Question about weapon types, armor, etc.

[smoogs]

I tried doing a search but couldn't find the answers to my questions. I lost my R:TW instruction manual too. Anyhow, I have a few questions about the stats of military units.

First off, what is the difference between heavy and light weapons?

I know spears work best against cavalry, but do they suffer against melee units at all? What are the pros and cons of sword units? Axe units?

What is an "elite" unit?

Thanks in advance.

[Selifator]

The light or heavy type refers to the type of unit, light is mostly daggers and short swords, perhaps spears with light armour covering part of the body. Heavy is all two-handed weapons, large swords and axes with heavy armour like plate and such (antique equivelants) that cover the entire body.
Though there are exceptions since troops with two-handed weapons don't need armour to be heavy.
Spears get a minor negative against swords. Swords are good in melee since they don't get any negative against other weapons, but light swordsmen will suffer from cavalry charges.
Vanilla doesn't have elite units I think, perhaps the first legionarry cohort could be described as one. Mods have them and they give either a morale or combat bonus(or both) to nearby friendly units.

BTW, welcome to TWC!

[Rasui Runihura]

I once heard that casualties recover more often if they are killed by a light weapon than if they are killed by a heavy weapon, but that could have just been a rumor.

[Scutarii]

Light and Heavy is just a classification, as far as I know it doesn't affect kill rates and casualties healed rates except as an influence on how people divied up the stats.

Elite units are just a class of units that are the most disciplined, highest stats etc. Praetorian/Urban Cohorts, Silver Shields, Spartans, are all elite. I don't think vanilla uses this classification, but in some mods there is an Elite label a unit can have. Selifator, I think your thinking of a "Command" unit, which gives a morale boost to the units around it. The Silver Shield Legionnaires and the Roman First Cohort are examples of this.

[Selifator]

Yeah, I said it that way since there are no elite units as such. Each faction has units that can be called elite but comparing those to one another shows that they differ a lot.
And the "Command" units, for lack of a better word, are indeed the ones I refered to. I did this since these are only the best units of each faction, and in mods like RTR they are only the most elite guards, warriors, top of the foodchain dudes.
But then I still don't know where the OP got the term elite unit from.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Most of the question has already been answered above, but also, Axemen are relatively good in melee. And also, light troops usually have some sort of missile, though that isn't a rule.

[Scutarii]

Well, elite is just a general term for really good troops, I suppose. That might be why he used it. I call those units Command units because they've been called that in mods I've played...

[Yojimbo]

Well, elite is just a general term for really good troops, I suppose. That might be why he used it. I call those units Command units because they've been called that in mods I've played...

thats the internal name in config files for morale giving units like first cohorts. so your correct.

[smoogs]

Thanks for the responses.

One last question. Is it at all possible to keep alliances? It seems that no matter what, my allies end up attacking me even if they have no decent reason to and even if my army is 10 times larger than theirs.

[Scutarii]

Short answer: no. Long Answer: the AI is built to be biased towards the player. This is to ensure a more difficult campaign, although this is not always the case. If you share a border with a faction, it stands a large chance of attacking you even if allied. There are some exceptions... A heavily garrisoned border up against a weak factions may not be attacked.

There is a "quick fix" for this. If you put force diplomacy into your game, you can just keep renewing the alliance each turn the AI breaks it. This is useful if you use house rules, so if the AI breaks an alliance and starts a war clearly in its favour you should not force a ceasefire. Forcing ceasefires/alliances is also useful for Role-playing, historical play, and the like.

[nickod777]

heavy is stronger light is weaker

[Scutarii]

Question has been answered, your information has been supplied already, and stop digging up dead threads to spam them. I think that covers it.