One early use for eastern mercenaries is as a quick means of building rams, especially as a faction like Parthia. Keeps your armies all horse, and thus more mobile, until a siege, and then just hire eastern mercenaries to quickly take a city.
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH I concur with using them for walls and towers. I basically use all cheap, garbage troops as units to man walls and towers, in this game and in Medieval 2 (and its various mods). What I care about is that they activate the towers, maintain public order, and don't cost a whole lot per turn. If they can actually hold the wall against basic spearmen due to the advantage they get against regular ladders, all the better, but i don't expect them to defeat soldiers in combat. I expect them to cause the walls to inflict casualties and slow down the assault, while my professional archers and real infantry take no casualties and expend little ammo, and perhaps while my cavalry sallies out to flank them. Peasant infantry, certain factions' spearmen, levy archers, those F-tier units in Medieval 2, are straight up garbage in melee combat, but they're also super cheap and can activate walls and towers. I think of them more like an obstacle that can cause some casualties on the enemy, rather than an actual military unit. They have a use, as long as you don't fool yourself into thinking they're soldiers. They are basically low cost police for public order purposes, and given proper walls and some support, they can cause towers to inflict good casualties onto much better troops. Anytime I am destroying quality units with garbage units, I have gold for more quality units, and those quality units survive longer without taking casualties. The best part is because these garbage troops are so common, they're easy to find replacements for. High quality rare soldiers or mercenaries taking casualties makes me weep, but peasant levies taking casualties makes me shrug with indifference.
I did that in Barbarian Invasion! Although while playing barbarians like the Saxons, but still i could steamroll the overstretched Roman garrisons this way when I couldnt outfight their armies but could rush past them with cav armies
I always hire barbarian and pijama mercs whenever they are available. Because of their cheap price and high unit size, they serve as excellent colonists to boost your population growth, if you play on larger unit scales.
They are great for softening enemies, frontline meatshield force or flanking force. Had campaigns when the general had 4-5 roman squads and the rest were barb footman mercs. For early and midgame they are great.
Yeah, a few barbarian mercenaries, and suddenly that 500 population town that might take decades to become anything useful is now a large town in a few turns.
@@EmperorBun there is no need to put units inside the town. It's enough to disband them inside the province borders. No wonder you don't know about this feature, as it is present only in this game (if we don't count the mods).
@@EmperorBun Yep, disbanding a unit inside a city adds the number of men that were in that unit to the city's population. So on ultra unit scale, you can transfer population from one city to another 240 at a time with peasants, and essentially spend gold to quickly increase a settlement's population with mercenaries. It's great for those settlements you capture with something like 400 population and 2% pop growth.
Cretan archers and mercenary hoplites are always a must buy in my Brutii campaigns. And if I need a substitute for Hastati I usually get some peltasts who do the job pretty well.
Not to mention they basically fit right into the color scheme. It's one of the only reasons I ever pick Brutii over Scipii (I like taking carthage and greece because I am greedy).
....and Balearic/Rhodian Slingers. Almost the same range as Cretan Archers and almost as good ranged attack, and they're absolutely devastating when used properly.
@@simpicusmaximus They do shoot in an arc but it's a shallow one. They're most effective on a sharp incline behind your front line, otherwise I put them just outside the front line until the enemy gets within charge distance; they will melt pretty much anything approaching. Since most of them move relatively quickly you can maneuver them into position to help your front line cut them down, and they're crazy effective against charging cavalry. They're obviously not better than Cretan Archers, but I personally love The General's Shotgun and there are always slingers in my army.
The Eastern Mercenaries are really funny because they don't even have the minimal armor of the normal Eastern Infantry. EI have an armor of 3, bringing their overall defense to 10. It's not much, but the armor and their high shield rating make them a bit less vulnerable to missiles. Eastern Mercs have 0 armor. Which is baffling.
I would place hoplites in S tier, specially because of the conditions in which you usually hire mercenaries. They are surreally good as a garison or to complement an army. The only time they might not be perfect is, as you said, if you have hoplites in your faction, and even then not because they are not good but because you will have better alternatives. I would place them at the bottom of S tier.
