menu
HomeHome / Radious Total War Mod / Pontus / Units / Tower Hexeres - Pontic Swordsmen
Tower Hexeres - Pontic Swordsmen PontusPontus Melee Ship

Tower Hexeres - Pontic Swordsmen

From a shipboard tower, all enemies become little targets to be potted at will.

A volley of javelins announces these men; their swords eloquently make a general's point.

As centuries passed, naval tactics and needs changed across the Mediterranean. There was a move towards larger ships, partly as an expression of national or dynastic power: the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt were particularly fond of large ships to show their wealth and influence in a physical way. These 'polyremes', a term meaning many oared, were not suitable for ramming work in battle. In practice many of them had no more oars than smaller ships; what they had were more rowers per oar than smaller ships. A Roman hexareme or Greek hexeres would have a couple of banks of oars with three men per oar, and appear to be an over-sized version of a smaller ship. Even so, thanks to being tremendously heavy and strongly constructed, they were slow moving, and hardly capable of the quick turns needed to take advantage of enemy mistakes. Instead the large ships made use of their wide decks and plentiful carrying capacities and became fighting platforms for infantry and artillery. Boarding or long-range bombardment were the methods to be used to defeat the enemy; naval warfare had come full circle in terms of fighting methods, even if ships had grown significantly.

(Pontic Swordsmen)
Employing Celtic shortswords or the xiphos, with its very similar blade-shape, these heavily-armoured elite swordsmen acted as frontline and shock infantry in Pontic armies. Garbed in scale armour and carrying thureos shields, they were equipped with javelins in addition to their swords. When charging or receiving a charge, they would throw their javelins at close range, draw their swords and attack before their enemy had chance to recover. This has led to them being referred to as imitation legionaries and the suggestion that they copied the fighting style of the Roman Legions. Over the course of the three Mithridatic Wars, waged between Pontus and Rome from 88-63BC, there was certainly time to recruit and reorganise the Pontic army on the Roman model. However, such infantry may equally have developed under the influence of the Celtic Galatian settlers or the Hellenic thorakitai, a more heavily armoured form of thureophoroi. Whatever the case, Pontic swordsmen were well disciplined and equipped, and highly effective in battle.

Tower Hexeres - Pontic Swordsmen

Unit Name

Tower Hexeres - Pontic Swordsmen

Main Unit Key

Eas_Pontic_Six_Lft_Aft

Land Unit Key

Eas_Pontic_Sword

Naval Unit Key

persian_lft_six

Soldiers

160

Category

Heavy Ship

Class

Melee Ship

Custom Battle Cost

1270

Recruitment Cost

1270

Upkeep Cost

130

Missile Damage

34

├ Missile Weapon

rome_javelin_precursor

├ Projectile

javelin_prec

├ Missile Damage

19

├ Missile Ap Damage

15

└ Base Reload Time

40

Accuracy

5

Range

40

Reload

0

Shots Per Minute

2

Ammunition

2

Ship Health

1281

└ Ship

persian_six

Ship Speed

4

Melee Attack

30

Weapon Damage

38

├ Melee Weapon

rome_celtic_hellenic_sword_elite

├ Melee Damage Base

33

├ Melee Damage Ap

5

├ Armour Piercing

No

├ Bonus vs. Large

0

├ Bonus vs Elephants

0

└ Bonus vs Infantry

7

Charge Bonus

16

Melee Defence

72

├ Base Defence

37

├ Shield

thureos

└ Shield Defence

35

Armour

92

├ Armour

scale

├ Armour Defence

57

└ Shield Armour

35

Health

65

├ Man Entity

rome_infantry_heavy_fast

├ Man Health

55

└ Bonus Hit Points

10

Base Morale

50

Abilities

Tower Hexeres
  • Row Hard 30
    Increases speed for 30 strokes.
    Ship speed
Pontic Swordsmen
  • Shieldwall
    The unit moves into a close formation and raises shields.
    Armour strength, bracing, melee defence, shield strength
    Limited speed
  • Use the Whip
    Improved attack and fatigue resistance for a short time.
    Melee attack, weapon damage, fatigue resistance
    Exertion: fatigue

Attributes

  • Disciplined
    This unit does not suffer a morale penalty when the general dies. It can also rally after routing more often.
  • Hide (forest)
    This unit can hide in forests until enemy units get too close.
  • Resistant to Heat
    This unit tires less quickly in the desert.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Tower Hexeres
  • Very good hull strength
  • Heavy crew
  • Slow speed
  • Strong ramming
  • Very good boarding
  • Poor missile combat
Pontic Swordsmen
  • Good attack
  • Average defence
  • Average damage but low armour penetration
  • Normal morale
Requires Buildings
Tower Hexeres - Pontic Swordsmen Lv. 0 Drydock
Drydock
(greek_port_military_3)
Level 2
Military Port
Military Port
(greek_port_military_4)
Level 3
Faction Availability
Grand Campaign
Imperator Augustus