
Attack: 6 Defense: 11 Charge: 4 Armor: 3 Cost: 315 Upkeep: 115
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Spear Warbands are weak spearmen that are best used as fodder, as the factions that can train them all have Lombard archers, a long range useful archer unit. Use the spears to hold units in place while you shoot them with your archers and as meatshields for the archers. They can be effective against weaker cavalry but their defense and armor is quite low so stronger cavalry will be able to rout them though they will take quite a few causalities doing so. You really should use Warbands in groups. Two Warbands vs. one tough cavalry unit will crush it, whereas one will probably lose. This unit is these factions only spear unit so you have little choice.

Steppe Heavy Spearmen
Attack: 9 Defense: 21 Charge: 4 Armor: 7 Cost: 513 Upkeep: 189
Factions: Huns, Slavs

Steppe Heavy Spearmen are light years ahead of most other spearmen. They have a huge attack for spearmen, the best in the game for their class and they are well armored and have very high defense. Heavy spearmen are great at receiving charges, as their armor means they will take almost no casualties and stop the charge dead, before shredding the cavalry quickly with their high attack. They also have good morale, unlike most spears and can hold on vs. infantry for a while, because of their great defense. You should make heavy spearmen even if you are the Huns as they are extremely effective troops against cavalry and are tough enough to be versatile. If you have heavy spears and other lighter spearmen, allow the heavies to get charged if possible and flank with the other spears, if you’re fighting so much cavalry that even heavy spears can’t beat it all. Heavy Spearmen cannot form schiltrom, not that it matters

Steppe Spearmen
Attack: 6 Defense: 11 Charge: 4 Armor: 3 Cost: 315 Upkeep: 133(Vandals)
Attack: 5 Defense: 13 Charge: 2 Armor: 3 Cost: 297 Upkeep: 167(Huns)
Factions: Huns, Slavs

Steppe Spearmen are another weakish spear unit suitable as fodder. They have less attack but a bit more defense than Spear Warbands. They can just defeat tough cavalry on their own, but more than half the unit will die. When I put them against noble cavalry about 30 spearmen died from the charge alone and they almost broke but in the end won, but with only 90 men left out of 240. You should use two units of these spears, much like Spear Warbands. Allow one to receive the charge and then attack with the other one from the flank if possible. That should give the cavalry a morale penalty from being so far outnumbered and give the first spear unit a morale bonus from having its flank protected and you should rout the cavalry in short order. They, like other weaker spear units have 240 men rather than 160.

[Yojimbo]

Missiles

Skirmishers


No Vencorix of course we aren’t fodder!

Skirmishers are rare in BI: there are only two units of them. They are even less use this time around, because there are so many powerful units and a lot more cavalry. Skirmishers still have low amounts of ammo and have trouble killing enough to be useful. They do have very low upkeep however so they are useful as fodder or just more bodies to throw into the fray and as garrisons.

Kurdish Javalinmen
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 9 Charge: 2 Armor: 3 Cost: 260 Upkeep: 108
Factions: Sassanids

Kurdish Javelins are tough for skirmishers they have a good missile attack and an ok melee attack for skirmishers. They can function as light infantry after they have thrown their missiles.

Kerns
Attack: 6: Missile attack: 9 Defense: 7 Charge 4 Armor: 0 Cost: 216 Upkeep: 67
Factions: Celts

Kerns are better skirmishers than Kurdish Javalinmen; they have slightly better missile attack. They have better melee attack but less defense. Their complete lack of armor, coupled with the short range of skirmishers ensures they won’t be surviving long, so use them as light infantry when their missiles are gone.

Foot Archers

Relaxing by the river at night by torchlight how romantic.

Foot Archers are much the same as in RTW, except there are more archers who are ok at melee now, and there is a new, even longer ranged class of archer, though about the only archer that falls into this category are Eastern Archers.

Archers
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 5 Defense: 6 Charge: 1 Armor: 3 Cost: 275 Upkeep: 151
Factions: Romano-British, Roman

These are bog standard archers with a crap missile attack. They are also weak in melee as they have a very low attack and the worst defense for an archer in BI. They do have some armor but you should still keep them out of missile fire. If you are WRE you’ll have to make do with these archers or your crossbows as that is all they have for foot ones. Focus all their fire on one unit to compensate for their weakness and don’t even think about hurting armored units with them.

Chosen Archers
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 7 Defense: 11 Charge: 4 Armor: 6 Cost: 405 Upkeep: 105
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Chosen archers are an odd unit as they are actually better in melee than archery, like their RTW brethren. They have a huge attack for archers and a good missile attack and defense. They are weaker in archery than Lombard Archers, who are also cheaper and have much longer range, as they are elite archers and this unit is not. Use Chosen Archers as high risk archers that have a good chance of getting attacked in melee or if you need versatility to be able to shoot or melee like in sieges, as they can shoot the foe as they approach the walls and then fight them if they make it to the top much better than more pure archers can. They are well armored, but they lack shields, so they will still take causalities rather quickly in a protracted melee. If you need archers just to shoot, use Lombard Archers over this unit, as both of the factions able to train this unit can train Lombardi as well.

Eastern Archers
Attack: 4 Missile attack: 9 Defense: 12 Charge: 2 Armor: 8 Cost: 712 Upkeep: 268
Factions: ERE

Eastern archers are much better than normal Roman Archers. They are better in melee and shoot far better. They are also very well armored for archers. These foot archers are head and shoulders above most archers when it comes to plain shooting and surviving counter fire and you should use many of them as the ERE. You should still try to keep them out of melee, as they still aren’t really good at it and are very expensive for archers. They have huge upkeep so don’t use them as garrison forces unless you’re rolling in money.

Goth Raiders
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 9 Defense: 12 Charge: 2 Armor: 6 Cost: 486 Upkeep: 167
Faction: Goths

Raiders are quite tough archers: they have very good attack for archers and very good defense for their class and are armed with swords as well as bows so they can fight in melee when they must and will easily defeat most other archer units. They also wear more armor than most archers and shoot well. Use these archers well, as they are very versatile. Just don’t send them into melee against dedicated melee troops like swordsmen or axemen and expect them to win. You should still focus on shooting and enter melee to flank, or if a friendly unit needs help and you just need a bit more of a push.

Desert Archers
Attack: 3 Missile attack: 7 Defense: 7 Charge: 1 Armor: 3 Cost: 380 Upkeep: 120 (Sassanids)
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 5 Defense: 8 Charge 1 Armor: 3 Cost: 234 Upkeep: 96(Berbers)

Desert archers are different for both of these factions. Sassanids are your basic archers they shoot average and have low defense and suck in melee. Berber Desert archers are very poor shooters with a low missile attack. They are slightly better in melee but they are still very poor archers. Sassanids have better horse archers, so you should only use foot archers when you can’t make HAs.

