Mercenary Kretan Archers

Although archery was not highly thought of as a military skill in Greece, Crete produced truly excellent archers who were able to sell their services to the highest bidder as mercenaries. Firing bronze-tipped arrows from their heavy self bows, Cretan archers tended to carry shields, indicative of some additional prowess in melee, which must’ve made them an even more enticing proposition for a general hiring mercenaries for campaign. Their finest hours came when Alexander the Great hired Cretans directly into his army to support its unbeatable phalanx. Commanded by Clearchus, 500 Cretans accompanied the Macedonian phalanx into battle at Granicus, off-setting the Persians' numerical superiority on the day and enabling Alexander’s subsequent victory. Whereas the Romans didn’t traditionally use archers in their forces, once they conquered Greece Cretan archers began to appear as auxiliary troops in their armies. Notably, they fought in Caesar’s campaign in Gaul against Vercingetorix, causing him to rally the best archers the tribes could provide to range against them.

Unit Name Mercenary Kretan Archers

Main Unit Key Pel_Mer_Kretan_Archers

Land Unit Key Mer_Pel_Kretan_Archers

Naval Unit Key pel_transport

Soldiers 120

Category Missile Infantry

Class Missile Infantry

Custom Battle Cost 600

Recruitment Cost 410

Upkeep Cost 300

Missile Damage 11

├ Missile Weapon rome_composite_bow_elite

├ Projectile arrow_composite

├ Missile Damage 10

├ Missile Ap Damage 1

└ Base Reload Time 12

Accuracy 5

Range 180

Reload 28

Shots Per Minute 7

Ammunition 15

Melee Attack 12

Weapon Damage 5

├ Melee Weapon rome_shortsword

├ Weapon Damage 5

├ Weapon Deadliness 0

├ Armour Piercing No

├ Bonus vs. Cavalry 0

├ Bonus vs. Elephants 0

└ Bonus vs Infantry 0

Charge Bonus 6

Melee Defence 30

├ Base Defence 14

├ Shield none

└ Shield Defence 16

Armour 10

├ Armour cloth

├ Armour Defence 10

└ Shield Armour 0

Health 35

├ Man Entity rome_infantry_very_light

├ Man Health 20

└ Bonus Hit Points 15

Base Morale 55

Abilities

No Ability

Attributes

• Improved Stamina
  This unit type has an improvement on the base stamina stat.
• Hide (scrub & forest)
  This unit can hide in scrub and forest until enemy units get too close.
• Hide (scrub & forest)
  This unit can hide in scrub and forest until enemy units get too close.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Very poor hull strength
• Very slow speed
• Weak ramming

• Long range
• Fast rate of fire
• Good damage but low armour penetration
• Very weak in melee
• Poor morale

Macedonian Wars Mercenaries Pool

Mercenaries Pool
No.	Pool	Province	Region	Initial Unit Count	Chance To Replenish	Max Replenish Per Turn	Max Count
1	pel_generic	Aigian	Khios Mytilene Oinoi Samos	0	0.15	1	4
2	pel_generic	Aitolia	Naupaktos Thermon	0	0.15	1	4
3	pel_generic	Ambrakia	Ambrakia Anaktorio Pronnoi	0	0.15	1	4
4	pel_generic	Amphipolis	Amphipolis Krinides	0	0.15	1	4
5	pel_generic	Argolis	Argos Korinthos Mantinea Melos	0	0.15	1	4
6	pel_generic	Attike	Athenai Laurion Naxos Paros	0	0.15	1	4
7	pel_generic	Boiotia	Delphi Lamia Opos Thebai	0	0.15	1	4
8	pel_generic	Dodekanisa	Karpathos Kos Lindos Rodos	0	0.15	1	4
9	pel_generic	Elis	Elis Olympia Patrai Zakynthos	0	0.15	1	4
10	pel_generic	Epeiros	Antigonia Dodona Elaea Korkyra	0	0.15	1	4
11	pel_generic	Euboia	Andros Kalkis Karystos Oreos	0	0.15	1	4
12	pel_generic	Hellespontos	Byzantion Kypsela Perinthos Sestos	0	0.15	1	4
13	pel_generic	Ionia	Ephesos Halikarnassos Knidos Miletos	0	0.15	1	4
14	pel_generic	Kalkidiki	Mende Olinthos Torone	0	0.15	1	4
15	pel_generic	Karia	Kibyra Kolossai Phaselis Xanthos	0	0.15	1	4
16	pel_generic	Krete	Gortyna Knossos Kydonia	0	0.15	1	4
17	pel_generic	Lakedaimon	Kythera Messenia Pylos Sparta	0	0.15	1	4
18	pel_generic	Lydia	Sardeis Smyrna	0	0.15	1	4
19	pel_generic	Makedonia	Pella Argos Orestiko Arnisa Dion	0	0.15	1	4
20	pel_generic	Mysia	Ilion Kyzikos Myrina Pergamon	0	0.15	1	4
21	pel_generic	Thessalia	Larisa Pharsalos Pherae	0	0.15	1	4
22	pel_generic	Thraike	Abdera Ainos Maroneia Thasos	0	0.15	1	4