Welcome to my guide for the Medieval 2: Total War series of games! This guide covers every unit in Medieval 2: Total War. It explains how to use them, tactics for using each class of unit and how to defeat them. This guide was last updated on 1/10/2024. I am in the process of editing all my unit guides for Gamefaqs. Britannia will be up soon after this one and the other ones will be uploaded over the coming months. Enjoy and please email any feedback or fixes!

CA: Creative Assembly, the development team that created the Total War series.

Counter Fire: Fire directed at missile units by a missile unit, as most missile units themselves have poor armour and are easy prey for missiles.

Flank: The sides of a unit. Charging into the flank is much, much more effective than charging directly into the front. It is also a verb meaning to flank a unit; charging into their side

Focus fire: Targeting all missiles at a particular unit, or group of units to weaken them

HA: Horse Archers

Line Infantry: This is a generic term for any infantry than can take and hold the enemy and fight them in melee, thus forming your battle line. It also means troops you’ll use to form the bulk of your army and thus your line. Spearmen and swordsmen are line infantry. Line infantry are usually well armed and armored as they will be in the middle of the fighting. They will often take the most casualties as well.

TW: M2: Total War: Medieval 2

MTW: Medieval: Total War, the second game in the series. Medieval 2 is a remake of this game.

RTW: Rome: Total War, the previous game in the series

Skirmish: A unit firing missiles and staying out of melee. Skirmish mode, which all missile units have makes them run back to avoid melee if the enemy gets close. Units with javelins are usually called skirmishers.
Differences between RTW and Medieval 2

Despite the obvious changes in eras from Roman times to medieval times, RTW and Medieval 2 share the same engine, as Medieval 2’s engine is a heavily modified Rome one. Thus there are some leftovers from Rome, but there are things that are noticeably different, even if the base mechanics are similar.

Battle speed: The most immediately noticeable thing in Medieval 2’s battles is that they are much slower. Units move much more slowly than RTW and tire faster. Melee is slower and because units have much higher morale it takes a while for the winner to be decided. Individual soldiers block and parry a lot in Medieval 2, meaning it takes longer for a solider to kill his enemy and soldiers stagger and are realistically stunned from hits they failed to block which didn’t kill them, slowing melee down. Cavalry is also a lot slower and their charge is toned down this time around

Impetuous trait: Some units in Medieval 2 are impetuous. This means they generally have good morale and the death of a general doesn’t affect their morale as much. Only elite or religious troops have the impetuous trait with a few exceptions. You can rely on these units. The trait can make them charge without orders however. If you are moving them past a melee, say to flank, sometimes you’ll see them just charge into the melee when you didn’t tell them to. This is caused by the impetuous trait.

Disciplined: Some units, usually tough, elite ones are Disciplined. This means they resist morale shocks; like the general dying or an attack in their rear, losing less morale when these events occur and are therefore much more stable units. Disciplined troops will take a lot more to rout than normal ones and are very good units to have.

Death animations: In Medieval 2 a unit’s solider count goes down after the dying man has finished his death animation. Until then the causality doesn’t affect morale. This is different to Rome: Total War, where as soon as a man died (before he even hit the ground) he was considered dead. This means that units may take a second or two more to rout or otherwise react to something.

Morale: In Medieval 2 units take much longer to rout. Elite units have very high morale and the last ten or so men in a unit will sometimes fight to the death. Even weak units like Spear Militia have good morale and wont rout until half the unit is dead, if they are just in a normal melee. Even units like Peasant Archers have quite good morale compared to RTW. Situations like being flanked and outnumbered and shot by gunpowder will still greatly affect a unit’s morale, but causalities and losing a melee affect it much less.

More effective fodder: Because of the generally higher morale, kills inflicted by missiles (besides fire or gunpowder) have little effect on morale if the unit isn’t in melee. A unit of Spear Militia being killed by arrows will stand their ground as long as the archers stay back until about 20 guys are left, meaning the enemy will have used up plenty of arrows. Using cheap units as fodder is much more effective than in RTW. This is rendered mostly ineffective by gunpowder however, as being hit by gunpowder applies a huge morale penalty so much that units will rout very easily from gunpowder and causalities alone. Will be enough to rout the unit. Flaming missiles also damage morale.


Combat Animations

A large change in Medieval 2 is the use of proper combat animations during melee. A solider must hit his enemy with a sword swing or whatever to actually stagger or kill him. There are also new animations for soldiers getting hit but not killed, like staggering or stumbling. While these animations are happening, a soldier cannot block.

The upshot of this is that soldiers that are seriously outnumbered will spend a lot of time getting hit and staggered, due to individual soldiers being targeted by multiple incoming attacks, making it harder for them to hit back against the enemies. A unit of Town Militia getting attacked by twice the number of Peasants will take a while to kill them, as they will be getting hit so often and staggered, unless the men block a hit. Hits that are blocked sometimes cause the blocker to counter attack with a swing that often kills the attacker. While the militia are attacking they also cannot block, so while they are busy hitting somebody, they may be hit and killed themselves.

To take advantage of this, you should move your melee units in huge mobs or send in weaker units along with your stronger ones. If you send in say peasants and knights the peasants will attack and stagger enemies, giving the knights a chance to finish them off without risk and the enemies will attack the peasants and leave themselves open to attack from your individual knights. With massed melee troops, like Highlander Axemen you can hit so often the enemy won’t be able to do much before dying if you have enough. This is an important tactic to grasp in Medieval 2 and a big change from RTW.

Force melee: If you are using a unit with missiles, like archers or javelinmen, holding alt and right clicking on an enemy unit will force them to charge straight into melee. This is useful for getting archers to stop skirmishing if they have a better chance in melee, or getting horse archers to charge foot archers.

Ready status: If a unit is stationary and an enemy comes close enough, you’ll see an animation where the stationary unit will prepare. They might raise their weapons and shields or skirmishers will raise their javelins, ready to throw them, if they are not on fire at will. The unit’s state in its tooltip will change from “Idle” to “Ready” when this happens. In this state, units resist charges better and you should always try to have your troops stationary if they are going to receive a charge.

Unit Ranges: Archers: 120 Horse Archers: 120 Crossbows: 120 Javelins:: (foot and mounted) 55 Naffatun: 40 Bombard: 325 Grand Bombard: 375 Ribault: 150 Culverin: 425 Mortar: 300 Cannon: 380 Serpentine: 450 Basilisk: 450 Ballista: 180 Catapult: 200 Trebuchet: 280

Unit Ammunition: Archers: 30 Crossbows: 30 Javelins: 8 Naffatun: 5 Bombard: 30 Serpentine: 36 Elephant cannon: 20 Basilisk: 30 Ribault: 108 Culverin: 30 Cannon: 30 Catapult: 30 Trebuchet: 30 Ballista: 50


Casualties: Losses have a lower effect on morale than losing a melee. If a unit has taken a lot of casualties, but starts winning a melee they will often stay and fight. This has far less of an effect on impetuous units, like knights.

Flank attack: Getting attacked in the flank will cause quite a lot of casualties, so this can rout most non elite units if they are already in a melee.

Rear attack: Getting hit in the rear will cause a truckload of casualties and, coupled with the penalty for the rear attack will rout just about anything very quickly.

General/Captain death: The General dying is how many a battle will end and become a slaughterfest, though the higher morale in Medieval 2 causes units to hold much more often than in RTW. The General’s death has a huge effect on morale at first, often causing a mass rout; the effect is largest close to where the general died and radiates out, losing intensity. The penalty gradually lessens, until it affects units to a much lesser degree, if they haven’t routed off the field yet that is. This will be listed as “general recently died” to “General dead” as it fades.

Routing friends: If a unit can see friendly units routing, they will take a morale drop.

Gunpowder weapons: Gunpowder has to cause casualties in the unit for it to affect morale, but it has a very high effect: a few gunpowder hits will rout even the steadiest units like knights. Its morale crushing effect is one of gunpowder’s biggest advantages.


Proximity to General: Units close to your general receive a morale bonus, depending on how good a general he is and what traits he has. This is visible when you mouse over units close to the general: the tooltip will say “Spirits lifted by the general’s encouragements”. Thus it is good to keep the general close behind fighting units, especially when using low morale troops, or fighting fear inducing enemies.

Winning a melee: Being on the winning side of an ongoing melee will encourage your troops to keep fighting. Elite units, like knights don’t seem to care if they are losing a melee or not. It barely affects their morale. That’s knightly arrogance for you.

Routing enemies: If a unit can see routing enemy units they get a morale bonus.

General’s Rally: The general’s Rally special ability greatly raises nearby unit morale for about 30 seconds and can put units from wavering to steady.


Spread out men! We might be able to live longer that way!

A unit in loose formation spreads out into a looser formation, with space between each solider. This helps the unit resist missiles, as the space in the formation means there is a chance missiles may harmlessly hit the ground between men, instead of hitting one of your soldiers. The formation doesn’t actually have any hard coded effects, like raising defence or the like; it simply works on a physical level by reducing the chance a missile will hit one of your soldiers. The formation is useless in melee however, as men tend get into melee slower and when the unit charges there are less people impacting with the initial killing force of the charge. The unit is also very vulnerable to cavalry charges, as the less rigid formation lacks weight to resist the charge and stop it, like a solid wall of men can and cavalry can ride right into their ranks and flank individual soldiers. Only use this formation when you’re under fire. Loose formation is also good for units serving as arrow fodder to allow them to survive just that little bit longer. It comes in handy also for light cavalry trying to catch horse archers, as they can cover more area in this formation and it makes it easier to catch the horse archers and force them to commit to melee.

Ashes, ashes, they all fall down!

This formation is a lot like the Cantabrian Circle from RTW. Just like that formation the cavalry ride around in a small circle in front of the enemy, launching their missiles. The constant movement makes them hard to hit with incoming missiles and enables them to skirmish back quickly as they are already moving. While the chief users of this formation are horse archers, javelin cavalry are very effective in this formation. In Medieval 2 javelins pierce armour and with the formation’s quick skirmishing and constant fire they can decimate heavy infantry and avoid incoming archer fire better. This is especially effective against two handed weapon units, as their lack of a shield makes them easy to hit.