Lombard Archers
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 8 Charge: 2 Armor: 3 Cost: 342 Upkeep: 105
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Lombard archers have a huge range as they are elite archers, so they are very useful indeed. They aren’t that bad in melee either, as they pack a great melee attack for archers and some armor. You should keep other infantry behind them so they can retreat to safety. As long range archers they can be the cornerstone of your army, so you should make a lot of them and unleash a storm of arrows on your enemies.

Sarmatian Virgin Foot Archers
Attack: 3 Missile attack: 7 Defense: 7 Charge 1 Armor: 3 Cost: 342 Upkeep: 111
Factions: Sarmatians, Roxolani

Virgin Foot are good archers they have a good missile attack but very low defense and low melee attack. They shoot well and can fight in melee for a little while in a pinch. Over all they are good archers, which is good because these ladies are these factions only foot archers.

Steppe Raiders
Attack: 7 missile attack: 9 Defense: 11 Charge: 2 Armor: 5 Cost: 450 Upkeep: 156
Factions: Vandals, Slavs

Raiders are quite tough archers: they have very good attack for archers and very good defense for their class and are armed with swords as well as bows so they can fight in melee when they must and will easily defeat most other archer units. They also wear more armor than most archers and shoot well. Use these archers well, as they are very versatile. Just don’t send them into melee against dedicated melee troops like swordsmen or axemen and expect them to win. You should still focus on shooting and enter melee to flank, or if a friendly unit needs help and you just need a bit more of a push.
They have slightly less defense than Goth Raiders, but should be used in the same way.

Hunters
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 7 Defense: 8 Charge: 1 Armor: 2 Cost: 270 Upkeep: 105
Factions: Franks, Saxons

Hunters are good archers as they pack some melee ability with their good attack (for an archer), their ok defense and they still shoot quite well. These are much superior to the horde version of this unit and are worth using. Consider sending them into melee if needed as well.

Slingers


Slingers: they don’t suck so much now.

Slingers have slightly better range than RTW. They have 80 range instead of 70 range. For comparison archers have 120 range. Elite archers have 160 range. Slingers also pierce armor in BI, making them somewhat more effective against them, even with their very low missile attack. Slingers are still cheap and if you use them, make a lot and concentrate their fire.

Slingers
Attack: 3 Missile attack: 3 Defense: 9 Charge: 1 Armor: 2 Cost 230 Upkeep: 76
Factions: Celts
Slingers are actually rather ok this time around. They do pierce armor unlike RTW, and though their missile attack is lousy they are cheap and fast so it’s easy to run them around the flank, away from the enemies’ shields and fire into their rear, which will kill quite a few of even heavy units like Swordsmen because of their AP attack. They also aren’t bad vs. unarmored units like all missiles.

Mountain Slingers
Attack: 3 Missile attack: 3 Defense: 9 Charge: 1 Armor: 2 Cost: 230 Upkeep: 96
Factions: Sassanids

Mountain slingers are exactly like the other slingers. Don’t really bother with them unless you have no other option for missiles. The Sassanids have many great HAs, and decent foot archers for not much more money, so slingers aren’t really necessary. They can be somewhat effective vs. armored units however.



Crossbows

Wait till you see the red of their blood…oh wait.

Crossbows are brand new to the RTW series and BI is the only game they make an appearance in. Crossbows are armor piercing and have a short range, just slightly more than slingers. They are the only AP archer like unit in RTW. They shoot at the same rate as normal archers, but those missiles are effective against armor. Running them to the flank or rear is best because then they won’t have to worry about shields blocking the shots. Firing into the rear of a tough unit like Comitatenses, Bucellarii will kill 7-12 men per volley, a good number when you consider its very heavily armored troops. They are quite effective from the flank and will kill a few per volley from the front as well, whereas normal archers are mostly useless when firing at the front of heavily armored units. Crossbows are great for wearing down armored enemies before they reach your melee line so less make it to melee to cause damage. They are good for running around the flanks to shoot the engaged foe in the back with their damaging missiles as well. You should use a fodder unit with crossbows to protect them from attacks because of how close they need to get to shoot. Taking them off skirmish is a good idea as well, as they will keep running back, even though they need to get so close with their short range and if you have fodder ready to cover them you want them to stay in position. Crossbows have 20 missiles per man, compared to 30 for archers, so you should make their shots count.

Pictish Crossbowmen
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 6 Defense: 8 Charge: 2 Armor: 3 Cost: 350 Upkeep: 105
Factions: Celts

Pictish Crossbows are the weaker crossbows in the game. They are better than some archers in melee, as they have higher than average attack and some armor but they are best kept out of it. They also have slightly less missile attack than Bucellarii, but since they pierce armor they are still useful

Bucellarii
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 7 Defense: 9 Charge: 2 Armor: 3 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 218
Factions: Romano-British, WRE

Bucellarii are tougher crossbowmen. They are better in melee, as they have good attack and slightly better defense. They also shoot better than the Pictish. Make good use of them.

[Yojimbo]

Light cavalry

Fodder? Me!?

While these cavalry are referred to as light cavalry because of their low armor, some of them are clearly superior, because of better defense skill or differences in armor. Some of these units are good only for chasing routers and killing missiles, but some are much better than others at flanking even tougher units. Check the unit descriptions for what’s good for what.

Barbarian Cavalry
Attack: 7 Defense: 7 Charge: 7 Armor: 2 Cost: 310 Upkeep: 134
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Lucky triple sevens! Barbarian cavalry are a lot like their RTW predecessors and are becoming rather outclassed and obsolete. They are still able to easily chase routers, crush missile units and flank weaker enemies. Their defense is very low for cavalry and they have almost no armor so don’t expect them to last too long in melee. Keep them out of missile fire.

Berber Lancers
Attack: 4 Defense: 14 Charge: 8 Armor: 3 Cost: 450 Upkeep: 180
Factions: Berbers

Another lance unit, Berber Lancers have a very high charge with very low attack and not much armor. You should charge them, and then pull them out of melee and charge again. Leaving them in melee gets them killed.

Equites Auxilia
Attack: 6 Defense: 16 Charge: 5 Armor: 5 Cost: 540 Upkeep: 301
Factions: WRE

Equites Auxilia are good Roman cavalry, they have a lowish attack but good defense and are lightly armored. Their charge is also nothing special, but they are good enough to flank engaged units as well as chasing routers and attacking missiles. Their upkeep however makes them absolutely not worth it. Only make them when you really, really need cavalry.

Foederati Cavalry
Attack: 6 Defense: 14 Charge: 5 Armor: 3 Cost: 470 Upkeep: 304
Factions: WRE

Foederati cavalry are another good cavalry unit with ok attack, good defense for light cavalry but a rather poor charge. They still lack heavy armor so keep them away from missiles. This cavalry is another one with unreasonable upkeep. It’s hardly worth making them.