Barbarian Mercenaries are an absolute must have if you're on the Julii campaign. Great fodder for all of the assaults on barbarian settlements, on par with the mainline Galic/British infantry (since they're just reskinned warbands) and can be replaced easily enough while Hastatii and Principes generally can't be early on in those parts of the map. It saves you from needing to maintain a continual supply line of fresh troops being trained in Italy to fill gaps in your ranks. I even hire them when I don't need to fill out my army just to disband them in a province to bump up the population numbers to get settlements to at least large town/small city level where they can actually be economically productive, so the mercenaries end up paying for themselves (and if you don't need to continually recruit more Hastatii in Italy you can recruit peasants to go to those low tier Galic settlements instead to do the same sort of accelerated development).
My primary issue with bastarnae and sarmatians is their recruitment cost. In the early game when money is tight I find it hard to justify when there are nearly always cheaper light shock alternatives available.
The only reason I think that the cilician pirates are a bit too highly placed is their formation being disorganised, it makes it so much more difficult to get their javelins thrown and to use their charge. Really good summeries though.
I actually like the Pajama men for a purpose; they are cheap and quick to get in large numbers, so you can rapidly bolster a disloyal city, or use them to rapidly increase the pop tier of a small town. You can do all this with peasants of course, but you have to actually train them from somewhere which means you are losing out on economic gains or better units elsewhere.
Man, Cretan Archers. I always had a general stationed on Crete and it was an early destination no matter what faction I was playing. Had to get that recruitment going regular so I didn't have to get ordinary archers 😂
From this video i remember a lovely feature that is missing from modern Total Wars: the retreat Key being a toggle. Man, i would sometimes order my units to fake retreat and then toggle it so they would stop and turn around, it was fun, felt great, was actually useful and so immersive. Modern Total Wars lack this feature. When a unit flees the reason does not matter, it will flee until it randomly regroups or leaves the field.
Eastern Mercenaries are basically Town Watch but with a bit more of numbers. Stick them to garrison only. My favs to be honest are the Sarmatian Mercenaries, the Cretan Archers, Horse Archers, Iberian Mercenaries and the Samnites, they look really cool.
Watching this reminded me of the medieval 2 mercs aswell, perhaps you should do a list of them, but also make a guide on how can you recruit the hidden ones (Armored Swordsmen, dismounted frankish knights etc)
I mostly agree except I would take the slingers (bad projectile trajectory) and Bastarnae (very fragile for the cost) down a peg and boost the Numidian Mercenaries (amazing in the early game) to A tier. Samnite and Spanish Mercenaries are also worth B tier imo, they at least can fill a place on the battle line when needed.
Good video! I always loved mercenary units. Be it for just quick convenient reinforcements, filling gaps on your army composition or just adding some cool exotic element they always have a place in my armies when I can afford them. I share your fondness of the cilician pirates, although I have to admit that they often don't perform as well as I hope, but let's say that's on me and they are still awesome enough XD
Sicilian pirates are A tier. Their missile damage is outstanding. Mercenary hoplites go to A tier because they win games early on. It a unit that can win you campaigns with ease.
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH They did really well when I placed them in ships. Naval battles. I am not sure if it is random or not but it could be an Easter egg. Not sure...
I think I would bump the horse archers to the bottom of S and the camel archers to the bottom of A. That much mobile firepower is just too good. They can be very micro-intensive, though.
Actually the libyan mecenaries have always been more effective than the barbarian mercenaries in my experience due to the fact they can actually kill stuff. Barbarian mercenaries are simply just reskined pyjama men. Used them in countless campaigns and all their useful for is cannon fodder. Heck they do worse than pyjama men at fighting cavalry.
Great to see a fellow mass cav archer fanboy! Crazy op, especially considering their cost, only struggling against high tier legions. I would rank camel archers somewhat higher though, I dont find them much inferior to horse archers.
I mostly use eastern mercs to add population to a town, hold public order, or sponge up enemy missiles. As for the Beduin Warriors, I use them, alongside arab cav and Beduin archers, to help buff up my early game Seleucid armies. Not that it says much since the Seleucids start with only generals and militia units. I always wished that Samnites were available in the Custom Battle roman armies. For some reason, I've never really enjoyed the Cilician pirates. Probably because they are loose, impetous, and lower in defense, so less into my style (I've never been a Barbarian faction fan). As for the greeks, I don't think I've gone a single campaign without recruiting hoplites and cretans when I got the chance. Not only are cretans great, but tbh, I've always loved the look of the greek archers and their funny hats. I like to imagine those hates are the fancy ones that will protect us from the terrible gaze of the moon people.
