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HomeHome / Total War: Rome II / Cimmeria / Units / Missile Hepteres - Cimmerian Heavy Archers
Missile Hepteres - Cimmerian Heavy Archers CimmeriaCimmeria Missile Ship

Missile Hepteres - Cimmerian Heavy Archers

These massive warships put iron into their crews' hearts, and strike fear into the enemy's.

Adopt the nomad's ways if you wish to defeat him.

An arms race in warship size developed between the various nations around the Mediterranean. Size, in terms of the number of rowers, ships length and bulk and above all majesty of the vessel became as much a tool of statecraft as of warfare. A people who could afford such ships were almost certainly rich enough to withstand the strains of any war. A 'four' or quadreme was still a handy warship, able to manoeuvre in battle. The same could not be said of some of the large polyremes, a word meaning many oars. Practical archaeology shows that too many banks of oars simply don't work, so polyreme probably referred to the number of rowers: an octeres is likely to have had some eight rowers per bank of three oars, arranged in three, three, and two to an oar going up from the waterline. King Demetius of Macedon led his fleet at the battle of Salamis in 306BC from the deck of a hepteres or 'seven', but his ambitions didn't stop there. Neither did those of other kingdoms, and later lumbering warships including 'elevens', 'thirteens' and larger. As bigger ships to carry more rowers such vessels could also carry big marine contingents, arrow towers and an array of useful artillery.

(Cimmerian Heavy 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.

Missile Hepteres - Cimmerian Heavy Archers

Unit Name

Missile Hepteres - Cimmerian Heavy Archers

Main Unit Key

Gre_Cimmerian_Archers_Seven

Land Unit Key

Gre_Cimmerian_Heavy_Archers

Naval Unit Key

greek_seven

Soldiers

180

Category

Heavy Ship

Class

Missile Ship

Custom Battle Cost

1130

Recruitment Cost

1130

Upkeep Cost

226

Missile Damage

40

├ Missile Weapon

rome_composite_bow

├ Projectile

arrow_composite

├ Missile Damage

36

├ Missile Ap Damage

4

└ Base Reload Time

12

Accuracy

5

Range

150

Reload

28

Shots Per Minute

7

Ammunition

15

Ship Health

1617

└ Ship

greek_seven

Ship Speed

5

Melee Attack

16

Weapon Damage

20

├ Melee Weapon

rome_spear_anti_cav

├ Melee Damage Base

15

├ Melee Damage Ap

5

├ Armour Piercing

No

├ Bonus vs. Large

30

├ Bonus vs Elephants

30

└ Bonus vs Infantry

0

Charge Bonus

8

Melee Defence

18

├ Base Defence

18

├ Shield

none

└ Shield Defence

0

Armour

35

├ Armour

spolas

├ Armour Defence

35

└ Shield Armour

0

Health

55

├ Man Entity

rome_infantry_light

├ Man Health

40

└ Bonus Hit Points

15

Base Morale

55

Abilities

Missile Hepteres
  • Row Hard 30
    Increases speed for 30 strokes.
    Ship speed
Cimmerian Heavy Archers
  • Precision Shot
    Improved missile weapon damage for an extended period.
    Missile damage
    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

Missile Hepteres
  • Exceptional hull strength
  • Very heavy crew
  • Very slow speed
  • Strong ramming
  • Good boarding
  • Very good missile combat
Cimmerian Heavy Archers
  • Long range
  • Fast rate of fire
  • Good damage but low armour penetration
  • Very weak in melee
  • Poor morale
Requires Buildings
Missile Hepteres - Cimmerian Heavy Archers Lv. 0 Military Port
Military Port
(greek_port_military_4)
Level 3
Faction Availability
Grand Campaign