Sarmatian Virgin Cavalry
Attack: 7 Defense: 12 Charge: 7 Armor: 3 Cost: 460 Upkeep: 126
Factions: Roxolani, Sarmatians

Virgin cavalry, one of the few female units are good light cavalry: they have a good attack for light cavalry and average defense. They also have a good charge. Use them to flank stronger units and chase routers and attack archers. Try to keep them out of missile fire.

Herdsmen
Attack: 4 Defense: 7 Charge: 4 Armor: 2 Cost: 270 Upkeep: 105
Attack: 4 Defense: 7 Charge: 4 Armor: 2 Cost: 288 Upkeep: 119
Factions: Roxolani, Sarmatians, Huns

Herdsmen are crappy light cavalry with horrible attack, low defense and a poor charge. They are really useful only for chasing routers as even archers will kill quite a few



Moorish Raiders
Attack: 7 Defense: 16 Charge: 4 Armor: 3 Cost: 430 Upkeep: 172
Faction: Berbers

Moorish Raiders are very good light cavalry as they have a lot of defense for their class and still have good attack but only light armor which makes their very good defense even more impressive. You should make a lot of these units as the Berbers, as they are quite cheap and good units. They look cool too.

Tribal Cavalry
Attack: 7 Defense: 12 Charge: 7 Armor: 3 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 143
Factions: Huns

Tribal cavalry are another good light cavalry. They have the same stats as Sarmatian Virgin Cavalry,
even though they are again more expensive, just like Hunic Heavy Cavalry. They are still good light cavalry and serve well.

Raiders
Attack: 6 Defense: 11 Charge: 6 Armor: 3 Cost: 380 Upkeep: 167
Factions: Franks

Raiders are average light cavalry, they have better defense than some others and enough attack to be useful flankers. As always try to keep them out of missiles.

Saxon Sea Raiders
Attack: 7 Defense: 12 Charge: 7 Armor: 3 Cost: 480 Upkeep: 160
Factions: Saxons

Oddly for such an infantry focused faction as the Saxons these are quite good light cavalry, they have above average defense and a good attack. They will come in handy for killing archers shooting your infantry army and attacking from behind once they are engaged.

Heavy Cavalry

When you need a pile of dead infantry heavy cavalry is a good bet.

Heavy cavalry is much like RTW heavy cavalry, except there are ever heavier cavalry and a new champion for the heaviest armored unit in the series! You should just use them like you did in RTW. Note that all the units here are very expensive and have high upkeep.

Alan Noble Cavalry
Attack: 13 Defense: 19 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 990 Upkeep: 212
Factions:Sarmatians,Roxolani

Alan noble cavalry are good heavy cavalry, though there are quite a few units with better defense. They have very good attack and good defense for heavy cavalry and are best used to fight in melee, as their charge is weaker than most.

Barbarian Noble Cavalry
Attack: 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 970 Upkeep: 229
Factions, Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Barbarian noble cavalry are tough cavalry for barbarian factions. They have a great attack, very high defense and are heavily armored. Use them to charge unit non spear units and then leave them in the melee as they are better in it than the charge. They are great for smashing into the rear of engaged units too usually routing them.

Burgundian Lancers
Attack: 7 Defense: 17 Charge: 10 Armor: 6 Cost: 730 Upkeep: 199
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Burgundian Lancers unsurprisingly use a lance and are devastating on the charge vs. lighter armored units; they will still cause quite a few causalities on the charge to units like Comitetses. Spearmen will still stop their charge dead in its tracks if they are charged head on. Lancers aren’t bad in a melee though their armor could be better for a charger unit and their attack is lowish for such an expensive unit. This cavalry can’t really stand up to other heavy cavalry as its one of the weaker ones.

Cataphracts
Attack: 6 Defense: 32 Charge: 9 Armor: 18 Cost: 1390 Upkeep: 337
Factions: Sassanids

Cataphracts are just as good as their RTW predecessors though they do have a lot more competition from the large number of great cavalry in the expansion. Their attack is a bit low compared to other super heavy cavalry, besides the Roman ones but they still have the second heaviest armor in the game, an awesome charge and can fight better in melee than the roman cavalry. They are better at charging over and over but they can mix it up in a melee decently. Just remember that they do not pierce armor.

Clibinarii
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 4 Defense: 26 Armor: 20 Cost: 1430 Upkeep: 300
Factions: Sassanids

Clibinarii are extremely heavily armored cavalry. They are tied with a few other units for the heaviest armor in the game, making them almost impervious to non AP missiles. To demonstrate just how tough this unit is, even without shields, I set one unit of these men on hold fire and had them stand there getting shot by four units of Eastern Archers. They took 0-2 causalities per volley of 400+ arrows, as they were all being fired together. There were about 45 or so men left when the archers ran out of ammo and attacked in melee, where they were crushed. The unit had about the same number left after it finished routing the archers. This cavalry just do not die vs. missiles. They have bows, but the weapon is just used while they charge, as they do not have skirmish mode available and they don’t start on fire at will. You can enable fire at will and halt them near the enemy if you want to shoot them instead, but you will have to manually keep them away from the enemy if you want to avoid melee. Just remember they are very expensive so try to take care of them, invincible as they are.

Equites Catafractarii
Attack: 4 Defense: 31 Charge: 8 Armor: 18 Cost: 1310 Upkeep: 476
Factions: ERE

Equites Catafractarii are odd units, as they have the second best armor in the game and great defense and charge but have hopeless attack..WHY? They are covered with armor and suck pathetically at attacking??? These guys aren’t really worth their ridiculous cost except if you change them in and out again and even then they aren’t worth this much. Disappointing.

Equites Clibinarii
Attack: 5 Defense: 32 Charge: 5 Armor: 20 Cost: 1390 Upkeep: 469
Factions: ERE

Equites Clibinarii are even lamer than their lame Catafractarii friends. These guys are covered in armor: they have the highest armor in the game and amazing defense, but their attack is still useless and their charge is low as well so they are mostly useless in battle, as they are slow tough cavalry that can’t chase routers or really hurt stronger units. They pierce armor but it hardly matters. Also it just looks plain odd to see Romans using clubs. I know they are trying to rip off the Sassanid’s Clibinarii, who use maces, but it’s still pretty silly looking.

Goth Lancers
Attack: 5 Defense: 15 Charge: 10 Armor: 6 Cost: 630 Upkeep: 153
Factions: Goths

Goth lancers are like weaker versions of Burgundian lancers. They have a very low attack for their price, but a very high charge and are well armored with good defense. They are still weaker than most heavy cavalry. Just charge with this unit then pull back and charge again, as they are wasted in a melee.

Goth Noble Warriors
Attack: 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 970 Upkeep: 204
Factions: Goths

Goth Noble Warriors are tough cavalry; they have a good attack and defense and are heavily armored. Use them to shatter units in melee.

