Home / Total War: Rome II / Mercenaries / Mercenary Cretan Archers

Mercenary Cretan Archers

Give a Cretan a bow, and he is worth his weight in silver.

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

Main Unit Key

inv_mercenary_cretan_archers

Land Unit Key

inv_mercenary_cretan_archers

Naval Unit Key

pel_transport

Soldiers

120

Abilities

Mercenary Cretan 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

Transport

Very poor hull strength
Very slow speed
Weak ramming

Mercenary Cretan Archers

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

Faction Mercenaries Pool

Mercenaries Pool
No.	Pool	Faction	Initial Unit Count	Chance To Replenish	Max Replenish Per Turn	Max Count
1	inv_faction_pool_syracuse	Syracuse (Rise of the Republic)	0	0.05	1	3

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