Your Favorite Infantry in Medieval II Total War

[Aeratus]

For me, "favorite infantry" would be based on style rather than stats. In that regard, I chose the dismounted heavy lancer.

In terms of style, highland archer is average. For archers, Sherwood Archer is the most distinct obviously, but the "robin hood" look is too abundant nowadays. I think a dismounted gothic knight with an arquebus or arbelest would look cool.

[tudor93]

Hmmm, it's a long time since I played vanilla. Don't really know if I have a favorite unit, let's see:
England - the armoured billmen are badass, the armoured swordsmen too, the longbowmen (late ones, always forget their names, Yeoman?)
France - scot guard and those late heavily armoured crossbowmen
Italians - italian militia spearmen (with all upgrades)
Russia - I know that those dudes have some awesome looking armours late in the game (but I forgot which units)
Byzantine - the Byzantine swordsmen are really awesome (the ones you get from cities), the Byzantine spearmen also look cool IMO with the armour upgrades
This is all I can think of for now .

[Highlander of Scotland]

Am I being annoying by picking fights with people about their favorite infantry? I realize that it's a matter of personal preference and all that. Some people's choices just intrigue me so much, though, that I feel compelled to comment or ask questions about them!



I guess you could say that given the price (320, only a little more than 220 for peasant archers), they're not a bad deal, but I'm curious about what your standard is for "average bowmen." As far as I can tell, highland archers have the archery abilities of peasant archers/archer militia, which are the lowest-powered archers in the game (minimum ≠ average). (I think the only archers weaker qua archers than highland archers are Apachean rabbit boys.)

(I think it might be interesting to compare highland archers to other units in their niche and price range. Ones with a similar cost include Bosnian archers, the "generic" crossbowmen of Denmark, France, and Hungary, and the Moorish, Polish, and Russian crossbow militias.)

they have 7 or 8 missile attack meaning that they kill like longbowmen against lightly armed troops, also they are better than crossbows cos of melee. As scotland place ur pike wall on the town square and your archers on the wall. This really does work due to the fact of the axes that they have. The way I look at them is the best hybrid unit for price as they can kill with their bow and stand their ground meaning you don't need skirmish mode or support troops.

[Nicolaos]

Forlorn Hope Company <3

[ByzantinePeasant]

I'm kinda annoyed by the fact that no one has mentioned the Byzies (except tudor ) I think that the dismounted Lakiton can pack a good punch if used correctly or the skythions (which are accsessable early game by the castle of Cornith.)
Like I said , Skythions <3.

[Sir Adrian]

Skythikon ae not infantry.

[ByzantinePeasant]

Ooops..... I meant to write Dismounted Lakiton <3
Soz dude

[Peacewalker117]

Honestly, I don't use infantry as much as cavalry but in Vanilla M2TW, I'd have to go with Dismounted Gothic Knights or the Janissaries. But in the expansion, it would either have to be dismounted Ritterbruder or the Tarbardariyya

[Gromovnik]

Those fanatic guys that you can recruit on crusades/jihads. Pilgrims and mutatawi (sp?). These guys are doing it for the lulz. Esp. the flagellants, I totally dig that.

[Primvs Sextvs Loverlord]

Forlon hope.

[xero221]

Janissaries heavy infantry: they are good against cavalry or infantry
Norse Axemen: angry norsemen armed with axe that can pierce any armour
Urban Militia: They are not too expensive and even better than the Dismounted Feudal Knights

[Miguel_80]

To my I like units of dismounted conquistadores, Obudshaer, and norse units.

[Diurpaneus]

Janissaries heavy infantry

[USSJ]

norse axemen (because come on. you know these guys really existed. burly danes swinging a huge axe into people's faces).
tercio pikes. disciplined realistic profoessionals with a cool uniform. and can humiliate the supposedly elite knights.
dismounted dvor/scots guard. hybrid infantry. basically armored badasses with bows.

any mercenaries. because imagine walking around europe and offering your sword/poleaxe to anyone who can afford you, to split some heads and take their stuff. balls of steel.

[Patronus]

Byzantines: Varangian Guard and Dismounted Latinkon. Besides packing a nice AP punch, the Varangians look cool and are relatively hardy troops. The Latinkon are hardy and good fighters as well. The two units put the Byzantines on par, or better, than most of its neighbors when it comes to infantry warfare. Those solid infantry units, combined with the Byzantine's awesome cav and archers, really provide an awesome advantage to the faction's unit roster.

England: Dismounted English Knights and Armored Swordsmen. English Knights have the AP punch, and decent enough hardiness while the Swordsmen are just very good/reliable ground brawlers. Again, combined with England's awesome archers and half decent cav, these infantry units really bring a good bonus to the faction. Plus it's fun to reenact old archer battles (like Agincourt).

Norse/Danes: Huscarls, Danish Axemen, Danish Swordsmen and Viking Raiders. The first 3 are among the best heavy infantry in the game: Huscarls and Axemen for their awesome AP damage, and Swordsmen for their decent stats and relative accessibility. Viking Raiders are awesome because despite being somewhat cheap and expendable, they bring awesome AP punch and can seriously mess up much more costly units (though they may also get wrecked in the process).

At one point, I may have thrown the HRE in there, but their early and mid game infantry units, for whatever reason, never really met my expectations, nor did they really match their historical performance IMO. Their late game units are decent enough.

Those 3 factions (England, Byzantines, Norse) have among the best ground units IMHO. My only gripe with how M2TW portrayed them in game is that there was no shieldwall ability...the fact is most infantry units in M2TW should have been given that ability as that's how most infantry fought during that time period.