Graal Knights
Attack: 12 Defense: 28 Charge: 7 Armor: 14 Cost: 1050 Upkeep: 358
Factions: Romano-British

Graal Knights are extremely powerful cavalry. They are very heavily armored, though not to the extent of Cataphract level cavalry. They more than make up for this by still having very high attack and costing less. Graal knights are a fantastic cavalry unit able to take a lot of abuse and dish out the pain as well unlike most super heavy cavalry who can take the damage, but can’t dish so much out. You should use them all the time as the British.

Hunnic Heavy Cavalry
Attack: 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 1100 Upkeep: 236
Factions: Huns

Hunic heavy cavalry is just another unit of tough cavalry for you to crush your opponents with. They are a little more expensive than most cavalry of their class, probably because of the Huns lousy economy.

Mounted Nobles
Attack: 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 970 Upkeep: 229
Factions: Saxons

Mounted nobles are exactly like Hunic Heavy Cavalry, except they are slightly cheaper. Use them in the same way. They are the Saxons’ only tough cavalry, except for the General’s Bodyguards, so use a lot of them to support your infantry.

Noble Clansmen
Attack: 10 Defense: 19 Charge: 6 Armor: 6 Cost: 810 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Celts

Noble Clansmen are much like the other noble troops. They have good attack and defense and are well armored. Use them as the Celts tough cavalry and they will do well.

Noble Warriors
Attack: 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 970 Upkeep: 229
Factions: Franks

Noble warriors have the same stats as Goth Noble Warriors and are good troops able to dish out and take a pounding.

Paladins
Attack: 10 Defense: 23 Charge: 10 Armor: 9 Cost: 1140 Upkeep: 259
Factions: Franks

Paladins are very tough cavalry, some of the best in the game, with their great defense and very good attack, they also have heavy armor. I’m sure you’re sick of hearing that, but really most of this heavy cavalry is great and you should use a lot of it. This unit is no exception.


Sarmatian Auxilia
Attack: 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 880 Upkeep: 383
Factions: WRE

Much like the other cavalry, this is tough melee cavalry that can dish out and take a pounding and should crush a lot of what you point it at. It’s cheaper compared to other heavy cavalry

Sarmatian Noble Cavalry
Attack: 12 Defense: 21 Charge: 7 Armor: 9 Cost: 1140 Upkeep: 227
Factions : Sarmatians, Roxolani

This heavy cavalry has an excellent attack for cavalry, is heavily armored and has great defense. They are expensive, but can be used for everything from plugging gaps in your line to charging missile units, to fighting in melee. This unit is superior to a lot of other heavy cavalry.

Scholae Palatinae
Attack: 8 Defense: 21 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 1000 Upkeep: 435
Factions: WRE, ERE

This unit is slightly weaker than the average heavy cavalry, but they still pack a punch and have a good attack and are heavily armored with good defense, much like the other heavy cav. Use them for all the normal heavy cavalry tasks. Their upkeep is horrible expensive so don’t leave them lying around in a settlement

Steppe Lancers
Attack: 5 Defense: 15 Charge: 10 Armor: 6 Cost: 630 Upkeep: 153
Factions: Huns, Vandals, Slavs

Steppe lancers use is evident from their stats. They are made to charge and nothing else, as they aren’t very good in a melee for heavy cavalry. You should charge them into non spear units then pull them back and charge again, their good armor protects them from taking many casualties when they pull back. Don’t leave lancers in a melee, as this just wastes them

Steppe Warriors
Attack: 7 Defense: 18 Charge: 7 Armor: 9 Cost: 880 Upkeep: 174
Factions: Vandals, Slavs

Steppe Warriors are the weakest heavy cavalry, as they are heavily armored but their stats can’t stand up to other heavy cavalry. Their attack is lower than most and their defense isn’t as high. Use them much like Noble Cavalry as your do anything troops but try to keep them supported.

Steppe Nobles
Attack: 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 970 Upkeep: 204
Factions: Vandals, Slavs

Steppe Nobles are tougher than Steppe Warriors and have the same stats as a lot of other heavy cavalry. Use lots of these troops, if you can.

[Yojimbo]

New General’s Bodyguards

Now even more overpowered than before!

General’s bodyguards serve the same purpose as they do in RTW. There are even tougher bodyguards this time around though, like the extremely heavily armored Immortals. With the plethora of even more powerful bodyguards you can rely on their combat power even more.


Chosen Warlord
Attack: 13 Defense: 20 Charge: 6 Armor: 6 Hitpoints: 2 Cost: 1160 Upkeep: 201
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni

This warlord has a higher attack than most bodyguards enabling them to crush a lot of troops. They are well armored too, though their defense is tied for lowest among the bodyguards.

Clibinarii Immortals
Attack: 10 Missile attack: 11 Defense: 30 Charge: 6 Armor: 20 Hitpoints: 2 Cost: 1700 Upkeep: 217
Factions: Sassanids

Immortals are just ridiculous troops. They have an amazing amount of armor and almost impossible defense coupled with a good attack. Missiles will be 90% ineffective against them and they are more than tough to take down in melee: any unit without armor piercing weapons will usually be crushed with few casualties to the Immortals. Fear this unit as it’s the strongest cavalry in any of the RTW games and even though there are only 48 men in the unit you will take loads of losses trying to take it down. The fact they are horse archers able to whittle down your forces from far away doesn’t help matters. If you have to fight this unit use loads of heavily armored units, or armor piercing ones like axe units. Let them charge into something that can hold for a while, like spears and flank with camels or simply as many units as you can spare to surround them and chop them up as quickly as possible. This is definitely the strongest general’s bodyguard in the game and you don’t want to mess around when it comes to killing them.

Desert Chieftain
Attack: 8 Defense: 20 Charge: 6 Armor: 6 Hit Points 2 Cost: 1000 Upkeep: 197
Faction: Berbers

Desert Chieftains are the weakest general’s bodyguards. They are still tough cavalry with decent armor and an ok attack, though it’s nothing compared to other bodyguards and most heavy cavalry. They can’t stand up to other factions bodyguards. They will still put up a good fight against heavy cavalry because they have 2 hit points.

Imperial German Bodyguard
Attack: 11 Defense: 27 Charge: 6 Armor: 12 Hit Points: 2 Cost: 1510 Upkeep: 391
Factions: WRE

Imperial German bodyguards have pretty ridiculous defense. They are very heavily armored and have very high defense skill and still have shields. They will still lose badly to Clibinarii Immortals however.

Imperial Household Bodyguard
Attack: 11 Defense: 26 Charge: 6 Armor: 12 Hit points: 2 Cost: 1520 Upkeep: 390
Factions: ERE

Imperial Household Bodyguards are almost exactly the same as Imperial German Bodyguards and should be used in the same way. I’m not sure why they are slightly more expensive even though they have slightly less defense.

Paladin Bodyguard
Attack: 11 Defense: 25 Charge: 9 Armor: 9 Hit Points: 2 Cost: 1430 Upkeep: 240
Factions: Franks

Paladin bodyguards are another good bodyguard unit they have very high defense, though their attack is lower than some bodyguards. Despite their fancy name they are weaker than some bodyguards.

