Do you ever use Swordsmen?

[Yuufo]

Maybe I am missing something, but I simply can't see any advantage to build this unit!

If you want a melee unit, just build an Axeman. He wins against Sword. 10% attack vs city is ridiculous, compared to City Raider. And if you are too scared of Chariots for your Axes, just build Spears.

Oh, I forgot, Swords are more expensive than Axes and require an extra tech.

Your opinion?

[Will9]

Swordsmen are the best unit at attacking cities until Macemen. An axeman with city raider I has a city attack strength of 6, and Swordsmen with City Raider I have a city attack strength of 7.8. Also you should have a deverse army Swordsman to attack archers, Axemen to attack Swordsmen and Spearmen, Chariots to attack Axemen, Spearmen to attack chariots (maybe harsemen, but they rarly show up early in my games), and Archers to defend cities from all units except Swordsmen.

[Swiss Pauli]

Very infrequently. Maybe for taking out a barb city, otherwise axes and cats form the backbone of my army. Their vunerability to axes makes them a risky build (although the AI doesn't train enough axes).

[Jaybe]

Yes, but ...
their swords are short, they also throw javelins, and they form cohorts, manipules & legions.

Unfortunately, I mostly use them against barbarians. I rarely end up getting much use out of them vs. other civs until feudalism and they are being upgraded, and that's at marathon speed.

[BloodAngel518]

In my current game I have a Swordsman that has around 35 exp who is a Great General, along with an Immortal who has around 25 exp, basicaly took out the entire English Empire by themselves. (He didn't become a GG until right before razing their last city) I threw in a few extra Swordsmen, Immortals, and Axemen (They didn't have horses so no point in Spearmen)

[CerberusIV]

Very rarely. If I am planning a war against an AI I go for Construction and catapults to attack cities rather than building swordsmen. Occasionally I will build 2-3 swordsmen if I need to take a tough barb city pre-Construction but if they only have archers then CR axemen are usually enough unless the city is on a hill.

There are more UU's based on the swordsman than any other single unit (3 in Warlords). If the basic swordsman was any good there would be fewer UU's based on it.

[Addled Platypus]

SM are great for hunting unescorted setters or escorted by spearman

[MikeH]

Swordsmen are much better attacking archers in cities than axemen are and they also don't get slaughtered by chariots. I never used to build them but since Warlords came out (and I moved up to monarch) I've started throwing a few into my attacking mix along with axemen et al and have been a lot more successful.

[Saurus]

I sometimes build them.
If I plan to attack a barbarian city, then Swordmen are far superior to axemen.
I also use swordmen to a limited degree as "backup forces" witch I often then situate in the middle of two cities so that they can rush into any direction. (good I you do not have horses and don´t have the slightest clue of what the compostition of an invading force is going to be)

The base strenght of 6 mean they are fairly good defenders against all units, even against axemen. And if axemen are not present, they will mop up almost any early unit. Including the catapult witch is otherwise difficult to destroy if you have no access to horses.

[sparkyal]

For me it depends on my starting location. If I have neighbors just a little too close I go war early and use them.

I find them very helpful in raiding cities.

sparky

[CarnalCanaan]

Wow. I'm amazed at all the "not so much" comments!

Oftentimes my decision to be a warmonger or not is predicated on the presence of iron. I've found that Swordmen with plenty of City Raider promotions (often III) are fanastic at killing the defending Archers and even Longbowmen. I use Chariots, Spearmen and Axemen to cover the field. Often, the Archers of the city are the first to defend, rather than the Axemen.

Probably, this strategy wouldn't work against a human opponent.

[LordShiva]

Swordsmen

[samspock]

They fill the hole before macemen. If I plan on going to war when they are the only choice, I make a bunch. Otherwise I wait until macemen. If all the ai has is archers then they work quite well.

[Dis]

city busters (as the AI builds archers). if for some reason they don't have archers, then don't build swordsmen.

[gdgrimm]

OK. Sometimes I use Swordsman, but I still voted "no" since it's really rather rare.

You can usually get an Axemen rush in before cultural borders get too high. And their CR promotions will be enough to handle the higher cultural protection of a capital.

Waiting for Swordsmen usually means higher cultural defenses (about +20%) of enemy cities, which makes up for the Swordsman being 6 rather than the Axemen 5 (which is also +20%).

So while on paper Swordsman appear better at taking cities, when it comes to the actual gameplay, the wait means more cultural defense of the city you want to take, and you end up with the Swordsman really not being much better at all (well, the 10% helps a little).

Of course, you can use cats to remove the cultural defense, which would make the swordsman significantly better again. But at that point, it's logistically easier to just suicide one cat after the defenses fall, which brings the defenders back down to where an Axemen can mop them up. You just build Cats and Axes, rather than Cats, Swordsmen, and Axes (you still have to protect against Axe counterattacks).