Usually around 30-50% or my armies are bowmen or archers. They really give you an edge, if they are used properly.
The crossbow is an excellent weapon against nearly any unit. They are good for taking out knights and swordsmen. Their short range and slow refire rate makes them somewhat limited, however. Also, they are expensive to build. (10 wood and 6 iron) Only build these if the opponent has more knights than you. They fight better melee than archers, but still they aren't good in close range.
| Speed | Ranged Defense | Melee Attack | Melee Defense | Ranged Attack | Firing Rate |
| 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | slow |
Archers are AWESOME. The weapons are realtively cheap (13 wood, but wood is much easier to produce) and they have EXCELLENT range. They mow through peasents, macemen, and do reasonable damage to pikemen. They aren't extremely effective against knights and Swordsmen, but enough archers will kill anything. Don't let them fight hand-to-hand, or they will get cut down.
| Speed | Ranged Defense | Melee Attack | Melee Defense | Ranged Attack | Firing Rate |
| 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | Fast |
Your grunts. You can either have lots of these, and use archers for support, or you can have a handful to defend your archers with. Either way, you need them.
Peasents suck in battle, but they are free, and therefore are sometimes worth getting. If you need troops quickly to reinforce your army, you can get peasents. Also, they are effective in the beginning when you're strapped for cash. If you have the weapons and the cash, though, don't bother.
| Speed | Ranged Defense | Melee Attack | Melee Defense |
| 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Speed | Ranged Defense | Melee Attack | Melee Defense |
| 6 | 3 | 7 | 7 |
I don't really like pikemen. They have decent defense against archers, and have high defense in melee, but they always lag too far behind the rest of my guys. They do last quite a while, though. They may be good to protect your archers with, especially in castle defense.
It seems many people think Pikemen are useful. I think they are, on occasion. In attack, they are not very useful, especially in an offensive siege. In castle defense, they are useful because the whole point of a castle defense is to starve the opponent out, which is what the Pikemen essentially do. (What I mean by starving out is that you basically want to prevent the opponent from getting the flag. Since your archers always have an advantage due to the towers, if the grunts do their job and keep the enemy at bay, you will win because archers are MUCH more effective inside a castle.
Vote in the Pikemen Debate!
| Speed | Ranged Defense | Melee Attack | Melee Defense |
| 2 | 9 | 5 | 10 |
| Speed | Ranged Defense | Melee Attack | Melee Defense |
| 3 | 10 | 7 | 7 |
Knights are DA BOMB! They are the fastest unit in the game, and have the heaviest armor, and are the most powerful. The one drawback is that they are expensive as hell. If you can afford them, though, get these.
| Speed | Ranged Defense | Melee Attack | Melee Defense |
| 10 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
Catapaults are effective in taking down walls, but they take too long for my liking. However, against a moated castle (ie. a Royal Castle) you need catapults to knock down the wall while your men dig, and to get your battering ram inside.
Get these. Gates come crashing down when these go up, and your troops don't get hit. while the wall comes down. one major drawback is that they cannot smash through a Royal Castle's inner door. You will need to use a catapault to break down the side walls so a battering ram can get through.
These are good to have, but they aren't really necessary. A battering ram will also do the same thing, although the battering ram takes longer.
If you have anything to add to this, mail me at densoh@hotmail.com
Blake Gardner provided me with the unit data.
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