Rebel General
Attack: 11 Defense: 24 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Hit Points: 2 Cost: 1330 Upkeep: 272
Factions: Rebels

The rebels have the second weakest bodyguard but they are still a tough unit and will make fighting rebels considerably more annoying.

Warlord
Attack: 13 Defense: 23 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Hit Points: 2 Cost: 1370 Upkeep: 160 (Huns, Goths, Sarmatians, Saxons, Roxolani, Slavs, Vandals Ostrogoths)
Attack 13 Defense: 20 Charge: 6 Armor: 6 Hit Points: 2 Cost: 1160 Upkeep: 201 (Celts, Lombardi)
Attack: 11 Defense: 24 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Hit Points: 2 Cost: 1200 Upkeep: 381 (Romano-British)

Unsurprisingly the Sarmatians have one of the toughest bodyguards in the game with the highest attack for bodyguards and very high defense. Oddly the Celts/Lombard one is almost as good and the Romano-British one is weaker in attack but even better in defense than the Sarmatian one. All of these are good bodyguards.

Camels

Run you wusses!

Camels are much the same as their RTW version. There are two weaker ones, that are only really good for killing cavalry and there’s the deadly one that can crush a lot of troops and utterly destroy cavalry. Their bonuses against cavalry are the same as RTW and they will destroy them the same as before.

rmored Camel Riders
Attack: 8 Defense: 21 Charge: 6 Armor 13 Cost: 910 Upkeep: 266
Factions: Sassanids

Armored Camel Riders are tough camel cavalry: they have a good attack and very high defense for a camel and are very heavily armored. This unit will rip though the strongest cavalry like nobody’s business, making them an extremely useful unit for the Sassanids.

Camel Raiders
Attack: 6 Defense: 14 Charge: 5 Armor: 3 Cost: 390 Upkeep: 141
Factions: Sassanids, Berbers

Camel Raiders are lightly armed and armored camel riders. They are still very effective against cavalry because of their camel bonuses and come in very handy against Rome’s cavalry. Try to use several units of them if you are attacking heavy cavalry

Dromedarii
Attack: 6 Defense: 17 Charge: 5 Armor: 6 Cost: 550 Upkeep: 311
Factions: ERE

Dromedarii are odd troops as they are Romans on camels, which looks very different. Anyway they are the same as camel raiders, except with a bit more armor. They are still quite weak so use them against lighter cavalry and mob tough ones with more than one unit and always try to attack from the flank.

New Missile Cavalry

Roman horse archers. They’re out there man!

Horse archers are different to RTW versions as in there are more of them this time around, as even Roman factions have then, which is just odd to see when you look at their RTW style armies. There will be a lot more HA combat in BI. Horse archers are generally tougher too, as they have more defense and quite a few have at least decent armor. Don’t be shy about using most of them as light cavalry when it’s necessary.

Alan Horse Archers
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 14 Charge: 4 Armor: 6 Cost: 730 Upkeep: 168
Factions: Goths, Sarmatians, Roxolani

Alan horse archers are good horse archers; they have a good missile attack and can fight well in melee as they have good defense and attack for horse archers.

Desert Cavalry
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 9 Charge: 4 Armor: 3 Cost: 520 Upkeep: 165
Factions: Berbers

Desert cavalry are weaker horse archers, as they are poorer in melee and have less defense. They still have a good missile attack and can fight as weaker light cavalry.

Equites Sagittarii
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 6 Defense: 14 Charge: 4 Armor: 5 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 312
Factions: WRE

These roman horse archers are really cheap knockoffs of better horse archers. They have the same attack and defense as Alan horse archers, though they have slightly less armor and more defense skill. They have a weaker missile attack however, making them far less useful. They still can be handy for the infantry based Roman army however.

Goth Horse Archers
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 11 Charge: 4 Armor: 5 Cost: 630 Upkeep: 149
Factions: Goths

Another horse archer unit, a lot like the other units. Its rather odd seeing this unit in the rather infantry heavy Goth army. Still they have as good missile attack as most horse archers, but are rather poor in melee. Focus on shooting with them.

Hippo-Toxotai
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 13 Charge: 4 Armor: 6 Cost: 680 Upkeep: 312
Factions: ERE

Yet another pure shooting horse archer unit. They have good defense but their low attack limits their usefulness in melee.

Hunnic Archers
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 12 Charge: 4 Armor: 6 Cost: 770 Upkeep: 180
Factions: Huns

Hunnic archers are another unit of horse archers you should just focus on shooting with. They aren’t very good in melee though their defense is ok. They can serve as limited light cavalry but they shoot well so it’s better to use them as pure horse archers.

Hunnic Elite Warriors
Attack: 10 Missile attack: 9 Defense 15 Charge: 6 Armor: 6 Cost: 900 Upkeep: 193
Factions: Huns

Hunnic elite warriors are the best horse archers in the game. They have a high missile attack for horse archers ensuring they do a good job of it and can fight well in melee, as they have a great melee attack and high defense for horse archers, better than most light cavalry. Use as many of these troops as you can, but remember: they are very expensive and they can still lose in melee against tough cavalry.

Nomad Horse Archers
Attack: 5 Missile Attack: 8 Defense: 9 Charge: 4 Armor: 3 Cost: 520
Factions: Sassanids

Again these are just like desert cavalry and should be used in the same way.

Sarmatian Armored Archers
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 18 Charge: 4 Armor: 9 Cost: 820 Upkeep: 183
Factions: Sarmatians, Roxolani

Sarmatian Armor archers are much superior to most HAs as they are heavily armored and still shoot just as well as others. They are also better in melee than most others and along with their armor and good defense they can fight very well as semi heavy cavalry. About the only thing missing from them is their charge, as it’s a bit low for true heavy cavalry. Still use them as tough light cavalry, as well as horse archers and they will serve well.

Sarmatian Virgin Horse Archers
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 9 charge: 4 Armor: 3 Cost: 520 Upkeep: 141
Factions: Sarmatians, Roxolani

This unit is the same as desert cavalry. Use them in the same way.


Steppe Horse Archers
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 12 Charge: 4 Armor: 6 Cost: 680 Upkeep: 156
Factions: Vandals, Slavs

Steppe Horse Archers are just another in the shoot well; ok light cavalry class.

[Yojimbo]

Chariots

It’s like surfing only shorter and more painful.

There is only one chariot unit in BI, and really, it’s useless.

Scotti Chariots
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 9 Defense: 1 Charge: 7 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 189
Factions Celts

Scotti chariots are javelin throwing chariots with the normal useless defense and low attack you usually see from missile chariots. They should be effective against elephants but they don’t have the best range and since they are cavalry have a huge -8 attack against elephants as well as being scared by them. These chariots aren’t all that much use, especially since they only have 6 javelins each and once they are gone they are worthless in melee. These might be the only chariots in the game but they still aren’t really any use. The time of the chariot is truly over.