I find that anything with a spear can be useful, because they get automatic 5 attack against cavalry. I had eastern mercs defeat stuff like Pontic heavy cavalry if they don’t get a charge and (somehow) manage to not break (gigachad general?)
Pyjamas boys are in large enough numbers they ard good at forming long thin lines behind the enemy to block fleeing troops making all victories a total elimination. Also absorbing arrow fire before your better units are sent forward.
It is very interesting to me how two people can perceive the same game so differently. While i broadly agree with most of your picks, for me the missile cav aswell as pirates and the illyrian skirmishes are firmly in D tier for me.
Tutorial tells you all you need to know about barbarian armies, and that includes mercenaries. Their numbers are huge, just ram them into the enemy, they last forever. They are a crude but effective tool. Meanwhile your good units can swing around and hit the enemy in the back.
I still feel like the developers at Creative Assembly were trolling us a bit with the Eastern Infantry. 😂 I will always love my pajama men, no matter how many times they let me down.
I think there’s a mercenary unit of Danes but you have to travel so far to get them the map is probably green. If I have $ I use mercenaries mainly as colonists.
I would nudge the numidan cav and the barbarian cav one tier up and put the elephants 2 tiers lower, but other then that I can very much agree with this list.
Great ranking, I'd probably put Sarmatians, Scythians, Numidians and Barbarian Cavalry a rank higher, and maybe knock Merc Peltasts down a spot. (Yes I am a cavalry player, how could you tell?)
Lybian mercs are awful in many aspects, but they're very cheap, they're ranged and their javies have +4 vs chariots and elephants. I would place them in D-tier instead of E, because they're a cheap and easy way to mass up a bit of missile support in the early campaign, and you can recruit so damn many of them they're a good emergency supply of reinforcements in a pinch.
Eastern Infantry get higher for one reason only. They are terrible, but somehow helped me rout Parthia’s Cataphracts on Hard/Hard difficulty. Still not quite sure how it happened to be honest…and best kept near your general for morale buffs regardless
I'm completely bias towards Horseman so if i'm playing as an Eastern or African faction, I always hire Numidian Cavalry, if i'm European, I always seek out Scythian Cavalry. Cavalry breaks the AI and with no time limit, you can harass the enemy (tiring them out and breaking their cohesion), you can also attack and rest, repeat. Infantry is only useful in sieges and you can often starve an opponent out. I like this though
I personally don't like the bastarne because they are so expensive and the hoplites for them being very slow. And depending on the faction I'd place barbarian cavalry and infantry a spot higher each for them being so readily available that them suffering losses isn't a big deal. Other than that great tier list ❤
I actually think the eastern mercenaries work perfect for a quick and effective unit to keep population under control. You conquer an eastern city and need a cheap force to quickly garrison? Cheap, expendable eastern mercs
I think you rate Bastarnae and Hoplites too high. They are just too expensive for what they are... On the other hand, I'd rate Illyrians and Numidians higher.
One early use for eastern mercenaries is as a quick means of building rams, especially as a faction like Parthia. Keeps your armies all horse, and thus more mobile, until a siege, and then just hire eastern mercenaries to quickly take a city.
Very true. Particularly for Parthia. On a similar note they are useful arrow fodder for claiming towers.
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH I concur with using them for walls and towers. I basically use all cheap, garbage troops as units to man walls and towers, in this game and in Medieval 2 (and its various mods).
What I care about is that they activate the towers, maintain public order, and don't cost a whole lot per turn. If they can actually hold the wall against basic spearmen due to the advantage they get against regular ladders, all the better, but i don't expect them to defeat soldiers in combat. I expect them to cause the walls to inflict casualties and slow down the assault, while my professional archers and real infantry take no casualties and expend little ammo, and perhaps while my cavalry sallies out to flank them.
Peasant infantry, certain factions' spearmen, levy archers, those F-tier units in Medieval 2, are straight up garbage in melee combat, but they're also super cheap and can activate walls and towers.
I think of them more like an obstacle that can cause some casualties on the enemy, rather than an actual military unit. They have a use, as long as you don't fool yourself into thinking they're soldiers.
