First, I would like to say I feel really sorry for anyone who uses this post as a guide.
BlackEye, there are much deeper meaning and strategy to RTS games than numbers and tests. So what if axemen kills taxmen. So what is hypaspist beats axemen. You have to consider every aspect and exploit ever situation. Test 100 Taxmen against 100 axemen. Micro correctly. The taxmen's will win. Taxmen cost wood, Taxmen cost food. Any eggy who is going FH won't spend that much on food unit in classical to get a sub 8 minute heroic. Now the hypaspist is in heroic. Cost a whole lot more. What about the speed? Did you know spearmens can catch up to hetairois? You say hoplites are superior than spearmens. What if I was raiding you with hetairois? Hoplites can't catch up to them, but spearmens cant't. Why would anyone test axemen or hypaspist in close distance to taxmen. Taxmen have range, and that's what they are, support troops. Range units are good in large numbers. Ever seen 60 toxotes kill 60 RCs? Why does anyone mass priest. Oh, they only have 5 pierce attack in Mythic if you research tech at armory. But they have a huge range. 24. Do you know noob4_nalybutes?? He lames with mass priest. I've tried RCs, Jarls, Huskarls, Hippkons, Ellies, arcus, even contarius. The priest slaughters them all. Plus, they can heal each other after each battle, saving tons of resources.Quote:
TA were nerfed based upon the Jarl-TA combo. So yeah, TA now suck in every other situation besides jarl-TA except maybe with some nicely upgraded RC instead of jarls.
Maybe it's me, but I've never heard of that combo. For eggy, they can just mass ellies and it's GG. Jarls are archer and MU counter. TA counters infantry. Ellies kill the both. Oh, what if I did toxotes/hippkons combo? or hippkons/pedromos combo? They will slaughter that combo.
In you incorporate most aspects of gameplay, you will find out that it's like this.
Taxmen>Axemen>HypaspistA smart norse player would always have meatshield for taxmens. In melee combat, most of the time it is infantry. My taxmens can slaughter your infantry from range. An axemen would have to get up close and personal. In large scale battles, Taxmen always win. Axemen are cheap and fast. Hypaspist come in heroic. And you didn't tell us about upgrades about the infantry BlackEyes. Have you ever seen a FU axemen or FU Spearmen worshiping Ptah and Horus?!
Now, the soft counters. I hope you know that ulfsarks can build buildings. A FU ulfsark worshipping bragi has an attack of 15. With thor it's even more powerful. Ulfsarks are also very fast. They can outrun hoplites by a long shot. Now spearmens. With 1.1x vs cavalry, a katapelts can beat it. 70 Hp. Once a guy tried to rush with withe spearmens and axemen. I used my villie to defend under tower fire support.
So I say Ulfsark>Hoplite>Spearmen.Quote:
Conclusion: Hoplite > Ulfsark > Spearmen. From these tests, I'd say Greek is a great culture and shouldn't be underestmated.
Oh, and if the greeks are so good, why is only 4 out of the top 25 players greek? That's less than 1/5. You also have to think of different situations. What if it was a low food map? Really low food. Thor got no problem. Norse has dwarves. Eggyes don't need much food, mostly gold. If you are massing infantry, you would be at a distinct disadvantage. Yes, greeks in generaly have higher quality unit. That cost more, take more time to train, and are slower. And atlanteans. Those cheap SOAB with villie that cost wood. They'll own you too. If a noob looked at this post, he would think greek is easiest to play. I would feel really sorry for that poor guy.