Elephants

Elephants can still scare the willies out of enemies

Elephants are still very effective in BI, even though this is the only elephant unit. Use them against swords and heavily armored units and watch them crush them, but just keep them away from tough spearmen and skirmishers, though with the almost complete lack of skirmishers in BI and the fact there are no phalanxes this time around this isn’t much of a problem. They still scare all enemy units and pierce armor with their melee attack, like RTW and still work great either charging head on into units like swordsmen or flanking an engaged enemy to drastically lower their morale. They also have archers that shoot well on their backs and you can use alt+right click to tell them to shoot at the enemy without charging. Note that elephants cannot skirmish. Note that while it looks like elephants aren’t being affected by missile fire; the missile hits are still taking hitpoints off their total. Don’t let missiles keep shooting at your elephants or they will eventually drop and will still hurt them before the melee where they will be taking more damage.

Elephants
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense 8 Charge: 8 Armor: 3 Hitpoints: 12 Cost: 1790 Upkeep: 369
Factions: Sassanids

The only elephants in BI the Sassanids are blessed with good elephants as they have middling stats between RTW Elephants and War Elephants. Their stats might look a bit low but their large hp and the fact they are elephants make up for this.

Horde Units

After you conquer their lands it just gets worse…

Horde units are usually weaker versions of normal units. You tend to get loads of troops, up to thousands giving you plenty of men to sack places to get money and find a new home for your faction. Oddly Steppe horde chosen warriors are actually better than other non horde sword units. They have more attack and defense than others and you should take full advantage of them if you get some when your faction hordes. Consult the sections on each unit type in this guide for how best to use each horde unit.

Horde Herdsmen
Attack: 8 Defense: 13 Charge: 4 Armor: 4
Factions: Huns

Oddly horde herdsmen are much better than their normal version and are effective light cavalry, useful for all their normal tasks and charging engaged stronger units in the rear. They are better left in the melee as their charge is still weak.

Horde Hunters
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 5 Defense: 7 Charge: 1 Armor: 2
Factions: Franks, Burgundi, Lombardi

Horde hunters are very poor archers. They have a pathetic missile attack for archers but are tougher in melee than some and can be used as light infantry sort of. Don’t count on these archers much in combat and make sure to focus their fire on one target when you have multiple units of them to try to compensate for their weak missile attack.

Horde Raiders
Attack: 6 Defense: 11 Charge: 6 Armor: 3
Factions: Burgundi, Lombardi

Raiders are pretty standard light cavalry; they have ok attack and just about decent defense. Use them for all the normal light cavalry tasks.

Hun Horde Chosen Warriors
Attack 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9
Factions: Huns

Hun Chosen Warriors are very tough heavy cavalry. They have good attack and very high defense and are heavily armored. They also have great morale and won’t break will most of the unit is dead. This will be your main killing force as the Huns, along with HA. You should use them whenever you can. They are still vulnerable to spearmen, but they are well enough armored that arrows are ineffective against them.

Hun Horde Horsemen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 9 Charge 5 Armor: 3
Factions: Huns

Hun Horde horsemen are versatile horse archers. They have decent attack and defense for their class and can be used as light cavalry to chase routers and attack archers. They also have a good missile attack and you will have a lot of these when the Huns horde.

Hun Horde Spearmen
Attack: 6 Defense 13 Charge: 2 Armor: 3
Factions: Huns

Hun Horde Spearmen are bog standard spearmen that are mainly used as fodder. The hunic style of warfare focusing on cavalry and mobile light forces doesn’t really have much of a place for infantry.

These spearmen are best used to cover horse archers if they are suddenly charged by cavalry. Just have the spearmen right behind the horse archers and if you see a unit is getting too close, charge the spearmen though the horse archers and intercept the enemy charge. Hun spearmen have rather low defense for spears and will die quite quickly in melee, their attack is low and they also have very poor morale and it won’t take too much to rout them: fatigue and a few casualties will be enough to rout them from a melee, even if they are winning! This unit isn’t too necessary for the Huns, but you should have a few to use as fodder and in sieges. Their defense is somewhat better than some other spears.

Steppe Horde Chosen Warriors
Attack: 11 Defense: 22 Charge: 5 Armor: 7
Factions: Goths, Vandals, Roxolani, Slavs


Chosen warriors are basically identical to Chosen Swordsmen. They have slightly less attack and slightly more armor. This translates to them being basically the same and thus still being a very effective unit. They have very good morale and won’t rout till more than ¾ of the unit are dead.

Steppe Horde Horsemen
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 9 Charge: 4 Armor: 3
Factions: Goths, Roxolani, Slavs, Sarmatians

Steppe Horde Horsemen are another unit of horse archers who should focus on shooting or charging missile units, as they have poor defense and attack, though enough to act as light cavalry to an extent.

[Yojimbo]

Artillery

Carriage Ballista can be worth their weight in gold.

Artillery is used much like RTW except for the fact they have slightly less attack and cost slightly more for some reason. The carriage ballista is massively different artillery from the earlier ones and can dominate battlefields.

Ballistae
Attack: 51 vs. troops 24 vs. buildings Charge: 0 (All)
Defense: 3 Armor: 0 Cost: 240 Upkeep: 140 (Sassanids)
Defense 8 Armor: 3 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 211 (Roman, Romano-British)
Defense: 5 Armor: 2 Cost: 270 Upkeep: 115 (all others)
Factions: Sassanids, Franks Romano-British

Ballistae are artillery pieces that are like giant crossbows that fire large bolts. Ballista have rather long range, slightly less than long range archers, like Cretan archers, but have a slow firing rate as the weapon must be slowly drawn back by hand cranks. Ballista bolts are rather accurate: about 1 in 3 bolts will hit the unit they were targeted at and will kill 1-3 men per bolt. Being hit by artillery inflicts a morale penalty.

Flaming missiles don’t make much of a difference they seem to be pretty much as accurate and kill the same number. Ballistae really aren’t very useful artillery they don’t kill enough and fire far too slowly.

For buildings, they are effective vs. wooden walls but do little damage to stone walls and large and epic walls take no damage from them.

Carriage Ballistae
Attack: 4 Missile attack: 21 Defense: 8 Charge: 5 Armor: 3 Upkeep: 431
Factions: WRE, ERE

Carriage Ballistae are truckloads more effective than their earlier brethren. They kill many men on a hit and are very accurate: more missiles will find their mark than not. Another thing that makes carriage ballistae so devastating is that there are 12 ballistae in the unit, as opposed to the two in a standard ballistae unit. This enables them to have a much greater volume of fire and really cause damage. The last thing that makes them deadly is there speed, enabling them to skirmish away from most units unlike their near stationary prequels. Carriage ballistae missiles are armor piecing, like all artillery and their accuracy, number and speed make them infinitely deadly against most units. Heavy infantry will be cut to pieces by them: the ballistae kill 1-4 men per hit and they are area affect. This coupled with the 12 ballistae in a unit are enough to whittle down even huge units like Comitenses First Cohorts in a minute or two. You shouldn’t really worry about flanking with these units, as they dish out loads of damage from any direction. You shouldn’t use them in melee as they can’t handle themselves at all, but come on they are artillery! Don’t underestimate this unit and use it in droves when you get it. Just keep them out of missile fire as they are very weak and die easily if attacked directly.