They are basically low cost police for public order purposes, and given proper walls and some support, they can cause towers to inflict good casualties onto much better troops.
Anytime I am destroying quality units with garbage units, I have gold for more quality units, and those quality units survive longer without taking casualties.
The best part is because these garbage troops are so common, they're easy to find replacements for. High quality rare soldiers or mercenaries taking casualties makes me weep, but peasant levies taking casualties makes me shrug with indifference.
And sapper fodder
I did that in Barbarian Invasion! Although while playing barbarians like the Saxons, but still i could steamroll the overstretched Roman garrisons this way when I couldnt outfight their armies but could rush past them with cav armies
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH Scythia sends its regards
love getting samnites as brutii, they fit in aesthetically so well
Being a Cretan myself and having archery as a hobby, I approve this message.
Great, you are hired
I always hire barbarian and pijama mercs whenever they are available. Because of their cheap price and high unit size, they serve as excellent colonists to boost your population growth, if you play on larger unit scales.
They are great for softening enemies, frontline meatshield force or flanking force. Had campaigns when the general had 4-5 roman squads and the rest were barb footman mercs. For early and midgame they are great.
Yeah, a few barbarian mercenaries, and suddenly that 500 population town that might take decades to become anything useful is now a large town in a few turns.
wait, you can add units to city population?? disband inside the city?
@@EmperorBun there is no need to put units inside the town. It's enough to disband them inside the province borders. No wonder you don't know about this feature, as it is present only in this game (if we don't count the mods).
@@EmperorBun Yep, disbanding a unit inside a city adds the number of men that were in that unit to the city's population. So on ultra unit scale, you can transfer population from one city to another 240 at a time with peasants, and essentially spend gold to quickly increase a settlement's population with mercenaries. It's great for those settlements you capture with something like 400 population and 2% pop growth.
Gotta love those Iberian Mercenaries. They’re great as Hastati substitutes when you’re too far away to recruit and send more units to your army.
You speak the truth!
Cretan archers and mercenary hoplites are always a must buy in my Brutii campaigns. And if I need a substitute for Hastati I usually get some peltasts who do the job pretty well.
Can't argue with any of that!
Cretan archers are ludicrously OP to the point of breaking the game if you mass them.
@@darrellparfitt5908Cretan archers and Balearic slingers. I will make detours to pick those guys up for my campaigns
It's worth having a general just tour the Greek regions to constantly buy up all the Cretan archers.
Not to mention they basically fit right into the color scheme. It's one of the only reasons I ever pick Brutii over Scipii (I like taking carthage and greece because I am greedy).
Cretan Archers...
....and Balearic/Rhodian Slingers. Almost the same range as Cretan Archers and almost as good ranged attack, and they're absolutely devastating when used properly.
@@TomatoFettuccinislingers can only shoot in a straight line, archers can be placed anywhere and hit anything.
ARCHERS OF CRETE
@@simpicusmaximus They do shoot in an arc but it's a shallow one. They're most effective on a sharp incline behind your front line, otherwise I put them just outside the front line until the enemy gets within charge distance; they will melt pretty much anything approaching.
Since most of them move relatively quickly you can maneuver them into position to help your front line cut them down, and they're crazy effective against charging cavalry.
They're obviously not better than Cretan Archers, but I personally love The General's Shotgun and there are always slingers in my army.
The Eastern Mercenaries are really funny because they don't even have the minimal armor of the normal Eastern Infantry. EI have an armor of 3, bringing their overall defense to 10. It's not much, but the armor and their high shield rating make them a bit less vulnerable to missiles. Eastern Mercs have 0 armor. Which is baffling.
I noticed that they lacked any armour and did think it must be less than the usual unit. That is a pretty grim realisation for the EI though.
Love seeing all the random rebels units in the clips for this video like the Judean Zealots and gladiators.
Love those guys!!
I love how the unit reacts to the Peltasts jumping out of the grass! 🤣🤣
I was delighted with that bit of footage! 😅
I remember the first time I hired Bastarnae to fill a gap in a seige. They straight up murdered their way through 3 unit. Brilliant
They are beasts!
I would place hoplites in S tier, specially because of the conditions in which you usually hire mercenaries. They are surreally good as a garison or to complement an army. The only time they might not be perfect is, as you said, if you have hoplites in your faction, and even then not because they are not good but because you will have better alternatives. I would place them at the bottom of S tier.
