Sparta Missile Infantry

Spartan 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 Spartan Archers

Main Unit Key Gre_Spartan_Archers

Land Unit Key Gre_Spartan_Archers

Naval Unit Key greek_transport

Soldiers 120

Category Missile Infantry

Class Missile Infantry

Custom Battle Cost 580

Recruitment Cost 580

Upkeep Cost 85

Missile Damage 35

├ Missile Weapon rome_recurve_bow

├ Projectile arrow_recurve

├ Missile Damage 29

├ Missile Ap Damage 6

└ Base Reload Time 11

Accuracy 7

Range 145

Reload 14

Shots Per Minute 6

Ammunition 30

Melee Attack 16

Weapon Damage 36

├ Melee Weapon rome_celtic_hellenic_sword

├ Melee Damage Base 32

├ Melee Damage Ap 4

├ Armour Piercing No

├ Bonus vs. Large 0

├ Bonus vs Elephants 0

└ Bonus vs Infantry 5

Charge Bonus 15

Melee Defence 25

├ Base Defence 25

├ Shield none

└ Shield Defence 0

Armour 27

├ Armour cloth

├ Armour Defence 27

└ Shield Armour 0

Health 55

├ Man Entity rome_infantry_very_light_fast

├ Man Health 45

└ Bonus Hit Points 10

Base Morale 55

Abilities

• Quick Reload
  Improved reloading for an extended time.
  Shots per minute
  Exertion: fatigue
• Rapid Advance
  Improved unit movement speed over an extended period.
  Speed, acceleration, charge speed
  Exertion: fatigue

Attributes

• Resistant to Fatigue
  Fatigue has less of an effect on this unit.
• 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
• Average rate of fire
• Good damage but low armour penetration
• Very weak in melee
• Very poor morale

Requires Buildings
Lv. 0	Periokos Camp (greek_military_light_2) Level 1 Skirmisher Camp (greek_military_light_3) Level 2
Lv. 1	Mercenary Camp (greek_military_light_4) Level 3

Faction Availability
Grand Campaign	Spartan Rebels Sparta Spartan Gerousia
Imperator Augustus	Spartan Rebels (Imperator Augustus)