Heavy Onagers
Attack: 61 vs. troops 110 vs. buildings Charge: 0 (All)
Defense: 3 Armor: 0 Cost: 810 Upkeep: 225 (Sassanids)
Defense: 8 Armor: 3 Cost: 890 Upkeep: 336 (Roman, Romano British)
Factions: Sassanids: Romans, Romano- British

Heavy Ornagers are much like normal Ornagers, except they do even more damage to buildings They also have a larger splash damage and kill a lot more troops with a direct hit, about 20-30. You should use them over Ornagers as soon as they are available. Use them in the same way.

Onagers
Attack: 51 vs. troops 70 vs. buildings Charge: 0
Defense: 3 Armor: 0 Cost: 600 Upkeep: 154 (Sassanids)
Defense: 8 Armor: 3 Cost: 670 Upkeep: 231 (Roman, Romano-British)
Defense: 5 Charge: 0 Armor: 2 Cost: 640 Upkeep: 126 (All Others)
Factions: Sassanids, Romano-British, Burgundi, Romans, Alemanni, Lombardi

Onagers are large catapults. They fire large rocks or flaming missiles in a high arc enabling them to fire over walls effectively. Onagers are mainly designed for use against large walls they destroy stone walls quickly and large and epic walls will fall quite quickly as well with focused onager fire. They are the most effective artillery against troops; a direct onager hit on a phalanx will usually kill 15-20 people with flaming missiles. Onagers however are very inaccurate when firing at a smaller target than a settlement. You should aim at dense deep concentrations of men, so that you hit something and cause casualties. If aiming at men you should always use flaming missiles as they cause far more causalities than normal rocks.

Repeating Ballistae
Attack: 26 vs. troops 0 vs. buildings Defense: 8 Charge: 0 Armor: 3 Cost: 580 Upkeep: 332
Factions: Roman, Romano British)

These are much like normal ballistae except they fire much faster: the crewman just has to pull a lever and the weapon fires about once every 4 seconds. It is otherwise the same as a normal ballista and still not much use as it doesn’t inflict enough casualties. If you must use ballistae use this one. It is however of no use at all against buildings, as unlike the ballista it has 0 building attack.


Scorpions
Attack: 41 vs. troops 0 vs. buildings Defense: 12 Charge: 0 Armor: 3 Cost: 350 Upkeep: 211
Factions: WRE, ERE

Scorpions are like advanced ballistae; they have a bit more range and can use flaming missiles which repeating ballista can’t. They aren’t very accurate and they still only kill 1-2 men with flaming missiles. They have no minimum range though. Still they aren’t worth having as they cause almost no casualties. They are better than ballistae however, and artillery is fun to use

Peasants and noncombatants

Have to keep those soldiers inspired!

Peasants are tougher this time around but still aren’t something you want to be using for anything more vital than arrow fodder and suicidal battering ram pushers.

Priests are a new class of units with the BI expansion. They are no use at all in actual melee dying very quickly with their lack or armor, useless attack and small numbers: there are only 48 on large unit sizes. Their worth comes in their ability to chant which raises nearby unit morale much like druids in RTW. Put your priests directly behind the hardest fight and have them chant to keep the troops fighting. They also lower the morale of units a faction that has a different faith to yours, which are most non Romans and the eastern Roman Empire, as they are orthodox.

Arian Priests
Attack: 2 Defense 3 Charge: 1 Armor: 0 Cost: 190 Upkeep: 75
Factions: Goths

Arian Priests are much like catholic priests except they are slightly better fighters and a different religion. They still aren’t useful in battles as they have low stats and little numbers so just use them to chant.

Barbarian Peasants
Attack: 3 Defense: 5 Charge: 2 Armor: 0 Cost: 90 Upkeep: 72 (Goths, Vandals, Franks, Saxons, Slavs)
Attack: 2 Defense: 5 Charge: 2 Armor: 0 Cost: 80 Upkeep: 28 (Franks, Burgundi, Alemanni Lombardi)

Barbarian peasants are different for different factions. Some factions, they have one more point in attack than the others and cost slightly more, some factions they are the same as Roman ones, except with slightly more charge. They are still no use in either case.

Catholic Priests
Attack: 1 Defense: 3 Charge: 1 Armor: 0 Cost: 190 Upkeep: 113
Factions: Western Roman Empire, Franks

With the introduction of Christianity in BI we have the new priest units. They are as you can guess useless in a fight, their pathetic attack and defense ensuring they will be chopped up in seconds. Their real value comes in their special ability to chant. Much like druids in RTW, chanting raises the morale of your nearby troops and lowers enemy morale. Priests have very low morale and it won’t take much to rout them. There are also only 48 men on huge unit sizes so they will be routed in a second if they are attacked directly.

Monks
Attack: 1 Defense: 3 Charge: 1 Cost: 180 Upkeep: 113
Factions: Romano-British

Yet another priest unit, use these like the others.

Mounted Arian Priests
Attack: 3 Defense: 7 Charge: 2 Armor: 2 Cost: 360 Upkeep: 130
Factions: Vandals, Slavs

Being mounted gives these Arian priests much better mobility and makes it easier to keep them out of danger. They also have better attack and much better defense than the foot version. Their low stats and small numbers still make them almost useless for actually fighting except maybe as a small flank attack. Just focus on chanting with them and take advantage of their increased mobility.

Orthodox Priests
Attack: 1 Defense: 3 Charge: 1 Armor: 0 Cost: 190 Upkeep: 113
Factions: ERE

Another priest unit. They are again no good in a fight and should be used like the others.

Roman Peasants
Attack: 2 Defense 5 Charge: 1 Armor: 0 Cost: 80 Upkeep: 50
Factions: Roman, Berbers

This time around Roman peasants are a bit tougher. They have far better defense than in RTW and they have one more point in attack. They still aren’t any good for battles, but hey at least peasants have evolved.

Warhounds
Attack: 10 Charge: 2 Armor: 1 Cost: 530 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Burgundi, Alemanni, Lombardi

Warhounds are the same as RTW’s Warhounds and should be used the same way.

Wolfhounds
Attack: 10 Defense: 2 Charge: 2 Armor: 1 Cost: 530 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Celts

Wolfhounds despite their names are very similar to wardogs from RTW and should be used in the same way.









Mercenaries


As in RTW merc prices vary depending on randomness and experience of the mercs so prices are just a rough guide.