Death has never been so pretty.

Fire arrows are used by all shortbow and longbow archers. Crossbowmen do not have this ability, nor do Horse Archers (they have Circle and Shoot, crossbows have none). Fire arrows can set fire to siege equipment and lower morale of units hit by them, but the effect is hard to notice unless their morale has already been lowered by other factors. Fire arrows cannot actually be aimed at siege weapons themselves, so just shoot at the crew and your arrows should hit the siege weapons as well. A siege weapon hit by a fire arrow has a chance to be set on fire, making it unusable by its crew and destroying it when its damage reaches 100%. Fire arrows fire much more slowly than normal arrows. With Peasant Archers for example normal arrows take about 5 seconds to fire, from the time the archer starts nocking the arrow. Fire arrows take 15 seconds, three times as long. If you are trying to kill men use normal arrows, as you can fire more of them in less time. If you are trying to get a unit to rout use fire arrows.

When spearwall works it can be effective…unfortunately, it doesn’t often.

The spearwall is a formation used by pikemen and some polearms. It causes the unit to tighten up its formation so men are shoulder to shoulder and the first three ranks to extend their polearms forward, creating a wall of pointy death. This is meant to be effective against cavalry and also work as a wall against infantry, much like a phalanx. Unfortunately it is buggy and often when an enemy touches the pikewall the pikemen will switch to their swords, ruining your defense against cavalry and making themselves very vulnerable. Polearms/pikemen do not have shields so they often die quite quickly in melee. When the spearwall works though, it will stop cavalry and their charge momentum dead, killing many of them and preventing them from attacking since the pikes keep the cavalry out of melee range

When using a spearwall if you use right click+drag to make a formation with multiple units selected, you will notice there are gaps between your units. This makes it easy for enemies to sneak in though the pikewall and attack the pikemen in melee. It is more effective to drag each unit’s formation out making sure they touch with no gaps. This will form a solid wall of pikes with nowhere for enemies to get in, until the unit suffers bugs, or enough men die to weaken the wall.

If you want to make your charge completely impotent, wedge is for you!

A wedge is a narrow triangle formation that can be formed by heavy cavalry. The leader of the unit is placed on the point of the triangle, so he will be first into the enemy. This is not a good idea with captain led units, as the captain will be first into the enemy and at risk of being killed. A wedge formation is meant to increase a unit’s ability to charge, but it doesn’t matter, because with a wedge only a few men hit with their charge bonus and the men at the back are wasted. Less men get into the initial killing phase of the charge and so less enemy die on the charge. It also results in the men at the front of the wedge being isolated from the rest of the unit and usually killed. The men at the back also take a while to get into melee, because of the depth of the formation, so the unit can’t focus its attacks properly, fighting very ineffectively. Given all this, it is not worth using wedge at all, just stick to standard formation.

Archers: 120 Crossbows: 120 Javelins: (foot and mounted) 55 Bombard: 325 Grand Bombard: 375 Ribault: 150 Culverin: 425 Mortar: 300 Cannon: 380 Serpentine: 450 Basilisk: 450 Ballista: 180 Catapult: 200 Trebuchet: 280


Archers: 30 Crossbows: 30 Javelins: 8 Naffatun: 5 Bombard: 30 Serpentine: 36 Elephant Cannon: 20 Basilisk: 30 Ribault: 108 Culverin: 30 Cannon: 30 Catapult: 30 Trebuchet: 30 Ballista: 50


Casualties: Losses have a lower effect on morale than losing a melee. If a unit has taken a lot of casualties, but starts winning a melee they will often stay and fight. This has far less of an effect on impetuous units, like knights.

Flank attack: Getting attacked in the flank will cause quite a lot of casualties, so this can rout most non elite units if they are already in a melee.

Rear attack: Getting hit in the rear will cause a truckload of casualties and, coupled with the penalty for the rear attack will rout just about anything very quickly.

General/Captain death: The General dying is how many a battle will end and become a slaughterfest, though the higher morale in Medieval 2 causes units to hold much more often than in RTW. The General’s death has a huge effect on morale at first, often causing a mass rout; the effect is largest close to where the general died and radiates out, losing intensity. The penalty gradually lessens, until it affects units to a much lesser degree, if they haven’t routed off the field yet that is. This will Be listed as “general recently died” to “General dead” as it fades.

Routing friends: If a unit can see friendly units routing, they will take a morale drop.

Gunpowder weapons: Gunpowder has to cause casualties in the unit for it to affect morale, but it has a very high effect: a few gunpowder hits will rout even the steadiest units like knights. Its morale crushing effect is one of gunpowder’s biggest advantages.


Proximity to General: Units close to your general receive a morale bonus, depending on how good a general he is and what traits he has. This is visible when you mouse over units close to the general: the tooltip will say “Spirits lifted by the general’s encouragements”. Thus it is good to keep the general close behind fighting units, especially when using low morale troops, or fighting fear inducing enemies.

Winning a melee: Being on the winning side of an ongoing melee will encourage your troops to keep fighting. Elite units, like knights don’t seem to care if they are losing a melee or not. It barely affects their morale. That’s knightly arrogance for you.

Routing enemies: If a unit can see routing enemy units they get a morale bonus.

General’s Rally: The general’s Rally special ability greatly raises nearby unit morale for about 30 seconds and can put units from wavering to steady.


1.0: First version of this guide as part of my project to improve my old guides and put them on GameFaqs for the masses! Many fixes and wording changes since the last version. I may come back soon and add higher res images as the old images are a little blurry.

1.0.1: 7th April 2025: Minor fixes. Posted guide to Steam, necessitating formatting changes.

1.0.2: 18 June 2025 Added pictures and the missing unit abilities section.

Spearmen are the backbone of almost all Medieval 2 armies. They are cheap and very easily trained; the early ones need almost no buildings. Spearmen are used to add capable bulk to an army, form your main line, hold enemies in place, so you can flank and charge and protecting archers as a meat shield, while the archers shoot the enemy. They are especially useful as shields for crossbowmen and gunpowder infantry, as these units need to stay still to have time to shoot. Spearmen aren’t the best killers: they never really cut their way through the enemy quickly, unless they are facing cavalry and even then they will take a little while. They do kill, but they tend to be more defensive; able to stay alive in melee and keep the enemy occupied, making them the best troops for holding units so you can flank them.

They also are great for receiving cavalry charges, as spearmen resist charges much, much better than other infantry and will take far fewer losses. You should make loads and loads of spearmen: early on your entire army will usually consist of spearmen, archers maybe some light cavalry and a general, so get used to using them. Spearmen are very effective against cavalry as they get a bonus and even the starting Spear Militia can wreck general’s bodyguards if there are enough of them. You always need spearmen and should have at least 4-6 units of them in any army. Later on you can phase some out for swordsmen when you can make them quickly, but you should always have some spears in every army.

Spearmen get +8 attack vs. cavalry. Some lesser spearmen, often militia ones only get +4.


Spearmen are slow, usually lightly armoured, or unarmoured and poor against infantry without help. The best way to kill off spearmen is to attack them with swordsmen or axemen. Both these troops are good against infantry and the spear’s low attack and weakness against infantry means you can cut them up easily. Their usual lack of armour makes massed missile fire effective against them, especially against the Moors and their many unarmoured spearmen. Crossbows are also effective. Spearmen tend to have average morale, so a cavalry charge into their rear will either rout them or just kill a lot. Spearmen are very common units, so you’ll be fighting a lot of them.

Azabs
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 190 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Turks

Azabs are weaker versions of the Spear Militia most other factions get. They have less defence, but otherwise the same stats. This means you must use more of them to have any hope of them defeating the enemy, who will usually have many units of the standard Spear Militia early on. Always use 2 or more of these units to attack most other faction’s basic spear units. Most of the time as the Turks you want lots of cavalry and horse archers. These spearmen should only be trained if you really want spearmen for some reason or as cheap garrisons. Keep them far away from swordsmen unless you’re using them as fodder. Needless to say, armour upgrades are useful. They have a low mental state.

Armoured Sergeants
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Cost: 540 Morale: 5 Upkeep: 155
Factions: Milan, HRE, England, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

Armoured Sergeants are simply an armoured version of Sergeant Spearmen. They are much better than basic militia spearmen and will serve well in the normal spearmen roles. Their morale isn’t much higher than Spear Militia, so keep them supported. They can form a Schiltrom.

Berber Spearmen
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 155
Factions: Moors

Berber Spearmen are the Moors’ basic spear unit. They are quite superior to militia spearmen, with better morale and have the same stats as Sergeant Spearmen. Use them to form your line, fight other faction’s spear units and as fodder. Make sure to attack the Spanish quickly to take advantage of your superior troops for as long as possible They still have no armour so they will die quickly to missiles. They get a bonus in deserts and can form Schiltrom.

Byzantine Spearmen
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 310 Upkeep: 155
Factions: Byzantium

Byzantine Spearmen are the same as Spear Militia, so use them in the same way.

Dismounted Arab Cavalry
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 13 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 430 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Moors, Egypt

These dismounted cavalrymen make good spearmen; they have an average attack for spears but more defence than most. Use them to fight tough cavalry and hold your line.

Dismounted Heavy Lancers
Attack: 12 Charge: 4 Defence: 13 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Coast: 560 Upkeep: 160
Factions: Mongols

Dismounted Heavy Lancers are some of the toughest spearmen in the game. They have a very high attack for spearmen and their defence lets them take quite a bit of abuse. When fighting the Mongols, use flanking cavalry charges, armour piercing attacks and swordsmen against these spearmen. They are disciplined.

Dismounted Light Lancers
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 11 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 460 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Mongols

While not as tough as the Heavy Lancers, Light Lancers are still tough, dangerous spearmen, with a high attack and decent defence. Deal with them in the same way as Heavy Lancers. They are disciplined.

Dismounted Polish Nobles
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Cost: 410 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Poland

Polish nobles are inferior to just about any other nation’s high tier spearmen. They don’t have the attack skill of some other spearmen so they are best reserved for use vs cavalry if possible while more skilled units take on the enemy infantry. The Nobles have good defence and armour at least, making them useful meatshields. Their morale is merely average, despite being nobles, so don’t rely on them too far.

