Samurai vs. Legions

[Mr. President]

I tend to get Samurai and Legions at around the same time. They're both cool early sword guy units, but with very different traits. How do you advise they be used?

Samurai are naturally the same speed as Slavers - very convenient for nabbing foreign labor. But Legions have a better defense rating.

[Immortal Wombat]

I use Samurai/Mounted Archer stacks for speed, and Legions for defense and look-outs

[jpww]

I hardly use Samurai and Legions. Although they are pleasing to the eye, I can't afford to spend that much production, plus they are relatively costly to maintain. Aside from that, I agree with IW

[TheBeagle]

Samurai are first-strike units. They are worthless unless you are going to attack with them. Never let somebody else attack your Samurai units first.

If you garrison a city with Samurai, use them pre-emptively. When an attacking stack appears within 2 movements, launch your Samurai upon them.

Samurai die really easily, if you let somebody attack them first. You will have wasted a lot of production and often more significantly, support.

Samurai are a special forces unit, so they are always ready for war even if your military readiness is down (of course, they cost more each turn to support).

I prefer Knights, because they move twice as fast as Samurai, attack better, defend equal to three times as many Samurai, and only cost 50% more. Their drawback is as a mounted unit, they can't generally go into Mountains.

I sometimes like the tactic of garrisoning Samurai in a city, and behind the city (if you maintain a "front" in times of conflict) keep a stack of phalanxes. I use the Samurai to pre-emptively strike invading stacks, and replenish the garrison with phalanxes.

As for Legions, just to be brief, they're a compromise. I don't build them if I have Samurai (IMO Jurisprudence is easier to get than Iron Working). In short, use Phalanxes for defense (they defend as well as any Legion), and use special forces for attack. This way, you only have to raise military readiness when you're truly at war, and expecting massive attacks. If you're engaged in modest peace time intervention you only build as many special force units as you require to actively defend your borders, break up enemy civ wonder development, and annihilate cities and patrols too close to you for comfort.

Der Beagle