Armored camel Mercenaries
Attack: 8 Defense: 21 Charge: 6 Armor: 13 Cost: 1450 Upkeep: 319
Locations East of map in desert provinces

Armored camels are exactly like armored camel riders, which the Sassanids have. They are every bit as effective vs. cavalry and are the best anti cavalry unit in the game. If you can afford these mercs you should get them, even though they are quite a bit more expensive than the recruitable version, when you need troops now these troops are versatile and will make short work of any annoying generals you encounter.

Bosphoran Mercenaries
Attack: 10 Defense: 23 Charge: 4 Armor: 8 Cost: 760 Upkeep: 240
Locations: Center of map

Bosphoran Mercs are just as good as the normal infantry of the same name and are still the best spearmen in the game with the highest attack and defense for spears and are worth hiring.

Mercenary Alan horse archers
Attack: 8 Missile attack 9 Defense: 15 Charge: 4 Armor: 6 Cost: 825

Merc Alan horse archers are just the same as the regular version. They are versatile able to fight in melee as light cavalry and shoot well. They are quite expensive but worthy troops, as horse archers can make a huge difference in battles.

Mercenary Ballistae
Attack: 51 Vs troops 24 vs. buildings Defense: 6 Charge: 0 Armor: 3 Cost: 600 Upkeep: 253
Locations: East of map

Merc ballistae are about the most useless unit in the game. Ballistae really aren’t that much use at the best of times but when they cost almost three times as much and have upkeep more expensive than a normal unit of ballistae and have absolutely no advantages over normal ballistae then you know you’ve got an awesome unit. Not. Stay far away from this unit.

Mercenary Bucellarii
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 7 Defense: 9 Charge 2 Armor: 3 Cost: 575 Upkeep: 261

Mercenary Bucellarii are the same as the normal version and are very useful for all factions because of their ability to pierce armor. Only two factions in BI are able to recruit crossbows, so all other factions will have to stick with these mercs and they are always worth getting when you see them if you are a faction that can’t recruit them.

Mercenary Equites Veteranii
Attack: 8 Defense: 18 Charge: 5 Armor: 5 Cost: 950 Upkeep: 361
Locations: South eastern provinces Sassanid/Eastern Roman empire lands

These mercs are the same as the Roman light cavalry of the same name. They come in handy for infantry based armies to ride down routers and kill missile units. They are very expensive however so only hire them if you really need it.
Mercenary Herdsmen
Attack: 4 Defense: 7 Charge 4 Armor: 2 Cost:?

Merc Herdsmen are the same as normal Herdsmen and have very low stats. Why they decided to become mercs is anyone’s guess, but they are only useful for riding down routers and suicidal tasks like attacking archers before getting attacked by the enemy’s cavalry, or trying to kill off artillery crews behind the enemy’s lines.

Mercenary Hippo-Toxotai
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 14 Charge: 4 Armor: 6 Cost: 1200 Upkeep: 374

Merc Hippo-Toxotai are again the same as their state army equals and work well as horse archers when you need them. They are tolerable in a melee too.

Mercenary Sarmatian Archers
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 10 Defense: 20 Charge: 4 Armor: 9 Cost: 1250 Upkeep: 219
Locations: Sarmatian lands, north east of Italy.

Merc Sarmatian archers are very versatile troops and can fight well in melee, as well as shoot very well, as they are tied for best missile attack in the game for non artillery. They lack shields but are versatile troops. They are some of the most expensive mercs but justify the cost.

Mercenary Vandal Lancers
Attack: 5 Charge: 10 Defense: 11 Armor: 6 Cost: 800 Upkeep¨183
Locations: Northeast of map

Mercenary Veteranii
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 9 Defense: 25 Charge: 2 Armor: 10 Cost: 1230 Upkeep: 442
Locations: Center of map

These mercs are Comitatenses by a different name. They are the same in every way and work well for armies needing strong infantry.

Vandal Raider Mercenaries
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defense: 11 Armor: 5

[Yojimbo]

That's it now I have to fix the formatting You can post in this thread now

This thread is so the guide can be posted in the scriptorium when the formatting is fixed.

[schro69]

Amazing guide, any chance you'll put it into a PDF?

[invictus1991]

Sweet! nice job. looks like alot of work. +rep

[Leonidas_I]

wow you don't no how much this helped me dude. :O

[MasterOfNone]

FYI

Links to complementary guides (lest they be lost for lal time):

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=38382

I thought I remember seeing in the dim and distant past a BI version of an online guide like this one (for RTW): http://www.g-unleashed.com/index.php...age=unit_guide but cannnot locate it.

There were also some spreadsheets extant on another individual's site that had all the data in them (for RTW and possibly BI).

[Yojimbo]

Hey thank you very much for the compliemnts people. The pdf link im my sig leads to a pdf with all guides in one. maybe i should divide it into seprate guides for more viisbillty however!

Its suprising people notice this guide long after the fact when it garnerd little attention on relase!

Updated the first post with a big font drawing attention to the pdf.

[Scutarii]

This is very complete Forlornhop, some rep for your efforts.

[DeerHunter]

A really good guide just one thing i noticed that you said plumbati have the same range as commissaries which is wrong the plumbati have much greater range

[Otto von Bismarck]

Wonderful job Forlorn, just wonderful. It's obvious you spend lots of time on it. Nice info on shield wall and schiltron.

[Kroot9525]

Wow, thanks for the guide dude! I'm glad that something like this finally came out; I was really dissapointed with reading the RTW one over and over again. I guess there's only one thing I wanted to mention.

I play the Sarmartians, and I'm not sure the herdsmen are as useless as the guide says. While in custom battles, sure, they're cannon fodder, but in the campaign they're sort of useful. First, you can use them to garrison cities, since the sarmatians don't have peasants, and the next highest unit, slave spearmen, are more expensive to keep around. Also, another small way to use them is to support your general on the battlefield. Sure, virgin cavalry and alans are good for this too, but when you don't have the recourses or capabilities to field enough of them (especially early in the game), herdsmen are a cheap and readibly available alternative (Every settlement can create them). On the field of battle, I find it easier to hit the enemy line with herdsmen + a general instead of just the bodyguard alone; the enemy seems to break easier due to the larger group. Combined with the Samartian general's excellent stats, the duo should be able to take down the earlier armies, though later ones may require other units. Besides, the wide formation of the herdsmen allows them to act as a natural shield for your bodyguard.

But I still agree with you on the fact that they're weak and should be replaced with other units as soon as possible. But you still want them in the game, as garrison troops and early light cavalry (Provided that they are supported by at least one or two other stronger cavalry units). Besides that, excellent guide!

[Flavius Alberticus]

Excellent work! Such grandeur surely took hours upon upon hours; I thank you for your efforts, and congratulate you on the excellence of this work!

[hadrian67]

The Franks have the best infantry selection, but as for the overall unit selection, the eastern romans win. You've gotta love those Equites Clibinarii.


Huns have the best horse archers





Best formation goes to Franks and Saxons. Shield wall.