Dismounted Sipahi Lancers
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 630 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Turks

The Turk’s elite spearmen. They have very good defence for spearmen and are well armoured, with high morale. They can dish out hurt with their good attack and take quite a while to start taking serious causalities. If you need spearmen as the Turks, these men are up to the task.

Dismounted Tuareg
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 10 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Moors

The Moors toughest spearmen; they don’t have the defence of other elite spearmen, as they are still unarmoured, but they have a good attack and high morale. You should use these for demanding spearmen tasks, but don’t rely on them too far. As with all Moorish spearmen, keep them away from missiles. By the time you can train this unit you should have access to better armour which helps them a lot.

Italian Militia
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 370 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Milan, Venice, Papal States, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

Italian Militia is tougher than normal Spear Militia that non Italian factions have. While they are equal or bettered by many other spearmen, the strength of Italian Militia and Italian Spear Militia is that they are available very early on, only needing a Town Guard to be recruited and they have the stats of Sergeant Spearmen and Armoured Sergeants respectively. This means, for the first dozen turns or so, the Italian Militia will be facing normal Spear Militia and other weak spearmen and can easily crush them, making it very easy for the Italian states to expand quickly. It’s better to make the superior and armoured Italian Spear Militia than this unarmoured version, but both of these units are excellent early on and stay useful later in the game. Use these units well.

Italian Spear Militia
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 13 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 460 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Milan, Venice, Papal States, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

See above for how useful these units are. They are the same as Italian Militia but are armoured, making them even more useful. These should be the backbone of your armies.

Lamtuna Spearmen
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 10 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 580 Upkeep: 185
Factions: Moors

Lamtuna Spearmen are like Dismounted Tuareg, except that they are disciplined, are highly trained rather than trained and can form a Schiltrom. The disciplined tag means they will take a heck of a lot of misfortune before they rout, as morale shocks like the general dying doesn’t affect them and they will hold formation better because of the highly trained tag. These are the Moor’s best spearmen. Again they are unarmoured, but you’ll at least have some smithing buildings by the time you can recruit these to give them some armour.

Levy Spearmen
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 310 Upkeep: 125
Factions: England, Mongols

Levy Spearmen are the same as Spear Militia. Use them in the same way.

Nubian Spearmen
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 155
Factions: Moors, Egypt

These men are just like Berber Spearmen, except they don’t get a bonus in deserts and they can’t form Schiltrom. You’re better off using the Berbers, as they are the same price for a better unit. I don’t really know what the point of this unit is.

Pavise Spearmen
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 490 Upkeep: 155
Factions: Hungary

Pavise Spearmen are Sergeant Spearmen with large pavise shields. This gives them good defence against missiles and makes them superb for soaking up missile fire meant for better units. They will still take causalities from missiles, but it will take a long while for causalities to add up. Use these men as your line infantry for Hungary, as they have very good defence for spears and will serve well.

Saracen Militia
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 490 Upkeep: 155
Factions: Turks, Egypt

Saracen Militia are Italian Spear Militia with heavy armour and are available just as early. These troops should be used the same way: attack your neighbours early in the campaign and overwhelm them with these powerful early troops, while they are stuck with their lesser troops. They are also very handy to stop the inevitable Crusader armies that will arrive on your doorstep.

Sergeant Spearmen
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Cost: 420 Morale: 5 Upkeep: 155
Factions: France, HRE, England, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

Sergeant Spearmen are superior to the standard militia spears, as they have better attack and defence. They also have better morale, although they are still not armoured. Use them like the militia spears, just remember they are tougher. It is still better to use Armoured Sergeants when you can, as they are just like this unit except they wear armour, which helps them out greatly and they are only a tiny bit more expensive. Keep this unit away from missile fire, unless they are fodder.

Papal Guard
Attack: 12 Charge: 4 Defence: 16 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 740 Upkeep: 215
Factions: Papal States

Exclusive to the Papal States, Papal Guard are elite spearmen with a sky high attack for spears, nigh unbreakable morale, tied for highest in the game and are the best defended spearmen in the game. They are the best spears in Medieval 2 and when fighting the Pope you’ll want to kill them with AP weapons as fast as possible. They will easily wipe out other spearmen and some swordsmen in melee. Note that the Papal States doesn't need any buildings to recruit this unit they can just spam them from the start of the campaign and from any settlement they acquire.

Slav Levies
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 210 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Hungary

Slav Levies are exactly like Spear Militia, described below and should be used in the same way. They are even cheaper than that unit which is very handy with how poor Hungary is in the early game.

Spearmen
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 13 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 500 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Russia, Poland

This imaginatively named unit is Russia’s spearmen of the line. They have good stats for spearmen, a lot like other faction’s later spears and can easily form a line or fight cavalry.

Spear Militia
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 310 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Spain, France, England, HRE, Poland, Byzantines, Egypt, Russia, Denmark, Moors, Portugal, Hungary, Timurids, Mongols, Scotland, Turks, Portugal, Poland, Mongols

Spear Militia is by far the most common unit in the game, especially early on. Spear Militia can be created at just about any town or castle and every faction has it. They are one of the weakest spearmen units in the game, but you will use loads of them early on, as will every other faction. Use them as your do everything troops early on, to fight the enemies’ troops, hold enemies in place so you can flank or hit them with missiles, as one big mass to rout the enemy, in a mass to kill the enemy general and just as basic soldiers. These troops, Town Militia and Peasant Archers will be most faction’s early troops.

Town Militia
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 290 Upkeep: 125 (Spain, France, HRE, England, Timurids, Scotland, Moors, Turks, Denmark, Mongols)
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 160 Upkeep: 100 (Poland, Hungary)

Town Militia are exactly like Spear Militia except they can’t form Schiltrom. You don’t really need to worry about that formation too much, so use them exactly like Spear Militia. Another version of these spearmen are as weak as Azabs and you should use two of them to attack enemy Spear Militia if you want them to win. They cost just a bit more than Peasants so thankfully this is easy

Pikemen are almost useless in Medieval 2 for their intended purpose. They are bugged to high heaven and completely lack cohesion or realism. The problem with pikemen is they switch to using their swords almost instantly after they are attacked in melee. Instead of using their pikes, maintaining the spearwall and stabbing the enemy with their pikes, they change to swords and become useless, weak swordsmen with next to no defence. This makes them essentially useless, as pikemen can’t really do anything that swords or spears can’t, except stop the momentum of a cavalry charge if the pikemen by some miracle actually hold their wall and kill a few of them.

Since they are usually very cheap they are good fodder to use to hold troops while you flank them or shoot them with gunpowder or arrows, as it doesn’t matter if the cheap pikemen get hit as well. They are inferior for this purpose over regular spearmen however as the spearmen have shields to protect them against missiles. Pikemen lack shields, as they wield the two handed pike, so they are very vulnerable to archers.

Pikemen with their cheapness, often good to excellent attack and low defence are rather oddly useful as flankers. Send your spearmen or whatever in and then send the pikemen to the sides or rear and their high attack will cut down the enemy quickly. This helps offset their low defence. Adventuros, Tericos and Noble Pikemen all excel at this.

The buggy pikemen are a real problem for Scotland, as the Scots make the most use of pikes and have elite pikemen. They also look really cool in formation, so it’s annoying they are useless. Put them on guard mode to make it even cooler looking.

All pikemen get +8 attack vs. cavalry when using the pike. The sword gives no bonuses. This is why it’s important to try and hold the spearwall as long as possible.

Pikemen are best left on spearwall as this lets them hold their pikes at least for a little while. Guard mode helps as well, as it forces them to stay in formation and not engage when an enemy comes close.


The best way to kill pikemen is with missiles. They are slow in formation, they usually have little armour and they never have shields. Shoot the pikemen with anything and they will die quick. A cavalry charge into the rear should rout them easily too. If you need to melee them send your men in from the flanks while also engaging them from the front to collapse the wall quickly.

Adventuros
Attack: 14 Charge: 4 Defence: 10 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 185
Factions: Portugal

Adventuros are probably the best pikemen in the game. The Tercio Pikemen might be famous, but they are no match for these pikes. Adventuros have a very high attack, good defence for pikemen, are well armoured and have excellent morale, more than some knights! They will beat any other pikemen in melee and fight well in the spearwall, or out of it. They make superb flankers. They are impetuous, but it hardly matters as they won’t be charging anywhere in spearwall. These pikemen make a great partner for Portugal’s powerful Arquebusiers or Musketeers. Also try equipping these pikemen with upgraded armour! They look really cool if you upgrade it, with a unique unit model!

Heavy Pike Militia
Attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 11 Armour: 8 Morale: 5 Cost: 410 Upkeep: 185
Factions: Scotland

These pikemen aren’t quite as good as Scotland’s Noble Pikes, but they are very tough for militia, have amazing armour and have good morale. They have the stats to hold on for quite a while in melee and their morale makes them good for holding back enemies while dishing out their own kills. Despite their lack of shields they are damn tough with their heavy armour.

Highland Pikemen
Attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 210 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Scotland

Highland Pikemen are much like the normal non militia pikemen, but exclusive to Scotland and impetuous. Use them in the same way. Being impetuous, they will take a lot of misfortune before they rout. They can only be upgraded to bronze armour (padded), so their defence against arrows will always be non-existent.

Noble Pikemen
Attack: 11 Charge: 4 Defence: 12 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 570 Upkeep: 215
Factions: Scotland

Noble Pikemen are tough pikes. They have a high attack for pikemen and the best defence in their class. This means they are useful, as the unit has a lot of staying power with their very heavy armour and sky high morale they can fight well when the spearwall collapses and they are much more versatile than most other pikemen, being excellent flankers as described above. This unit is not as highly trained as some other pikemen, so remember it will take slightly longer to get back in position and redress the formation with these pikes.

Pikemen
Attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 240 Upkeep: 155
Factions: France

These pikemen are not militia and thus have better stats, but they are still very weak and have terrible defence. Use them like Pike Militia and get them some armour! Their armour cannot be upgraded as far as Pike Militia, for some reason. They have superior morale to Pike Militia and can hold for a long time.

