Macedon Missile Ship

Missile Hepteres - Archers

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.

(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 Missile Hepteres - Archers

Main Unit Key Gre_Archers_Seven

Land Unit Key Gre_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 35

├ Missile Weapon rome_bow

├ Projectile arrow_normal

├ Missile Damage 31

├ Missile Ap Damage 4

└ Base Reload Time 12

Accuracy 5

Range 125

Reload 13

Shots Per Minute 6

Ammunition 15

Ship Health 1617

└ Ship greek_seven

Ship Speed 5

Melee Attack 8

Weapon Damage 24

├ Melee Weapon rome_shortsword

├ Melee Damage Base 20

├ Melee Damage Ap 4

├ Armour Piercing No

├ Bonus vs. Large 0

├ Bonus vs Elephants 0

└ Bonus vs Infantry 0

Charge Bonus 3

Melee Defence 12

├ Base Defence 12

├ Shield none

└ Shield Defence 0

Armour 10

├ Armour cloth

├ Armour Defence 10

└ Shield Armour 0

Health 45

├ Man Entity rome_infantry_very_light

├ Man Health 40

└ Bonus Hit Points 5

Base Morale 25

Abilities

• Row Hard 30
  Increases speed for 30 strokes.
  Ship speed

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

• Exceptional hull strength
• Very heavy crew
• Very slow speed
• Strong ramming
• Good boarding
• Very good missile combat

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

Requires Buildings
Lv. 0	Military Port (greek_port_military_4) Level 3

Faction Availability
Grand Campaign	Macedon Macedonian Nobles Macedonian Secessionists