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Thread: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

  1. #1

    Default Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    I have to say, i'm really down on chariots for generals.....there are so few & seem to get pounded by decent enemy cavalry. I started as Pontus & chariots are pretty much their unique unit but i'm just not liking them. No way i would choose them for Egypt either.....maybe for the Iceni.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Cav units, for mobility, charge, and chase purposes.

  3. #3
    M2TWRocks's Avatar Domesticus
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    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Heavy Infantry. There's a few reasons for this: 1) You usually don't have access to heavy infantry early on, so they are fairly powerful against any unit. (Especially considering you will be fighting mostly levy spearmen.) 2) They have armor which can withstand some pelting from the onslaught of slingers/skirmishers the AI brings to battle. 3) They're more appropriate in siege defense battles which are likely to occur in the early game, as you are usually in a fairly precarious situation.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    With heavy infantry, generals can get stuck in a fight and unable to disengage and may get encircled. Also because of the number of men in that unit, they gain experience very slowly. They can also never take prisoners, heavy infantry are too slow for that. The ideal bodyguards are very heavy cavalry or elephants.

  5. #5
    Civitate
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    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    You should always get bodyguards as cavalry. Quick, take prisoners, gain experience quickly, etc...

  6. #6

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Quote Originally Posted by M2TWRocks View Post
    Heavy Infantry. There's a few reasons for this: 1) You usually don't have access to heavy infantry early on, so they are fairly powerful against any unit. (Especially considering you will be fighting mostly levy spearmen.) 2) They have armor which can withstand some pelting from the onslaught of slingers/skirmishers the AI brings to battle. 3) They're more appropriate in siege defense battles which are likely to occur in the early game, as you are usually in a fairly precarious situation.
    This is what I do. Heavy infantry units are invaluable in the early stages of the game, as they serve so many different purposes. Another reason they are great is that compared to Cav units there is so much more of them. Therefore they have so much more staying power in battle - I notice with Cavalry bodyguards that they seem to drop like flies.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Cavalry if they are available.

    Two reasons. The first is mobility - to buff unit morale, emergency cavalry if flanked by enemy cav, and for late battle rear and flank attack on stubborn enemy units. The second is the way the AI wants to go all out and target the general unit. My infantry unit generals tend to have a shorter life span as I wind up using them as infantry in the battle line early on.
    "The trouble with facts is that there are so many of them." - Samuel McChord Crothers

  8. #8
    Laetus
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    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Shock Cavalry, in early game you can win everything with that, also Oathsworn with barbarians they completely crush levies with 2 generals it's a total bloodbath turn 2-3

  9. #9

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Oathsworn are truly great barbarian faction units. I always have great respect for them when facing them as enemies & even when they're the last unit standing, i still keep a distance & surround them with javelin types to wear them down. Sometimes in the very beginning, certain barbarian faction have no immediate access to an empty agro slot for horse pens & you have to go with heavy cavalry for your general as you won't have recruitable cavalry for a while. I was really interested in everyone's faction specific choices so I'll throw out a couple more of mine......Seleucid & Egypt have so many different types available (7 or 8 i think) but i find elephants so overpowering i never find myself choosing any of the others. The Roman choice is heavy infantry vs a half sized cavalry unit at 1/2 the upkeep & you decide on mobility & cost vs defensive staying power. The Ardiaie have a similar choice of a cheap weak cavalry unit vs a (not quite so) elite hoplite. I always go with heavy horse archers vs melee cavalry when playing as Easterns or Nomads as the general contributes to the battle while staying safely behind lines. I never like to choose elite spearmen or even the greatest hoplites/pikeman if there is a heavy cavalry alternative.
    Last edited by wiesel; September 11, 2015 at 09:52 PM.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    purely role-play considerations.
    The only factions I really love are Sparta and Athens , or, occasionally another Greek faction.
    Now Alexander of Macedon was famous for cavalry, but I can't stand the guy, and in any case the Macedonians were not true Greeks , anymore than Irishmen or Scotsmen are English.
    As for proper Greeks, even Xenophon , who was known to favor cavalry, yet himself disparages cavalry in " Anabasis " as those troops whose chief merit is they can run away more easily.
    Now no would-be Leonidas or Clearchus would want to be viewed as an effeminate dandy with his arse parked on a fat horse , conveniently situated to run away if the poor bloody infantry gets it in the neck. That's what Persians do.
    So my commanders march with the Hoplites , as inconvenient as that might sometimes be.

  11. #11
    johan_d's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    would historically northern tribes be most on foot ? if so then a mod should take care of that for the AI.
    Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
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  12. #12

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    I think the best summary of this thread is to pick the right unit for your situation, usually the unit you need but can't get any other way.

  13. #13
    D E C's Avatar Miles
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    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    If you think that some sneaky enemy flanking force could attack one of your undefended settlements, you could deploy a heavy infantry general there to help your garrison. In all other cases you should always use them as heavy cavalry. It's self evident. It's very risky to have an infantry general. They will be targeted, surrounded and shot to by skirmishers. You should always be able to withdraw your general to a safe distance. In the beginning of the game, you often don't have access to any cavalry and your general will make hundreds of kills while chasing down routing units.