Pike Militia
Attack: 7 Charge: 2 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 150 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Spain, France, HRE, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Portugal, Papal States

Pike Militia are the weakest pikemen in the game. They have a low attack and because of the bugs above, they use their swords which, with their complete lack of armour and nonexistent defence get them killed very quickly. They are extremely cheap however, just a bit more than Peasants, so you can pump them out as fodder or garrisons and they do stop a cavalry charge. This unit can have its armour upgraded a long way and they can go from unarmoured to partial plate, giving them better defence against archers. Always endeavour to get them as much armour as you possibly can to offset their awful stats. Their morale is better than you’d think and they can hold for a while.

Scots Pike Militia
Attack: 7 Charge: 2 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 150 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Scotland

This unit is exactly the same as Pike Militia. Use them in the same way. They cannot have their armour upgraded as far as normal Pike Militia: only silver rather than gold. They are the only pike unit in the game that can take advantage of the free militia units settlements get, so a unit or two of them is a good investment to block gates as they will cost you nothing.

Tercio Pikemen
Attack: 14 Charge: 4 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 350 Upkeep: 155
Factions: Spain

Spain’s elite pikes, Tericos have MUCH better attack than most other pikemen, so they can fight well with pike and sword. Their defence is just awful however. Use them like Pike Militia, but much more aggressively, taking them off spearwall and letting them charge with their swords if necessary, preferably into the flanks. Make sure to get them some armour upgrades if possible. They have very high morale and it will take a lot for them to rout. Very cheap for their stats, so use them as flankers and put their high attack to work. When they attack from the flank their low defence is offset by the fact they aren’t the targets of the enemies’ attack, so fewer will die.

Swordsmen combine with spearmen and archers to create the typical Medieval 2 army. They tend to have good attack and morale and either very good or bad defence.

They are used (with exceptions) for charging in and attacking any enemy aggressively, doing most of the killing and working as steady, strong troops, wearing down the foe in straight melee, flanking the enemy and protecting other units. Swordsmen tend to kill more quickly than spearmen; their weapons have greater kill chances. They are most effective against spearmen, but can fight any unit.

Use swordsmen as your aggressive attacking troops; they are versatile and can do anything required, besides catching archers and horse archers. If you are using swordsmen to fight other infantry, put them in two or three ranks, as this allows them to get the most men into the charge, killing more enemy on impact, so less survive to cause damage. The thing to watch out for with swordsmen is that they are very vulnerable to cavalry charges. They do fine in melee with cavalry (although not as good as spearmen, obviously) but try to let spearmen take the initial charge.

If you are forced to use them to face cavalry put them in five ranks. This will let them absorb charges somewhat better, their ranks adding resistance against them and halting the charge sooner so they can get the cavalry in melee and kill them. A powerful charge by heavy cavalry will kill a LOT of swordsmen though; up to half the unit with really powerful cavalry.

It’s much better to let spearmen take the charge, and then charge your swords in to help the spearmen kill the cavalry. A deep formation will also cause them to die slower, as men gradually trickle into melee, which is useful if you don’t care about kills and just want them to hold their position against the enemy for as long as possible.


The best way to deal with swordsmen is a cavalry charge with a powerful cavalry unit, like knights or lance wielding heavy cavalry. They can’t resist charges without spears. Crossbows and javelins work as well against swordsmen as any other unit, as do axemen. Swordsmen are tough, versatile units and they don’t die easily to anything besides cavalry charges, so prepare for a slugfest and don’t take them too lightly.

Armoured Swordsmen
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 22 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 150
Factions: England

Armoured Swordsmen are heavily armoured, have very good attack and have knight level stats and morale. They also cost much less in upkeep than knights Use these men as you would foot knights, as they will cut up most opposing infantry.

Battlefield Assassins
Attack: 16 Charge: 3 Defence: 16 Armour: 4 Morale: 11 Cost: 660 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Hungary

Battlefield Assassins are elite units of just 60 soldiers. They can hide anywhere. They have excellent attack and very good defence. Because opposing armies in Medieval 2 start further apart than the close armies of RTW they are actually useful this time, unlike Arcani in Rome: Total War. They have tons of morale and wont rout until more than ¾ of the unit is dead.

Use them to fight tough units face to face, as they have very good stats, or keep them hidden from sight and then suddenly fall upon the enemies’ artillery, or archers from behind. Keep them hidden until the enemy line has passed and battle has been joined and then charge into vulnerable units as quickly as possible. This can be a very useful unit when used correctly. These troops take experience to use well. Remember that if the unit is led by a Captain they cannot hide, as the Captain’s unit can’t hide. They are also lightly armoured and vulnerable to missiles. Assassins have swords and thus do not pierce armour. Try to send them after small units or keep them well supported to prevent them getting into a large melee, where their small numbers will get them crushed.

Byzantine Infantry
Attack: 11 Charge: 2 Defence: 18 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Byzantium

Byzantine Infantry are the rank and file for the army of Byzantium. They wield their swords well, are well armoured and have very high defence for such a cheap unit. They serve very well as aggressive infantry, able to last a long time in melee and dish out the hurt too.

Dismounted Broken Lances
Attack: 11 Charge: 2 Defence: 22 Armour: 9 Morale: 5 Cost: 490 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Venice, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

Broken Lances may look like knights, but their morale is not up to the knightly standard. These men are men-at-arms and have good attack, fantastic defence and are covered in armour. They can dish out the hurt and are excellent at soaking up punishment. Just use these as general assault troops and they will serve well.

Dismounted Byzantine Lancers
Attack: 11 Charge: 2 Defence: 18 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 440 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Byzantium

These men are exactly like Byzantine Infantry, except they have better stamina and cost a little more. Use them in the same way.

Dismounted Christian Guard
Attack: 16 Charge: 3 Defence: 22 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Moors

Christian Guard are the Moors’ elite infantry and probably the best infantry full stop with the exception of Venetian Heavy Infantry. In contrast to most Moor units, this unit is heavily armoured and has excellent defence. They are incredibly skilled attackers and are an ultra tough unit, disciplined and highly trained. They are cheap for their power, and as the Moors you should recruit as many of these units as possible and use them along with Camel Gunners as your late game army.

Dismounted Conquistadores
Attack: 16 Charge: 3 Defence: 22 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Spain, Portugal (Only trainable in the Americas)

Dismounted Conquistadores, ironically are exactly like Christian Guard. They can only be recruited in the Americas from captured Aztec cities and only if the city has the building required. They are absolutely devastating against the Aztecs; they have tremendous stats and great morale, making them incredibly useful troops. You should use these and Musketeers as your main force to dismantle the Aztec Empire. Conquistadores will annihilate them incredibly easily; since the Aztecs mostly lack armour, they are easy prey for a sharp sword in a strong hand. For whatever reason they have a low mental state.

Dismounted Latinkon
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 21 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 630 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Byzantium

While not as powerful as some other elite swordsmen, Dismounted Latinkon are more than able troops, with a very good attack and strong defence. They will slice up a lot of enemies and serve well mixed with the Byzantines’ other powerful swordsmen. They have high morale.

Dismounted Men at Arms
Attack: 11 Charge: 2 Defence: 21 Armour: 8 Morale: 5 Cost: 460 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Venice, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

Dismounted Men at Arms are powerful swordsmen, much like knights. They have an average attack, the same as Sword Militia, but are heavily armoured with excellent defence. They will chew though enemies by attrition even though their attack could be better and can soak up a lot of punishment. Their morale however is nothing compared to knights and they will run much more easily. Use them like knights, but be a bit more careful and don’t throw them into obviously morale crushing situations.

Forlorn Hope
Attack: 17 Charge: 6 Defence: 12 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 620 Upkeep: 250
Factions: HRE

The Forlorn Hope are heavily armoured troops with 2 handed swords. This gives them a high attack although other units can match it. This also means they obviously lack shields, so they die quickly. This unit has just 48 men in it on huge unit sizes and that, along with their lack of shields gets them killed. This unit is not worth its cost or its knightly upkeep. They have a low mental state and are untrained.

Hashashim
Attack: 16 charge: 3 Defence: 21 Armour: 6 Morale 11 Hit Points: 2 Cost: 840 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Moors, Turks, Egypt

Hashashirm are like an uber version of Battlefield Assassins. They can also hide anywhere and there are just 60 men in the unit. They have amazing stats and are well armoured. They are very deadly in melee because they are very skilled in fighting rather, than relying on much armour for protection: this unit can chop up AP units just as well. Basically use this unit like Battlefield Assassins, but remember they are a lot tougher and can really slice up any units that aren’t heavily armoured. They have knightly morale and often will die rather than break. They are also disciplined. This is definitely one of the best units.

Highland Nobles
Attack: 14 Charge: 6 Defence: 9 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 490 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Scotland

Highland Nobles are pretty good troops, able to crush spear units and weaker infantry easily. They have a big attack, but their light armour and lack of a shield makes them highly vulnerable to missile fire and their low defence makes them rather useless vs. powerful well armoured troops, like knights, as the swordsmen find it difficult to damage the armoured foes and die in droves. Their attack isn't even as good as other factions later swordsmen. Use these men against pikemen and spearmen, but avoid heavy swordsmen and axemen. Their high charge for infantry really helps them so make sure they get to charge.

Noble Swordsmen
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 22 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Scotland

Noble Swordsmen are the Scot’s elite infantry. They are very powerful troops, just like Dismounted Chivalratic Knights. Their stats are the same and they provide a very solid core of late tough infantry to the Scottish. You’re better off using these well balanced, very well protected swordsmen rather than Highland Nobles.

Norse Swordsmen
Attack: 11 Charge: 2 Defence: 18 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Denmark

Norse Swordsmen are just like Swordsmen Militia, detailed below and should be used in the same way. Swordsmen aren’t very useful for Denmark because they have superior AP Huscarles.

Swordsmen Militia
Attack: 11 Charge: 2 Defence: 18 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Spain, Portugal

Swordsmen Militia are useful swordsmen, as they have quite good attack and great defence for a militia unit, since they start off with partial plate armour. They have good enough morale and can last a good long time in melee against most enemies. You should make loads of these units and use them for your main battle line and general assault troops or garrisons. They are great for their cost. As with Highland Nobles, don’t try to attack heavily armoured swordsmen with these swordsmen, unless you’re flanking. Use Spain’s/Portugal’s good javelin and crossbowmen to back them up.