Very good points! I could accept them in S tier... though that's not how the cookie crumbled this time.
Even in early campaign as a faction with phalanx units, I use them because they are much better than militia hoplittes
Cretan archers are the GOAT, from troy to the fall of constantinople
Barbarian Mercenaries are an absolute must have if you're on the Julii campaign. Great fodder for all of the assaults on barbarian settlements, on par with the mainline Galic/British infantry (since they're just reskinned warbands) and can be replaced easily enough while Hastatii and Principes generally can't be early on in those parts of the map. It saves you from needing to maintain a continual supply line of fresh troops being trained in Italy to fill gaps in your ranks. I even hire them when I don't need to fill out my army just to disband them in a province to bump up the population numbers to get settlements to at least large town/small city level where they can actually be economically productive, so the mercenaries end up paying for themselves (and if you don't need to continually recruit more Hastatii in Italy you can recruit peasants to go to those low tier Galic settlements instead to do the same sort of accelerated development).
Had some campaigns when i had whole army of them with 3-4 Roman squads. They are cheap, medicore and there are LOTS of them for recruit.
Easterns and lybians are good for ram and sap, and as you get the city keep them for 2-3 turns, then disband.
There's something wrong with how projectiles parabolas are calculated so Cretan archers on a hill can shoot for about a mile.
My primary issue with bastarnae and sarmatians is their recruitment cost. In the early game when money is tight I find it hard to justify when there are nearly always cheaper light shock alternatives available.
They are certainly too pricey for the early game, that is fair!
You can easily find better options than bastarnae. But the sarmatians are hard to replace in early and mid game. I always hire them on sight.
The only reason I think that the cilician pirates are a bit too highly placed is their formation being disorganised, it makes it so much more difficult to get their javelins thrown and to use their charge.
Really good summeries though.
Cheers! And yes, that is their biggest downside. People's opinions on them seem to vary wildly by the looks of the comments.
I was always drawn to buying and using them but disappointed in their performance. They had the cool factor but not the strength to back it up.
Balearic slingers are definitely S Tier they are armour piercing and have longer range than any other missile unit
Sarmatians are my favourite! Great use of wedge in the video btw!
Poor pajama men.
Well of course Cretan archers are in S tier. They gave birth to Julianus Vatinius, emperor of the Brutii and founder of Space Rome.
I was very tempted to reference him... Very pleased someone in the comments does!
I actually like the Pajama men for a purpose; they are cheap and quick to get in large numbers, so you can rapidly bolster a disloyal city, or use them to rapidly increase the pop tier of a small town. You can do all this with peasants of course, but you have to actually train them from somewhere which means you are losing out on economic gains or better units elsewhere.
Man, Cretan Archers.
I always had a general stationed on Crete and it was an early destination no matter what faction I was playing. Had to get that recruitment going regular so I didn't have to get ordinary archers 😂
I'm so happy you made this, tierlists for old total wars are so much fun to watch
Seeing as it's a popular format I will likely make more!
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH that's what we love to hear!!! You and legend of total war make all of us old game peeps so happy
Holy Cow CONGRATS ON OVER 5K subs mate! Keep up the good work friend
Cheers! Growing nicely in the last few months!
From this video i remember a lovely feature that is missing from modern Total Wars:
the retreat Key being a toggle. Man, i would sometimes order my units to fake retreat and then toggle it so they would stop and turn around, it was fun, felt great, was actually useful and so immersive.
Modern Total Wars lack this feature. When a unit flees the reason does not matter, it will flee until it randomly regroups or leaves the field.
Eastern Mercenaries are basically Town Watch but with a bit more of numbers. Stick them to garrison only. My favs to be honest are the Sarmatian Mercenaries, the Cretan Archers, Horse Archers, Iberian Mercenaries and the Samnites, they look really cool.
Watching this reminded me of the medieval 2 mercs aswell, perhaps you should do a list of them, but also make a guide on how can you recruit the hidden ones (Armored Swordsmen, dismounted frankish knights etc)
I mostly agree except I would take the slingers (bad projectile trajectory) and Bastarnae (very fragile for the cost) down a peg and boost the Numidian Mercenaries (amazing in the early game) to A tier. Samnite and Spanish Mercenaries are also worth B tier imo, they at least can fill a place on the battle line when needed.
