Epirus Missile Ship

Tower Penteres - Archers

The 'five', called a quinquereme in Latin and a penteres in Greek, was a ship first used by the Syracusans against the Carthaginians sometime around 398BC. Like other polyremes, a term meaning many-oared, the chances were that it did not have five banks of oars but that the word 'oar' was used to mean 'rower'. In such a case, the arrangement of rowers would be two-two-one going up from the waterline. It makes sense to keep as much weight as possible low in the vessel to help its stability; a high centre of gravity makes any ship liable to capsize if struck from the side. The quinquereme, then, would be a formidable vessel both in terms of appearance and combat value. With a large fighting contingent aboard and plenty of deck space, this heavy vessel could cope with most enemies and threats.

(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 Tower Penteres - Archers

Main Unit Key Gre_Archers_Five_Lft_Bow

Land Unit Key Gre_Archers

Naval Unit Key greek_lft_five

Soldiers 140

Category Medium Ship

Class Missile Ship

Custom Battle Cost 950

Recruitment Cost 950

Upkeep Cost 190

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 1020

└ Ship greek_five

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 20
  Increases speed for 20 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

• Good hull strength
• Medium crew
• Average speed
• Average ramming
• Average 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 Wharf (greek_port_military_2) Level 1 Drydock (greek_port_military_3) Level 2 Military Port (greek_port_military_4) Level 3

Faction Availability
Grand Campaign	Athens Athenian Boule Athenian Secessionists Syracuse Syracusan Nobles Syracusan Secessionists Epirus Epirean Nobles Epirean Secessionists Knossos Rhodos Trapezos Macedon Macedonian Nobles Macedonian Secessionists Cyprus Sardes
Samnite Wars	Greek Cities (Samnite Wars)
Hannibal at the Gates	Syracuse (Hannibal at the Gates) Syracusan Nobles (Hannibal at the Gates) Syracusan Secessionists (Hannibal at the Gates) Emporion (Hannibal at the Gates)
Imperator Augustus	Judea (Imperator Augustus)