Sword and Buckler Men
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 19 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 540 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Spain, Sicily

Sword and Buckler Men are late Spanish swordsmen with light armour and shields. They have a great attack for swordsmen and can soak up quite a bit of punishment. They have excellent morale and are powerful units with staying power.

Urban Militia
Attack: 11 Charge: 2 Defence: 18 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Moors

Urban Militia, much like the (in)famous Almohad MTW version is a powerful early sword unit, very effective for filling your army up with tough, reliable troops. This unit has the average swordsman attack and excellent defence, so they can fight very well, despite being called militia. Use this unit as the Moorsih ’tough aggressive infantry, complementing their many lighter troops.

ZweiHander
Attack: 14 Charge: 6 Defence: 11 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 680 Upkeep: 150
Factions: HRE

Zweihanders are slightly better armoured versions of Highland Nobles and should be used in the same way.

Polearms are an almost completely useless class of unit in Medieval 2. The problem is that the last patch for Medieval 2 fixed the shield bug (which caused units with shields to receive negative defence for their shields, rather than positive.) that has plagued the series since Rome and this unbalanced the game towards units with shields, as the game’s balance was originally designed for units with the bugged shields. This is coupled with the fact that polearms have very slow attack animations and they can be blocked just as easily as one handed weapons. Polearms thus spend a lot of time slowly attacking, getting blocked and having to start their slow attack animation over again, all the time getting attacked by the one handed weapon user’s fast attack animations, getting stunned by the fast attacks and flinching rather than attacking back over and over and then dying. Polearms are very cheap, probably because CA realised the bugs and rather than fixing them, they just made them very cheap to compensate for their uselessness. Polearms are only useful as fodder and holding the enemy in place as they die. They have a high attack and a good charge for infantry, so a flanking charge will hurt, but they will still be just as useless in melee. The high attack ratings of these units don’t matter at all when they attack so slowly they can be ripped to pieces.


Polearms are fodder and can be defeated by just about anything. Send spearmen or swordsmen against them, the polearms will be sliced into tiny bits. They never have shields so missile units will whittle them down fast too.

Billmen
Attack: 15 Charge: 5 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 230 Upkeep: 125
Factions: England

Billmen are bugged as described above and suck. Don’t use them. Even if they were not bugged, their awful defence would render them useless.

Bill Militia
Attack: 13 Charge: 4 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 170 Upkeep: 100
Factions: England

Bill Militia are weaker than Billmen, Not that it matters.

Halberd Militia
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale 3 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 150 (Hungary, HRE, Sicily, Poland, Hungary, Papal States)
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 8 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 150 (Timurids, Turks, Egypt)

Halberd Militia regardless of who owns them are useless, like all polearms. The Islamic faction’s version is much better however as they are well armoured and have better morale.

Heavy Billmen
Attack: 15 Charge: 5 Defence: 10 Armour: 7 Morale: 5 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 150
Factions: England

Heavy Billmen suffer from the same bug as regular Billmen and are of no use whatsoever except for fodder, as they can take a beating with their heavy armour.

Heavy Bill Militia
Attack: 15 Charge: 5 Defence: 10 Armour: 7 Morale: 5 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 150
Factions: England

These are exactly the same as Heavy Billmen, with the same stats, despite being militia. The only difference is they are trained in cities rather than castles.

Janissary Heavy Infantry
Attack: 12 Charge: 4 Defence: 10 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 840 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Turks

JHI, a mainstay of Medieval Total War armies and one of the best units in the previous game is an embarrassment here. Due to the bugs they can’t even beat Feudal Knights and they have really lousy defence. Despite their awesomeness in MTW JHI suck this time around. They are disciplined and highly trained.

Obudshaer
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 12 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 720 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Denmark

Elite Danish polearms that are of course no use. They can form spearwall.

Swiss Guard
Attack: 12 Charge: 4 Defence: 12 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 890 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Papal States

The toughest polearms and one of the Papal States’ unique units, you’ll fight these guys if you attack the Pope. They are still bugged so they will be cut down easily. They can form spearwall and are disciplined and highly trained.

Sword Staff Militia
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 10 Armour: 7 Morale: 5 Cost: 550 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Denmark

While tougher than some Polearms, the bugs still make this unit useless for anything besides fodder. They can form spearwall.

Voulge Militia
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 6 Armour: 5 Morale: 3 Cost: 390 Upkeep: 150
Factions: France

This is another unit of useless polearms, except it has more defence than halberds. They can form spearwall.

Dismounted knights, as you have probably guessed are knights without their horses. They fight on foot. They have slightly less morale than their mounted version and none of them are impetuous, while some of their mounted versions are. Their morale is up there with other elite troops like Terico Pikemen. Some foot knights use polearms and thus are bugged and suck.

Dismounted knights are best used as elite heavy infantry. They usually have swords and shields as well as being very well armoured, so they can take a lot of punishment and take few causalities from most units. Use dismounted knights as the centre of your line to hold the enemy and cut their way though and as an anchor for your army to work around. A mixed force of foot knights and cavalry knights is a difficult one to stop indeed and foot knights will always be very, very useful. Just watch out for crossbows and artillery; foot knights are very slow as they are covered with armour and will be shot down by massed crossbow or longbow fire. Javelin cavalry are also deadly to foot knights, as they are too fast for the knights to catch and their javelins pierce armour. Heavy cavalry charges are also lethal to foot knights so make sure you have some spearmen ready to intercept. Dismounted knights work best with your own ranged support or light cavalry backup to kill missiles shooting the knights.


Dismounted knights are slow and have no way of attacking from a distance, so the best way to deal with them is armour piercing missiles: use your crossbows to soften the knights up. England has the easiest time of it, since their longbows have a very long range and are devastating to armour. Javelin cavalry is very handy too, as it can stay out of melee and use its AP weapon to whittle down the knights. Artillery can also help thin their ranks and cavalry charges will kill a lot. Since the dismounted knights only have swords, cavalry with powerful charges; like other knights and any other cavalry with 7 or greater charge will cause a ton of causalities, as the sword wielding knights cannot resist the charge. Whatever you do, kill as many as you can before they make it into melee. If they make it to melee, good quality AP axemen like Dismounted Druzhina or Huscarles will rip them a new one very quickly.

Dismounted Chivalric Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 22 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Spain, France, Denmark, Hungary

The common generic knight, they can soak up damage like a sponge with their armour and dish out the hurt as well. They serve well in the foot knight role of shredding enemy units in melee. They are only very slightly better than Feudal Knights as they have one more point in armour.

Dismounted English Knights
Attack: 21 Charge: 6 Defence: 13 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 530 Upkeep: 225
Factions: England

While these knights are great mounted, they are no use on foot because they use bugged polearms. Their stats are lopsided because they lack shields, so they aren’t good at holding the enemy like other knights are either. Don’t bother with them.

Dismounted Feudal Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 21 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 570 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Spain, France, HRE, England, Venice, Milan, Scotland, Portugal, Denmark, Hungary, Papal States

Feudal Knights are the standard knight for Catholic factions and all of them have it. They are almost exactly the same as Chivalric Knights and excel in being your front line to cut up the enemy and hold them in place. Most factions will be using these most commonly for their foot knights.

Dismounted Imperial Knights
Attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 17 Armour: 8 Morale: 5 Cost: 540 Upkeep: 225
Factions: HRE

These troops look weaker than the other dismounted knights, until you see they use armour piercing maces. This means they will badly batter other knights and heavy infantry in melee, which makes them very useful indeed. They have less attack for dealing with lightly armoured foes, but their good defence makes them hard for unarmoured troops to damage since they tend to have light weapons. Just watch out for axemen, as the Imperial Knights can’t kill them as easily as other knights because of their lower attack and they will die quickly to them. They also have much lower morale than any other unit in this category. They only have the same morale as standard non militia such as Billmen.

Dismounted Noble Knights
Attack: 21 Charge: 6 Defence: 13 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 530 Upkeep: 225
Factions: France

This is another useless bugged knight and is no use at all.

Dismounted Norman Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 21 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 570 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Sicily

These knights are exactly the same as Dismounted Feudal Knights and should be used in the same way.

Dismounted Polish Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 22 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Poland

Polish Knights are just the same as Dismounted Chivalric Knights and should be used in the same way.

Dismounted Portuguese Knights
Attack: 21 Charge: 6 Defence: 13 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 530 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Portugal

Another useless bugged knight, don’t even bother with them.

Skirmishers aka Javelinmen are much like skirmishers in RTW, but far more effective. Skirmishers are infantry armed with throwing javelins and a sword. They are always unarmoured by default. Javelins are effective against armour in Medieval 2 and will cause causalities to even heavily armoured troops like knights. Vollies from two units of elite javelins like Almughavars can kill 30 Armoured Swordsmen in one volley, which is great when you consider that you’re defeating some of the toughest troops in the game with fairly cheap ones.

Skirmishers have quite a low rate of fire: the troops throw their missiles slowly and there is a delay of a few seconds between volleys. They also have a very limited range. This means that javelins are vulnerable to enemy counter charges or missiles. Javelins need another unit to act as a pinning force to hold the unit in place so the javelins can do their work. Cheap Spear Militia is good for this as by the time the Spear Militia have taken serious losses from their stronger opponents you should have slaughtered most of the unit being pinned. Make sure you take the skirmishers off of skirmish mode to stop them pulling back when positioned close behind the pinning unit. Their range is so short they will sometimes pull back before throwing and they take a while to fire so you don’t want them wasting time running around.

Javelins only have 8 missiles per man, but the unit fires slowly and seem to fire in a staggered way with some of the unit firing them the rest and so on. This means that their missiles last longer than you’d think. You still want to make sure you preserve their ammo for worthy targets like heavy infantry They have swords for melee and some Javelinmen have good enough stats to fight as light infantry after their missiles are gone. Javelinmen never have armour and are very vulnerable to archers or cavalry changes. Get them whatever upgrades you can ASAP. Some javelin units are expensive, so try to keep them safe.

