Mercenary Velites

Recruited from amongst Rome's poor and those too young to fight as hastati, the velites were the Roman army’s light infantry. They wore wolf skin head-dresses which are thought to have some totemic significance, although they were also worn to induce fear in their enemies. At the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, when Scipio Africanus confronted the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, it was the velites who helped fend off his initial elephant charge, utilising their light armour and weapons to move quickly around them. They harassed the elephants to a frenzy while the cavalry blew horns to disorientate the beasts. Hannibal had hoped to break the Roman lines with his elephants; instead, many of the frightened beasts turned on the Carthaginians. Those elephants who didn’t crash through their own lines were caught in a cleverly orchestrated manoeuvre, whereby the Romans carefully channelled them through gaps made in the cohorts' formation.

Unit Name Mercenary Velites

Main Unit Key inv_mercenary_velites

Land Unit Key inv_mercenary_velites

Naval Unit Key pel_transport

Soldiers 120

Category Missile Infantry

Class Missile Infantry

Custom Battle Cost 420

Recruitment Cost 420

Upkeep Cost 315

Missile Damage 32

├ Missile Weapon rome_javelin

├ Projectile javelin_normal

├ Missile Damage 20

├ Missile Ap Damage 12

└ Base Reload Time 10

Accuracy 5

Range 80

Reload 13

Shots Per Minute 7

Ammunition 7

Melee Attack 10

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 4

Melee Defence 45

├ Base Defence 15

├ Shield round

└ Shield Defence 30

Armour 40

├ Armour cloth

├ Armour Defence 10

└ Shield Armour 30

Health 50

├ Man Entity rome_infantry_light_fast

├ Man Health 40

└ Bonus Hit Points 10

Base Morale 30

Abilities

No Ability

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

• Short range
• Fast rate of fire
• Very good damage and armour penetration
• Very weak in melee
• Very poor morale

Rise of the Republic Mercenaries Pool