I've never noticed impetuous charge having any effect.
Good video! I always loved mercenary units. Be it for just quick convenient reinforcements, filling gaps on your army composition or just adding some cool exotic element they always have a place in my armies when I can afford them. I share your fondness of the cilician pirates, although I have to admit that they often don't perform as well as I hope, but let's say that's on me and they are still awesome enough XD
Would you consider a tier list of rebel-unique units? RTW had far more of these than MTW2
Ooooh I like that idea. It has been noted!
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH Amazonian chariots S tier or I will riot! :P
Great idea!
Sicilian pirates are A tier. Their missile damage is outstanding.
Mercenary hoplites go to A tier because they win games early on. It a unit that can win you campaigns with ease.
Peoples opinions on Cilicians are wildly different. I won't argue with you though - I love my pirate lads!
@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH They did really well when I placed them in ships. Naval battles. I am not sure if it is random or not but it could be an Easter egg. Not sure...
I think I would bump the horse archers to the bottom of S and the camel archers to the bottom of A. That much mobile firepower is just too good. They can be very micro-intensive, though.
Always love me a good total war tier list
Actually the libyan mecenaries have always been more effective than the barbarian mercenaries in my experience due to the fact they can actually kill stuff. Barbarian mercenaries are simply just reskined pyjama men. Used them in countless campaigns and all their useful for is cannon fodder. Heck they do worse than pyjama men at fighting cavalry.
Good work, as always
Well I know who to hire when I play this game. The Merc Unit are really underrated.
They're a varied bunch of interesting units. I do think they're better than usually credited.
Peltasts are great for those over adventurous general units, elephants and chariots.
Man I miss the good old times of this game, what an adventure it was.
Great to see a fellow mass cav archer fanboy! Crazy op, especially considering their cost, only struggling against high tier legions. I would rank camel archers somewhat higher though, I dont find them much inferior to horse archers.
And I thought I was alone in thinking the world of those Cretans. Not sure how the Greek Cities win without them.
I mostly use eastern mercs to add population to a town, hold public order, or sponge up enemy missiles.
As for the Beduin Warriors, I use them, alongside arab cav and Beduin archers, to help buff up my early game Seleucid armies. Not that it says much since the Seleucids start with only generals and militia units.
I always wished that Samnites were available in the Custom Battle roman armies.
For some reason, I've never really enjoyed the Cilician pirates. Probably because they are loose, impetous, and lower in defense, so less into my style (I've never been a Barbarian faction fan).
As for the greeks, I don't think I've gone a single campaign without recruiting hoplites and cretans when I got the chance.
Not only are cretans great, but tbh, I've always loved the look of the greek archers and their funny hats. I like to imagine those hates are the fancy ones that will protect us from the terrible gaze of the moon people.
I usually buff the scutarii and the 2 thracian ones, they shouldnt be so weak
I usually buff the Sarmatians, since they should be even more OP
4 points in defense skill is just too low for an elite unit 🤣
I find that anything with a spear can be useful, because they get automatic 5 attack against cavalry. I had eastern mercs defeat stuff like Pontic heavy cavalry if they don’t get a charge and (somehow) manage to not break (gigachad general?)
Pyjamas boys are in large enough numbers they ard good at forming long thin lines behind the enemy to block fleeing troops making all victories a total elimination.
Also absorbing arrow fire before your better units are sent forward.
It is very interesting to me how two people can perceive the same game so differently. While i broadly agree with most of your picks, for me the missile cav aswell as pirates and the illyrian skirmishes are firmly in D tier for me.
Tutorial tells you all you need to know about barbarian armies, and that includes mercenaries. Their numbers are huge, just ram them into the enemy, they last forever. They are a crude but effective tool. Meanwhile your good units can swing around and hit the enemy in the back.
Cretans and Illyrians, oh the nostalgia...
I still feel like the developers at Creative Assembly were trolling us a bit with the Eastern Infantry. 😂
I will always love my pajama men, no matter how many times they let me down.
Should add one more on S tire. But again a SPECIAL TIER
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yubsteb Oliphaunt
I should feature them at some point! They're so ridiculous but fun.