Skirmishers are very vulnerable to archers. Their range is much lower and as said above they never have armour by default. Try to get the archers attention or silence them is possible.


Skirmishers are only effective if they aren’t engaged directly. Since their range is so short and they fire slowly they need to be left alone to throw their missiles without being pulled into melee. If you see skirmishers, focus on them first if possible or hit them with cavalry to crush the unit quickly. If you can’t do that, hit them with archers, as the skirmishers’ short range, rate of fire disadvantage and lack of armour will see them killed quickly. Just don’t ignore skirmishers, as that what the enemy hopes you will do.

Afghan Javelinmen
Attack: 13 Missile attack: 10 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 640 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Timurids

Afghan Javelinmen are some of the best javelins in the game. They have a very good missile attack and are very capable in melee for missile units. They lack armour so they won’t last too long but they have good defence skill and large shields to help therm. They are very vulnerable to missiles like all javelins. When fighting them in the campaign use archers or cavalry charges and lots of them.

Almughavars
Attack: 12 Missile attack: 13 Charge: 4 Defence: 8 Armour: 0 Morale: 11 Cost: 640 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Spain

Almughavars are the best javelins in the game. They have a high missile attack letting them cause many losses to heavily armoured units and can back it up with some very good melee skill, making them excellent for flank charges. If you’re Spain you should always use these troops, but remember they still lack armour and are expensive, so try to keep them out of missile fire as much as you can. They can have their armour upgraded the farthest out of the javelin units in Medieval 2. They are also available very early on in the campaign so Spain will have little problem with armoured enemies.

Kurdish Javelinmen
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 1 Defence: 11 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Egypt

Kurdish Javelins are decent javelins, as they have good melee ability to make up for their average javelin skills. Don’t be shy about charging from the flank.

Javelinmen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 1 Defence: 6 Armour: 0 Cost: 270 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Spain

Javelinmen are just basic javelins. They are completely inferior to Spain’s Almughavars, but will still cause damage to heavily armoured units and are perfect for parking behind your battle line and tossing their missiles over your melee unit’s heads. They are also extremely cheap, a third or so of Almughavars, which is a great boon. Try to keep them out of missile fire. Their morale is low so take care of them. They have poor melee skills so let them throw their javelins and avoid melee so they can gain experience. They are available very early on from the start of the game for Spain giving the Spaniards a good advantage in attacking armour. Replace them with Almughavars whenever you can as they are vastly better in every way.

Lusitanian Javelinmen
Attack: 8 Missile attack 8 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 330 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Portugal

While Portugal’s unique javelins can’t stand up to Spain’s, they are still clearly superior to most other javelin units. They have a good missile attack to cut down enemies and they can fight decently in melee against the early spear units they will encounter. Their morale is higher than basic javelinmen, but only about half that of the Almughavars.

Sudanese Javelinmen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 1 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 350 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Moors

Sudanese Javelinmen aren’t amazing troops, but they are still useful as all javelins are and will definitely help the mostly lightly armoured Moorish army fight armoured units. Make good use of them. They have low morale.

Turkish Javelinmen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Turks

Turkish Javelins are another unit of average javelins ready to rain sharp death on armoured units for the Turks. They have the same morale as Sudanese Javelinmen.

In Medieval 2 there are two kinds of axemen: One handed axemen that use a shield as well and two handed axemen using a large two handed axe. The two handed axemen are broken like polearms and are of no use except fodder. One handed axemen work fine however.

All axemen in this section of the guide are AP. There are some units in Medieval 2 that use axes as secondary weapons, such as archers that don’t pierce armour with them and some that do. The units in this category use axes as their primary weapon.

Axemen are best used somewhat like swordsmen in that they are aggressive attacking infantry. The difference with axes is that they pierce armour, so even though some axemen stats might look weak, they can cut down much tougher units like knights since they slice right though their heavy armour. Always send axemen after the heavy enemy units if you can and leave lighter ones to other troops. Axemen excel in flank attacks on armoured units, especially spearmen, but most are also tough enough to attack from the front. You should deploy axemen in thin long formations to get the maximum amount of men into the killing zone and hitting with their charge bonus as possible. The more men in the melee, the less chance there is of soldiers being cut off from the rest of the unit and dying. Axemen are far more useful than swordsmen, as they can take on both unarmed and heavily armoured units and thus are versatile.


Axemen are a lot like swordsmen when it comes to killing them, except that they will shred any heavy infantry sent at them, unless it’s overwhelmingly strong. Get them with cavalry charges and crossbowmen to whittle them down; just don’t stay in melee with them for too long if you want your horsemen to stay alive. Two handed axemen are a joke and can be killed by just about anything or wiped out easily with missiles as they lack shields.

Berdiche Axemen
Attack: 17 Charge: 6 Defence: 9 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 380 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Russia

Broken axemen.

Croat Axemen
Attack: 15 Charge: 5 Defence: 7 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 260 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Hungary

Croat Axemen are another unit of broken axemen.

Dismounted Boyar Sons
Attack: 11 Charge: 3 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Russia

Dismounted Boyar Sons are one handed axemen with good stats and armour. They are great for cutting up armoured units, as they are about equal to knights as mentioned above. They will also annihilate spearmen and weaker swordsmen and come in very useful vs. Catholic armies. They cost quite a bit so try to keep them alive. They are well worth the cost. They have knight level morale, so they have plenty of staying power.

Dismounted Druzhina
Attack: 11 Charge: 3 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Russia

These axes are exactly the same as Boyar Sons and are just as useful.

Dismounted Huscarls
Attack: 11 Charge: 3 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Denmark

Dismounted Huscarles are again just the same as Boyar Sons and should be used the same way.

Highlanders
Attack: 11 Charge: 3 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Scotland

Highlanders are early axemen with a good attack but terrible defence. Their low defence means that if they get caught in a protracted melee they will be cut down quickly, since most hits will kill them. They are also very vulnerable to missiles. Use Highlanders as flankers or send them into a melee with other troops to stop them being focused on and crushed. They have average morale, but are impetuous, so they will take a lot of abuse.

Scotland really relies on its Highlanders. They are one of the only good, easily recruited units the Scotish get cuz most of their pikemen are awful. Their archers are also inferior. You should use Highlanders in huge groups having half or more of your army made up of them is a good idea. In a huge mass they can easily overwhelm and cut down most early and mid game armies. They are quite cheap so having large numbers of them is easy enough. They can only be upgraded to padded armour so their defence will always be bad.

Norse Axemen
Attack: 17 Charge: 6 Defence: 11 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 700 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Denmark

Another unit of broken two handed axemen.

Tabardariyya
Attack: 20 Charge: 6 Defence: 11 Armour: 6 Morale: 11 Cost: 490 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Egypt

Broken axemen, whee!

Varangian Guard
Attack: 20 Charge: 6 Defence: 15 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 520 Upkeep: 175
Factions Byzantium

Despite extremely good stats, excellent morale and the highly trained tag these axemen are still two handed broken ones.

Venetian Heavy Infantry
Attack: 16 Charge: 5 Defence: 16 Armour: 7 Morale: 5 Cost: 640 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Venice

Venetian Heavy Infantry are some of the best infantry in Medieval 2. They wield AP one handed warhammers, large shields and are well armoured. They have excellent stats and good morale and, along with their AP weapons this makes them utterly devastating to anything they reach melee with! VHI are the units you charge in from the front with: they will do a ton of damage and cut their way through even knights. This unit is probably the best infantry in the game and are very, very useful units, which is just as well as Venice needs them to survive. Use them, love them. The only thing to watch for is their morale is only average, so support them.

Viking Raiders
Attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 480 Upkeep: 155
Factions: Denmark

Viking Raiders are weak one handed axemen. Their attack is decent, but their low defence and lack of armour often gets them killed before they can dish out much damage, especially against tough troops like knights. They are available at the beginning of the campaign however which lets them easily cut their way though spearmen hordes and makes them much better than their stats would indicate. These axemen cannot stand up for long in melee, so use them as flankers or against weaker units like Swordsmen Militia and spearmen and try to get them armour upgrades as they can be upgraded all the way to gold level armour, making them far more effective.

Woodsmen
Attack: 13 Charge: 4 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 170 Upkeep: 70
Factions: Russia, Poland

Woodsmen are utterly useless axemen. Their non-existent defence coupled with the 2 handed bug makes them completely useless. They aren’t even good for fodder as their defence is so low. As cheap as they are don’t even bother with these men. Peasants can hold a line better. If you must use them, use them as flankers as their charge is pretty good and they can do some damage charging into the flanks of armoured foes.

Archers are a vital part of any army in Medieval 2. Their ability to strike from a distance, cause causalities and lower morale before the inevitable melee to tip the odds in your favour or ease an already sure victory makes them most useful units indeed. Every enemy killed at a distance by an archer is one less your melee forces have to worry about killing or being killed by. They are especially important when you are facing units that are dangerous to your army such as a horde of enemy axemen and you have heavily armoured infantry, as you want as few of them to reach you as possible.

Archers use either longbows or shortbows, although the overwhelming majority use shortbows. Both types are used to shoot approaching enemies, as this will cause causalities and demoralise them before they reach melee with your front lines.

Archers are great for parking behind your own men as they are fighting, or basically anywhere they can stay out of melee while shooting constantly to kill enemies without suffering any losses. When used this way archers can kill many, many troops while they are distracted and held by friendly melee troops.

Shortbow archers are ineffective against armour. They cannot pierce it and units like knights or heavy infantry will take few causalities from waves of arrows hitting them. Use standard archers against lighter troops. Spearmen, militia level troops and two handed weapon troops are prime targets for archers. Skirmishers and other archers are also good targets.

Longbows are exclusive to the English, with two exceptions (French Scots Guard and French Mounted Archers use longbows). They are AP archers and fire at the same rate as other archers. This makes longbows very deadly, as they fire just as quickly as other archers, yet crush armoured units. Their extremely long range, far more than most archers makes them very deadly as well. Always target armoured units with Longbowmen.

