Favourite Roman Light Cav/Ranged Auxilia Choice?

[Fredz]

Hi everyone,

I'm moving to the late game and most units are upgrading however I'm stuck on replacing my Tarantine Hippeis - they're too damn good. Does anyone have better ranged/light cav auxilia as they reach the Marian Reforms?

I've found that Tarantines seem to have that perfect mix of chasers, deadly close ranged snipers while also being capable of fighting and holding their own if need be.

Am I missing out by staying with these guys?

[antred]

Yep, I always keep my Tarentine cav as well. They rock! If there's any better javelin cavalry unit, I haven't seen it yet.

[RecKooo]

Aren't they medium cav actually? Their armor makes them super useful when need to fight these nasty african tribes which spam light skirmish cav like crazy and equites / heave infranty gets raped.

[Fredz]

Aren't they medium cav actually? [emoji14] Their armor makes them super useful when need to fight these nasty african tribes which spam light skirmish cav like crazy and equites / heave infranty gets raped.

Well 4 units of archers of any flavour wrecks any skirmisher cav that wants to have a go. I give each cav unit 20 secs before they rout.

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[Don_Diego]

Yeah, late game as in Imperial reforms? I would cut them out completely and use heavier aux cav and have 4 or 5 units of aux archers instead. But I like to stick to historical armies, not necessarly best units.

Also numidians are always nice to use, but very light troops.

[Fredz]

Yeah, late game as in Imperial reforms? I would cut them out completely and use heavier aux cav and have 4 or 5 units of aux archers instead. But I like to stick to historical armies, not necessarly best units.

Also numidians are always nice to use, but very light troops.

Well my compliment is 2 heavy cav 2 ranged cav and 4 archers. What late ranged aux cav do you suggest as g9od picks?

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[antred]

Well my compliment is 2 heavy cav 2 ranged cav and 4 archers. What late ranged aux cav do you suggest as g9od picks?

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Hah, that is exactly my setup, too. I also love the fact that having missile cav allows me to "cheat", and by cheat I mean it allows me to hang back in a defensive position and walk my javelin cav into range of enemy troops, which then triggers the zerg-rush AI to come at me instead of me having to come to them. Yeah, I'm a cheat, deal with it.

[General Vikus]

I've never used the Tarantines, I'll give them a go. Personally, I've been using Numidians a lot in combination with Equites until the Marian reforms, and I've found them to be incredibly useful for anti-skirmisher duty, chasing down routing units, and throwing their javelins into the back of infantry; their manoeuvrability counts for more than I would have expected it to.

After the Marian reforms, I've been using whatever local auxiliary cavalry is available, but I'm still new and I haven't got enough experience to tell you what's really good yet.

Top tip for killing off those annoying light cavalry: combine a couple of units of spearmen (they can be cheap, crappy and numerous if you need a budget option, like the levies that you can get from all over the map, but I use the post - Marian local spear auxiliaries) with a 2 - 4 cretan archers from Sicily. Light cavalry will never trouble your infantry again, and those Cretans will be useful against anything you face.

[Fredz]

I've never used the Numidians - generally I keep my heavy cav on the wings along with my archers and jav cav - when any ranged cav gets close I unload with my jav cav and archers and they get decimated in seconds. So I never really have problems with ranged cav so I never really have to invest too much in spears. A combo of focused archers and more javelins - especially from front line units seem to decimate any level of cavalry that comes into range. Funnily enough too they always approach before the main force does so it never becomes a real flanking problem. Few situations require flank management but if they do I have my heavier cav to take on any left over cav that penetrate behind.

[Garbad]

Ranged:

Gastraphetes
Rhodian/Baelaric Slingers
Cretean/Bosphoran/Thracian/Syrian archers
any of the various greek/thracian/celtic spear throwing medium units

Horsey Play:

Tarentines - nice medium javcav
Iberian medium cav - fastest and best attack in the west
gallic light javcav - faster and cheaper than tarentines but less armor, best light cav imo
gallic medium - good armor and stamina
thracian horse archers - horsebow with armor = gg
thracian medium cav - high supply and nicely effective
persian medium cav - best medium cav in the east

My main three troop production centers are usually: Sicily, Thrace, Iberia.

[meerkatology]

i kinda dislike the crappy morale on tarantines though they are good.

i always fight carthage first and the numidians are much harder to deal with than before with the buff to light units, i prefer cretans over gastraphetes against them, cretans fire much faster and can route the skirmish cav asap. gastrephetes are better for extended fights with more ammo efficiency but due to slowrate of fire, you don't want to wait until enemy skirmisher cav arleady used their ammo before you kill them.

roman equites used to be quite nice as they get the job done quickly vs archers and are reasonable sturdy/fast at cheap price. but they have more trouble vs archers now, although i guess most cav do these days

[Garbad]

Gastraphetes really come into their own mashing high armor units like legionaries.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Ranged:

My main three troop production centers are usually: Sicily, Thrace, Iberia.

Same here.

[Dago Red]

Are Tarantine cav limited? If not, they should be, or, have their prices or stats or something else changed. Look at the roster as any Greek faction with access and there's no reason to recruit anything else. The late Prodomoi that open up are about the same price, and inferior in every way. They don't outrange the Tarantines or skirmish better in any way. What's more, they don't even have more armor or other late era factors which you might make them usable.

[KAM 2150]

AoR Tarantines are limited in numbers. Those avaliable in default recruitment for Hellenic faction represent units fighting in Tarantine style (like for example almost all Athenian cavalry later on fought as Tarantines).

[meerkatology]

tarantines have really morale tho, so i think they are balanced :x

[MateoTheSpaniard]

I've used tarantines for about 150 turns in my main 2 original armies, they got to the maximum rank and all. Yesterday I decided to change them for some Gallic Heavy Cav, they just seem more useful with the strategies I employ now.

[Dago Red]

AoR Tarantines are limited in numbers. Those avaliable in default recruitment for Hellenic faction represent units fighting in Tarantine style (like for example almost all Athenian cavalry later on fought as Tarantines).

Right I'm talking about Greek Tarantines (non-AoR). I know what you mean, they were fighting in the style of Tarantine cavalry of old, but aren't actually from the region. They are Athenian, or Lydian, or whatever. But they seem either to be OP or prices are just a little off. If you compare stats, and the prices, they are leagues better than everything else most of the Greek factions can field and yet not at all more expensive than other medium skirmisher-type cav. I don't recruit "heavier" horse like citizen Hippeis for any reason other than flavor/role playing.