Cretan archers to deplete them, Bastarnae to carve them into pork chops, Sarmatian cav to annihilate them
I always found the mercenary peltast to be really Good. If well experienced and with a forges they get really good early units
Have you considered doing a modded campaign? Something like stainless steel for med2 seems like it would fit the channel
I usually play my own mini mods but I'd like to cover the big mods too!
i would watch the hell out of a roma surrectum III or stainless steel 6.4 campaign
Cretan archers are a "Must" have unit every time the mercenary browser opens up.
It’s hilarious but entirely true that the War Elephants are runners up to Cretan Archers
I think there’s a mercenary unit of Danes but you have to travel so far to get them the map is probably green.
If I have $ I use mercenaries mainly as colonists.
Eastern mercs are gd because they are totally expendable. You’re probably disappointed if they survive the battle.
Spanish Mercenaries are underrated imo. To me they always act like Principes if I'm playing as a non-Roman faction.
M2TW next?
Hear, hear! Big fan of M2 here. If you could cover the stainless steel 6.4 mod in particular.
Way too many, and loads of time and religion specific ones + crusade/jihad mercs makes it way more complex to rank
There are sooooo many more in Medieval II. However, I could find a way of organising them and brings those lists together to make the ultimate list 😅
I would nudge the numidan cav and the barbarian cav one tier up and put the elephants 2 tiers lower, but other then that I can very much agree with this list.
Can you make more of these videos by unit type/factions? Really enjoy your stuff
Greece as a region is just so OP in Rome Total War: so many wonders, so much wealth, and brilliant mercs. Take over Greece and you’ve won the game
Mercenary elephants for sure number 1 spot.
Interesting, will you do a tier list for Barbarian Invasion mercs?
Great ranking, I'd probably put Sarmatians, Scythians, Numidians and Barbarian Cavalry a rank higher, and maybe knock Merc Peltasts down a spot. (Yes I am a cavalry player, how could you tell?)
We all have our biases... hard to argue against cav in Rome though!
Lybian mercs are awful in many aspects, but they're very cheap, they're ranged and their javies have +4 vs chariots and elephants.
I would place them in D-tier instead of E, because they're a cheap and easy way to mass up a bit of missile support in the early campaign, and you can recruit so damn many of them they're a good emergency supply of reinforcements in a pinch.
Do make similar for comparison of regular army units of different total war rome , my bet is on Peasants
That could be fun! Good suggestion.
Eastern Infantry get higher for one reason only. They are terrible, but somehow helped me rout Parthia’s Cataphracts on Hard/Hard difficulty. Still not quite sure how it happened to be honest…and best kept near your general for morale buffs regardless
I'm completely bias towards Horseman so if i'm playing as an Eastern or African faction, I always hire Numidian Cavalry, if i'm European, I always seek out Scythian Cavalry. Cavalry breaks the AI and with no time limit, you can harass the enemy (tiring them out and breaking their cohesion), you can also attack and rest, repeat. Infantry is only useful in sieges and you can often starve an opponent out. I like this though
I always prefer Cretan Archer Mercenaries and Mercenaries War Elephant in mine Julli Campaign .
Thanks for the video.
I wish you could play as the mercenaries as a faction
I personally don't like the bastarne because they are so expensive and the hoplites for them being very slow. And depending on the faction I'd place barbarian cavalry and infantry a spot higher each for them being so readily available that them suffering losses isn't a big deal. Other than that great tier list ❤
How can you play with rebels?
I actually think the eastern mercenaries work perfect for a quick and effective unit to keep population under control. You conquer an eastern city and need a cheap force to quickly garrison? Cheap, expendable eastern mercs
Mercenaries are the best part of the game.
I think you rate Bastarnae and Hoplites too high. They are just too expensive for what they are... On the other hand, I'd rate Illyrians and Numidians higher.
Cilcian is KHAL-E-KIAN
That is an almost unarguable list. I can't think of a single change. Maybe I'd put Bastarne higher? Hard to tell.
Cretan archers > everything
Can't argue with that!
I dont like elephants. They cost way to much.
Bastarnae only make it to C? Is this supposed to be a joke?
They are A tier in the video? Thracian mercenaries look the same but are very different as they only have 1 hit point.
pYjAmAmEn
❤
Cheers, Emily!
💯 XD
Cheers, Sir!
First
Victory and glory!
Thanks for the video