Archers cannot work alone, unless they are in such numbers or there are few enough enemy troops that they can be broken with missile fire alone. Archers need a melee unit to protect them, as they are usually poor in melee. They also need their targets still or moving slowly, this means units held by other troops like spearmen are much better targets for archers.

Most archer deaths will be caused by cavalry charges. Make sure you either have infantry units in front of your archers or a cavalry unit right behind or to the side that can intercept charges at the archers. In situations like this you should take the archers off skirmish so they don’t move and instead keep shooting.

Most archers can be upgraded to light mail armour or better and you should always upgrade their armour if you can, as they are highly vulnerable to missiles themselves. Having better armour gives your archers the edge in ranged duels as they will take fewer losses from incoming fire.


Archers usually are easy to beat if you can get close to them. It’s when they are behind other units, slaughtering your troops with their arrows that they are a problem. The easiest way to defeat archers is to hit them with a cavalry charge. They usually have little or no armour, so a cavalry charge will kill tons. Light cavalry make good archer hunters, as they are cheap, expendable, fast and strong enough to rip up archers. Heavy cavalry can kill archers easily as well, but they will tire themselves chasing them. It is a waste of their power attacking such light troops. If you have superior archers in quality or number to the enemy, targeting their archers with your own will be effective as well. Once an enemy archer unit reaches 50% losses, consider switching targets. Units with more men are much easier to hit and thus you will make better use of your archer’s limited ammo.

Archer Militia
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 220 Upkeep: 100 (England, Russia, Egypt)
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 1 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 250 Upkeep: 100 (Byzantium)

Archer Militia are exactly like Peasant Archers. See that section for details on using them. Byzantine Archer Militia are better at melee with far more melee attack and slightly more defence. They still should avoid melee, but they can hold their own vs early spearmen for a time, which comes in handy in early sieges.

Bosnian Archers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 1 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Hungary

Bosnian Archers are decent in melee for archers but shoot poorly. Use them in great numbers to compensate for their weakness and don’t hesitate to use them as flankers if needed.

Byzantine Guard Archers
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 16 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 710 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Byzantium

Byzantine Guard Archers are very tough archers, even tougher than Retinue Longbowmen. They have more missile attack than most archers. They can really mix it up in melee since they have excellent melee stats for archers and are well armoured, so they can definitely act as medium infantry to support friendly units in need and even storm walls in sieges or fight spearmen very effectively. They also have very high morale. Byzantine Guard Archers are some of the most versatile troops in Medieval 2 and you should use them well. They are worth every penny, but try not to throw them away.

Desert Archers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 1 Defence: 6 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 390 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Moors, Egypt

Desert Archers are quite good for early archers as they are available from the start for these factions. They are clearly much superior to the weak Peasant Archers most Catholic factions have early on. They shoot well and they can fight in melee much better than most early archers, although they are obviously best left out of it. These men are very valuable for the Moors as they can dominate Spain’s early Peasant Archers and kill their many javelin troops and their evasive Jinettes from outside of javelin range. About a third of your early army should be these guys, protected by the excellent Moorish spearmen.

Dismounted Archers
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 6 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 470 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Mongols

Dismounted Archers are better than average in melee, have a very good missile attack and are disciplined. They are far less intimidating than other Mongol troops and they will fall easily to a cavalry charge.

Dismounted Dvor
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 11 Charge: 3 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 770 Upkeep: 225
Factions: Russia

Dismounted Dvor are ridiculously multiskilled archers. They have an immense missile attack letting them shred anything lightly armoured, They have a great attack, are well armoured, and have an AP axe for a melee weapon as well as a shield, so anything too heavily armoured for their bows can be cut open like a can opener. These troops should form your main line as much as possible as Russia, as they are truly do-anything versatile troops. Just watch out for cavalry charges, as Dvor are very expensive.

Dismounted French Archers
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 6 Morale: 9 Cost: 750 Upkeep: 150
Factions: France

Due to an apparent bug, Dismounted French Archers are not available in the Grand Campaign. This is a shame because they are one of the only non English units to use longbows. They can be used in custom battles and in online multiplayer however. These archers are strong in melee and shoot well for longbowmen. They are also well armoured, so they are versatile.

Dismounted Heavy Archers
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 12 Armour: 5 Cost: 710 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Timurids, Mongols

These badass looking archers are tough. They have high missile attack and good melee attack for an archer, decent defence and are well armoured. They are also disciplined and highly trained with high morale. This archer is deadly at range and can cut down many foes in melee, particularity because they use a secondary AP axe! When fighting the Mongols run these archers down with cavalry charges to kill them quickly.

Dismounted Lithuanian Cavalry
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 2 Defence: 12 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 420 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Poland

These archers have a high melee attack and are as good at shooting as most other archers. Despite their decent defence, they lack armour, which makes them vulnerable. Just use them like normal archers, but use them as flankers or support if needed. They are cheap for such a versatile unit.

Highland Archers
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 1 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 320 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Scotland

Highland Archers are not the best shooters, but they are a good bit better in melee than the Peasant Archers you will encounter in the early campaign. They pack AP axes. They can support your melee men well. Remember that you can’t upgrade their armour far, so they will always be vulnerable to missiles. They have a low mental state.

Janissary Archers
Attack: 10 Missile attack: 10 Charge: 3 Defence: 13 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 780 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Turks

Janissary Archers are among the best archers in Medieval 2. They have an excellent missile attack and very good melee stats. They are handicapped in melee however by having no shields and they only wield knives in melee, which doesn't help them vs sword users. They are best used as pure archers as much as possible, as knives don’t really cut it in melee (no pun intended, honest!), despite the fact they are both disciplined and highly trained. They can plant stakes.

Lithuanian Archers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 1 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 430 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Poland

These archers are poor shooters, but have alright melee stats. They are merely a stopgap until Poland can train better archers.

Longbowmen
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 560 Upkeep: 150
Factions: England

The basic longbowman is a very, very useful unit as you’d expect. Their missile attack looks low, but they will still put a serious dent in armoured or unarmoured units. They aren’t completely terrible at melee, but with a unit like this you really want to keep them out of it if you can help it. They have an extremely long range so this should be easy. Remember however they use an AP hammer in melee, so they are effective against armour whenever shooting or in melee.

Mongol Foot Archers
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Mongols

Mongol Foot Archers are by far the weakest Mongol unit. They are rubbish in melee as they have the same stats as Peasant Archers. They shoot decently however. When fighting the Mongols one good cavalry charge should finish these.

Mongol Infantry
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defence: 16 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 580 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Mongols

Mongol Infantry are much like Byzantine Guard Archers. They are equally good in both ranged and melee combat and have shields so they can be a real pain to kill. Hit them with heavy cavalry charges to wipe these dangerous troops out as fast as possible.

Muslim Archers
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defence: 10 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 550 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Sicily

Muslim Archers are some of the best archers for a Catholic faction, as they are equal to the best archers for factions that rely on them, like the Mongols and make great support for Sicily’s infantry heavy army. They aren’t bad in melee either.

Noble Highland Archers
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 12 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 600 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Scotland

Noble Highland Archers are much better than Highland Archers. They are better in every stat and work well for supporting Scotland’s units in melee as well as shooting. They use AP axes. Don't expect them to outshoot most other archers. They are well armoured which helps them a good bit.

Norse Archers
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 2 Defence: 16 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 480 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Denmark

Norse Archers are another tough archer unit that can do double duty as light infantry while laying down some good missile fire.

Nubian Archers
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 2 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 470 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Egypt

Nubian Archers aren’t very good in melee due to their low defence, but they are good enough at shooting.

Ottoman Infantry
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defence: 17 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 670 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Turks

Ottoman Infantry are amazing infantry. They are equal to some of the best archers in stats but are vastly better than most as they have good melee stats and pack swords and shields which they take off their backs when in melee, a trait which no other archers in Medieval 2 have. This makes them the most versatile and best shortbow archers in Medieval 2. They can rain death down with their good missile attack and can more than pull their weight in melee with their excellent stats (for an archer) and weapons, especially against weaker troops like spearmen. Ottoman Infantry are some of the most useful troops in the game and they will come in incredibly handy for the Turkish player.

Peasant Archers
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 220 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Spain, France, England, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Russia, Turks, Egypt, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Mongols

Peasant Archers are the first archers you get for most factions and are the weakest in the game. They have a poor missile attack and are hopeless in melee, with useless attack and non-existent defence. Use them early on for whittling down armies from a distance. When using Peasant Archers it is a very good idea to get them some armour as soon as possible to increase their survival. They can go from unarmoured, all the way to heavy mail, which helps them a great deal.

As weak as Peasant Archers are they are likely to form the mainstay of your early armies along with Spear Militia, unless you are a faction with better starting archers. They are quite capable of taking down unarmoured or lightly armoured troops en mass, like Spear Militia. They are so cheap it’s easy to have lots of them to cut down enemies before the inevitable melee, so you take less causalities. They also make good fodder and distraction forces with their hail of missiles. Clouds of incoming pointy things tend to get people’s attention, regardless of if they are accurate or not!

Scots Guard
Attack: 12 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 17 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 800 Upkeep: 175
Factions: France

Scots Guard are elite Scottish Longbowmen in French employ. As you’d imagine they are extremely powerful troops, as they are the only non-English longbow unit available in the campaign outside of mercs.. They can rain death on armoured and unarmoured troops from far away and they also are very heavily armoured and armed with swords for melee. Scots Guard are a bit like Ottoman Infantry and do well in melee, even though their lack of shields will cause them to take quite a few losses. They are right up there as one of Medieval 2’s most versatile units.

Sherwood Archers
Attack 16 Missile attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 11 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 250
Factions: England

Sherwood Archers are strange units. There are 60 men rather than the standard 120 for archer units. They have the highest missile attack for a longbow in Medieval 2 and they are very powerful in melee against light troops with their extreme melee skills. Their smaller numbers means they tend to kill fewer enemies than standard longbowmen with arrow volleys and their lack of armour and small numbers gets them crushed in melee by any decent troops. Despite what their description says Sherwood Archers cannot hide in any terrain, only forests like everyone else and they really aren’t worth using over the larger longbow units. Their small number, complete lack of armour and limited volume of fire makes them inferior.

