Wow, Chosen Axemen are powerful!

**AchillesXX** · June 13, 2010, 02:08 AM

I have started a Germania campaign recently and I was playing around with their different units in the custom battle mode. Chosen Axemen seem to be able to beat any other infantry unit in the game except for the Spartans or course. They also beat cataphracts and the Parthian Companions that outnumbered them 71 to 51. I haven't tried, but I would bet that high level elephants can beat them. Anyway, for 1,000 denarii they seem to be the most cost effective unit in the game. I don't have a city big enough to recruit them in the campaign yet. Anyone else have feedback on this?

**Athenogoras** · June 13, 2010, 03:05 AM

They are a very good unit, probably best among the elite due to their fransisca. But when it comes to cost-effectiveness I choose the night raiders.
Cheap, available at second tier bardic circle, deadly fransisca and frightens infantry.

**knguyen_93** · June 13, 2010, 04:06 PM

There is no way they can defeat the cataphract. Did you play as the Chosen Axemen and let the noob AI play as Parthian. If the cataphract repeatedly charges, they can even break the Legionary First Cohort formation.

**AchillesXX** · June 19, 2010, 11:30 PM

I did play as the Chosens. The AI did repeatedly attack me via charge. Probably not as well as a human would have, but sadly I don't have the option to control both sides. Let us say that if both units were controlled by humans the cataphracts would win. Even if that were so, they would not win by much and they are much more expensive. Also, I used the Chosen Axes against a legionary cohort and they easily defeated them as well. I don't know about a First Cohort, but I bet it would be close (I'll have to give it a whirl). And again, I believe the Chosens to be significantly cheaper.

**AchillesXX** · June 20, 2010, 12:07 AM

Okay, I just did a few more tests. First, I tried Chosen Axes against Cataphracts and I won. Then I tried Cataphracts against Chosen Axes and I won that battle too. Odd. I have not tried it in the woods or snow though, that may be interesting. Also, I tried Chosen Axes against a Legionary First Cohort and I won that battle too. Because the legionares are infantry I had time to throw my axes, and that was devastating (killing 13 men in one volley, large units). I guess that my conclusion is that custom battles are poor way to determine a units worth.

**Pinkie Pie** · June 21, 2010, 10:02 AM

1-what difficulty and 2-where they using the same armour/weapons/exp level

**Publius Quirinus** · June 22, 2010, 03:17 PM

That's likely because axemen generally have the armor-piercing ('AP') attribute, which ignores half the armor rating, meaning that axemen tend to be heavy infantry/cav killers. Don't know about the chosen axemen specifically though.