    Now Alexander of Macedon was famous for cavalry, but I can't stand the guy, and in any case the Macedonians were not true Greeks , anymore than Irishmen or Scotsmen are English. As for proper Greeks, even Xenophon , who was known to favor cavalry, yet himself disparages cavalry in " Anabasis " as those troops whose chief merit is they can run away more easily.
    Now no would-be Leonidas or Clearchus would want to be viewed as an effeminate dandy with his arse parked on a fat horse , conveniently situated to run away if the poor bloody infantry gets it in the neck. That's what Persians do.
    So my commanders march with the Hoplites , as inconvenient as that might sometimes be.
    What a load of nonsense.
    U.S. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, porn super-star and five-time ultimate smackdown wrestling champion

  14. #14

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Quote Originally Posted by D E C View Post
    What a load of nonsense.
    I don't see any nonsense with his comment, cause that was the point of view of greeks about cav. So is his point of view. The fact that you dislike his point of view doesn't give you the right to say it's nonsense cause saying "what a load of nonsense" about an opinion is kinda nonsense itself lol

  15. #15
    D E C's Avatar Miles
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    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Yeah, imagine how Pyrrhus, Seleucus, Ptolemy etc. were all walking around on foot in battle.
    U.S. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, porn super-star and five-time ultimate smackdown wrestling champion

  16. #16

    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Quote Originally Posted by D E C View Post
    Yeah, imagine how Pyrrhus, Seleucus, Ptolemy etc. were all walking around on foot in battle.
    Generally, Seleucus and Ptolemy were not considered Greeks by Greeks.
    Philip II of Macedon was apparently commonly derogatorily referred to, or referred to not derogatorily, but as simple statement of an objective fact, as , " Philip the barbarian " .
    " Barbarian " ; the same term used by Greeks to describe Thracians, Illyrians, Romans, Germans, Persians, basically anyone who was NOT Greek.

    You don't have to read very far into classical Greek literature to pick up on this common theme that the Greeks swore by their abstract equality. Whether an aristocrat of the most illustrious pedigree, or the lowliest ditch-digger with no pedigree , Greeks considered themselves as equals , at least relative to anyone else who wasn't Greek.
    By way of comparison , the poorest Greek peltast, though objectively closer to Helotry than to full inclusion as a citizen, yet considered himself a free man, but considered EVERYONE in the Persian Empire , except the king, a slave.
    My point being ; Alexander and the Ptolemy's considered cavalry noble ?
    They also seemed to subscribe to notions like proskynesis and self-deification ; notions decidedly un-Greek , notions indeed that Greeks commonly would have viewed as blasphemous and / or degenerate.

    Pyrrhus ? Much the same thing. Whether You would describe him and his Epireans as "Greeks " , or as " polyglot Yugoslavians " is not clear-cut.
    In either case, Pyrrhus , and the Seleucids also, apparently used elephants . Again, not typically Greek .

    Generally, it seems that in the ancient world itself, and in modern perceptions of that world, a great deal is ascribed to the Greeks which had little or nothing to do with the Greeks.
    Much as today, a great many things are ascribed to the United States and its peoples that have scarce anything to do with the United States and its peoples.

    A notion that seems to be common in this thread, even among those who use infantry generals , is the assumption of safety and utility as values.
    But these are not at all universal assumptions.
    Just as common an assumption is the assumption that the place for a leader is at the front, in the most danger , among his people.
    In this view , keeping a leader safely out of danger , and at a remove , is viewed as a mask / excuse for weakness, cowardice, decadence and corruption.

    Frankly, I largely subscribe to this view. I'm willing to except that war is an evil that must be tolerated, but that presidents don't have to go sleep in ditches, and wear the same suit of clothes 6 months strait, and get shot at, is utterly repugnant. And I don't buy at all the notion that they are as valuable and irreplaceable as the aristocracy and the lumpen proletariat - who-would-be -aristocracy claims they are.

    --- By the way, as the mechanics of the game work, even if you do little turtling but a lot of steam-rolling, 5 and 6 star generals are rare, even largely an accident.
    No, 2 -to - 4 star generals are the norm, and they are easily replaced anyway. And , as often as not, replaced better ; a 20 year old for a 60 year old, a not-your-political faction general for a your- political faction general.
    And a very common complaint about Rome 2 is that the generals aren't relatable or immersive enough, anyway.

    Finally, role-play , and playing with toy soldiers when you are not a general, is a load of nonsense.
    No debate there.
    Or is there?

  17. #17
    Atlas5515's Avatar Foederatus
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    Default Re: Which unit do you choose for your general & why

    Because of the morale bonus halo of the general, I always go cav, so he can get to where he needs to be, when he needs to be. Except of course for the Greeks, for the reasons you mention, Kesa. Where they also tend to have a shorter lifespan on the far right of the battle-line, but since they're Greeks they'd probably rather have a heroic death in battle than dying of old age anyway

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