Which Units do you favor for Ancient Era Conquest?

[Artifex]

Which Units do you favor for Ancient Era Conquest? (Ofcourse when not playing a civ with a dominating ancient era UU where the choice is obvious. Namely Rome, Iroquois, Persia, etc.)

[DrFell]

I prefer horsemen, but swordsmen will do too if I have no horses. Horsemen from my experience tend to suffer fewer casualties overall assuming they're veteran.

There are some exceptions to the rule though. If you're up against the Zulus of course the choice is obvious, and in mountainous terrain swordsmen may have some advantage due to their resistance to counterattacks.

[YC4B4U]

A bit of both and some others to fill in the gaps...

Swords for pounding
Horses for flexibility (in case something unexpected happens); and
Warriors / Spearman to garrison new cities or protect the supply line.

[Jon Shafer]

It's all about the Immortals my friend, it's all about the Immortals.

[vondrack]

I usually employ more of swordsmen, with horsemen used mostly to finish wounded enemy units off. And to be exact, several spearmen usually take part in my offensives, protecting the attacking units from counterattacks.

[The Pioneer]

I have never tried an ancient era conquest. I usually take my time developing my cities and I peacefully expand as much as possible, I only fight a war when I have to but then I have a good reason to wipe them out .

[Theseus]

You left out Warriors!!

[Arrian]

@ Theseus. The "inner bastard" talking again?

I used to be an all-horsemen guy. Then I started mixing in some swordsmen. I voted horse/sword mix. But lately I've also been using warriors and archers as well.

Basically, if I see that I have a military advantage, I'll probably use it.

-Arrian

[Harovan]

I won't vote in your poll, that would be wrong, because I use all of them. I begin with waves of spearman protected archers and after I have the appropriate advance and hooked up resources, I mix in Horsemen and Swordsmen. It depends on the terrain, which I prefer of those. If mountains, forest or jungle, I prefer swordsmen, if open terrain like grassland, plains, tundra or desert, it's horsemen.

[Andemagne]

Swordmen to have and Hoplites to hold.

[Lord Merciless]

If I have neighbors nearby, I get 4 cities built and start Archer rush. If play Aztecs, I will rush with Jaguar Warriors. If I play Babylonians, then with Bowman.

Usually the Archer rush will beat up one neighbor and may generate a leader. As next I would build an Army of Swordsman and screw more AI civs over.

In late Ancient and early Feudal, the Swordsman/Horseman combo rush is definitely the best. If you are playing any of the following Civs, this combo has even greater potentials:
Romans(Legionary),
Persians(Immortals),
Iroquois(Mounted Warrior),
Chinese(Horsemen -> Rider upgrade),
Japanese(Horsemen -> Samurai upgrade).

[wervdon]

I almost always go pure swordsman followed up by spearman to hold the cities (the assault is all swordsman though)

If I lack iron ill go horseman or archer though until I take my iron


Horseman does have one advantage in that they are in the upgrade line to calvary, and thats ussually when I take my continent.


Anyways its ussually:
archers if needed to take resources (iron & horses)
swordsman to take out 1 or 2 ai neihbors
calvary backed with cannons to finish my continent
tanks backed by aircraft to take the rest.

If I lack saltpeter for calvary and cannons, I trade for it more often than not.

Anyways, thats more than you asked, but its more or less my whole game plan if Im going conquest and not space victory, and even if I am going space its ussually how I go up until the tank part anyways :P

[Cookie Monster]

Just my 2 cents:


I usually strive for Sir Ralph's archer rush strategy but voted for swordsmen. More often than not I am unable to set up the archer rush in time before discovering iron.

[foo12]

Ancient Era Conquest? Meh. Ancient Era Attrition? Hoplites, all the way.

[N. Machiavelli]

Legions form the back-bone of my offensive armies until the middle-ages. A large group of them, a couple horsemen, and a few catapults deployed properly will destroy armies several times their number and have a great chance at cnquering anything even the Diety-AI can build.