Sabadar Militia
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 780 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Timurids

Another unit of tough archers, you’d be hard pressed to tell these are militia if they weren’t named as such. They are like Mongol Heavy Archers, but even better defended as they are better with their shields. They also have AP secondary weapons Sabadar Militia are deadly archers and when fighting the Timurids you’ll want to take them out quick with a cavalry charge.

Trebizond Archers
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 460 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Byzantium

These archers have a great missile attack and passable melee stats, making them useful early archers in the archer laden Byzantine Empire.

Turkish Archers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 1 Defence: 10 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 440 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Turks

Average archers, Turkish Archers have a decent missile attack and can be used as light infantry to flank enemies. They are available early on in the campaign so use these guys rather than Peasant Archers.

Retinue Longbowmen
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 2 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 710 Upkeep: 150
Factions: England

England’s elite archers, Retinue Longbowmen are well armoured longbowmen with better stats than the Yeoman Archers they succeed. Their good missile attack coupled with the AP power of their longbows allows them to unleash a fearsome storm of pointy death on any enemies and they can more than handle themselves in melee. They work well as light infantry as they wield swords. Unlike England’s other longbowmen units their melee weapon does not pierce armour so try to avoid the more armoured foes. They shouldn't ever really need to enter melee anyway!

Venetian Archers
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defence: 13 Armour: 7 Morale: 5 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Venice

Venetian Archers are another unit of very useful archers, they have the same high missile attack of eastern faction archers and are heavily armoured, enabling them to shrug off quite a bit of counter fire. They work well with Venetian Heavy Infantry to wipe out the enemies of Venice, of which there are many.

Yeoman Archers
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 3 Defence: 5 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 650 Upkeep: 150
Factions: England

Yeoman Archers are basically Retinue Longbowmen without the armour. They can fight in melee better than standard longbows and shoot better, but their low defence gets them killed quickly. Keep them protected and let them shower the enemy with death or use them as flankers putting their good attack to good use. Remember they also carry an AP hammer in melee, allowing them to fight heavy infantry more effectively than you’d think.

Crossbowmen are a very important troop type in Medieval 2: they will be useful in almost every battle. They are the first available troops, besides maybe javelins that will allow you to pierce armour for most factions and are easily trained, requiring few buildings. Crossbows fire more slowly than archers, but their missiles have more killing power so enemies hit by them are more likely to die instantly. Crossbowmen should be deployed in front of your troops or on higher ground because unlike archers they cannot easily arc their shots and will have trouble hitting anything. Crossbows can shoot if their view is blocked, but they are noticeably less accurate.

Crossbowmen and Spearmen will likely be the bulk of your early army. Crossbowmen are equally good against lightly armoured targets as well as the heavier ones, as they have a high missile attack and will kill both easily. This makes a large force of crossbows more versatile than archers, as they can hold their own against both light troops and heavy ones. The weakness of crossbowmen is that they fire more slowly than archers and need to stay still to be most effective because of their slower weapons. They also tend to be poor skirmishers because of their long animation cycles. Don’t use crossbowmen against archers if you can help it. They may win, but usually they won’t and will take a lot of causalities, unless the crossbowmen are clearly superior or well armoured.

Pavise Crossbowmen are crossbowmen with a large shield on their back. They use this shield to shelter behind while reloading They are largely impervious to arrows while reloading, though the fact you can’t control their reloading cycle makes it difficult to get them to reload and shelter themselves when the enemy fires a volley. When they fire they will often get killed by incoming fire if they time it poorly. Their pavise also protects them from rear missile attacks as they will take fewer casualties when hit in the back than any other unit. Note that AP missiles like longbows or gunpowder weaponry largely ignore their pavise and will still inflict many casualties.


Crossbowmen are deadly if not taken out quickly. They have much the same vulnerability as archers: just charge them with cavalry to massacre them with the charge. They are overall usually worse than archers in melee and they shoot somewhat more slowly, so massed archer fire will hurt them.

Aventurier
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 14 Charge: 3 Defence: 15 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 175
Factions: France

Aventuriers are the most powerful crossbowmen in the game. They have a huge missile attack making them very deadly to armoured units as long as they are protected and are heavily armoured to protect them from archer fire. They are very expensive troops for archers so keep them in a secure position, especially given the crossbow’s slowness and let them snipe away relentlessly at the foe. They can fight well in melee if the need arises.

Crossbowmen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 1 Defence: 8 Armour: 5 Morale: 3 Cost: 330 Upkeep: 125
Factions: France, Denmark, Hungary

The basic crossbowmen are actually a rather uncommon unit compared to Crossbow Militia and have the same missile attack. They are well armoured however and can fight better in melee. Their stats are still nothing amazing and they are best kept in a secure spot to fire away.

Crossbow Militia
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 220 Upkeep: 100 (Spain, France, Portugal, Denmark)
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 1 Defence: 8 Armour: 5 Cost: 330 Upkeep: 100 (Moors)
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 1 Defence: 7 Armour: 4 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 100 (Russia, Poland)

Crossbow Militia is some of the most useful militia in Medieval 2. They have a very good missile attack for missile unit militia and are quite capable of seriously hurting armoured units. Their cheap cost and effective missiles makes it easy to have many units of them to create a hail of fire that is very effective for defending settlements or killing heavy infantry. Use a lot of these units, especially as garrisons.

The Moors have a much better crossbow unit than this one in Peasant Crossbowmen so always make Peasant Crossbows as the Moors when you can instead of this unit.

Genoese Crossbowmen
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 14 Charge: 2 Defence: 16 Armour: 6 Cost: 600 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Milan

Genoese Crossbowmen are Milan’s elite crossbowmen and are much like Adventuriers but with slightly less armour and less melee ability. They still have a very powerful missile attack and a Pavise shield

Genoese Crossbow Militia
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 12 Charge: 1 Defence: 15 Armour: 6 Morale: 5 Cost: 570 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Milan

Genoese Crossbow Militia are an unsurprisingly weaker version of standard Genoese Crossbowmen. They have worse stats all around and lower morale but are still some of the best crossbowmen in the game and far above most other militia. They pack a powerful missile attack, a pavise shield, good armour and decent melee ability, making them extremely useful. Milan loves to make giant stacks of these guys so bring plenty of cavalry to charge them down.

Pavise Crossbowmen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 12 Charge: 1 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 3 Cost: 490 Upkeep: 125
Factions: Spain, Sicily, Portugal, Papal States

Pavise Crossbowmen are much like normal crossbows except for the large shield on their back. Use them like normal crossbowmen and take advantage of their pavise as said in the unit class intro.

Pavise Crossbow Militia
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 12 Charge: 1 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 3 Cost: 490 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Venice, Sicily, Hungary, Papal States

Even though these troops are militia, their stats are the same as normal Pavise Crossbowmen, except their upkeep is slightly less for the same unit. Use them in the same way.

Peasant Crossbowmen
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 9 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale 3 Cost: 220 Upkeep: 100 (Portugal, France, Venice, Milan, Papal States)
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 12 Charge: 1 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 100 (Moors)

Peasant Crossbowmen are exactly like Crossbow Militia except they are recruited from cities. Use them in the same way.

Except for the Moorish version that is. Moorish Peasant Crossbowmen are very different to the Catholic version with a ridiculously powerful missile attack for peasants and far better melee skills. Their defence is better too, though they are best kept out of melee so they can work their ranged magic. Used properly, Peasant Crossbowmen can make the Moors a nightmare to face, as long as you keep them out of counter fire.

Ah gunpowder. They sure are fun to use; filling the air with smoke and fire as they send rolling thunder echoing across the hills, loosening the enemy’s bowels.

The first thing to remember with gunpowder infantry is they aren’t meant to run around and skirmish like archers. Gunpowder is a slow, unwieldy weapon and units that use it fire slowly and take time to get into formation. When using gunpowder you want to let the units get set up, leave skirmish off and not move them until you absolutely have to, so they can volley fire uninterrupted and as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter how close the enemy gets, the closer they are the more devastating their vollies will become.

The second thing to remember about gunpowder is that it scares the crap out of the enemy. Any enemy that take casualties from gunpowder units suffers a large morale penalty and they will rout quite easily. Gunfire also inflicts great damage on armoured and unarmoured units alike, as it goes straight though armour. Muskets are deadliest at this, as they can pierce any armour in Medieval 2. Arquebusiers are less powerful against armour than Musketeers but still far better than any non gunpowder, and Handgunner bullets are the weakest gunpowder armour piercers, but are better than crossbows. Massed heavy infantry are exactly the sort of target gunners should be used against, as they are slow to reach the Musketeers and heavily armoured. Note that all gunpowder units are immune to morale drops caused by gunpowder.

When using gunpowder you can and will hit your own troops. They can’t arc their fire like archers and if you fire into a melee with your gunners behind your own troops you’ll hit your own and because of gunpowder’s morale penalty you could easily rout your own men. That said you usually have to accept a certain amount of friendly causalities when using guns as their tactics usually have them behind something else.

Gunpowder infantry should be deployed in two ranks. This way they can bring the maximum amount of guns to bear on the enemy and they reload very quickly. In three rows the front gunners wait until the previous front rank has moved to the rear and started to reload before they fire. In two ranks the front rank simply steps to the side, moving directly to the back and reloads while the front fires. Then that row moves and so on. The guns will stay far more organised and will fire much more quickly in two ranks. In more than three rows less men are firing at once and the third rank and ones further back will not shoot, making their volume of fire less than it could be and wasting their potential. You should only deploy gunpowder infantry this way when they are firing into a narrow frontage.

Gunpowder infantry use a revolving fire style where the front rank shoots and then reloads. They then run to the back and the front rank fires and the cycle repeats. The front rank usually will not shoot until the previous front rank is in position at the back and facing the front, which is why two ranks are best. Even with two rows this takes a few seconds, which is why gunpowder troops must be kept stationary.

Gunpowder, because of its slowness and setup time must be used with another unit to protect them, unless you have so many gun units you can shoot the enemy to pieces before they even get close.

Pikemen are the classic choice for this, with Musketeers for the infamous pike and shot formation. In Medieval 2 however, it’s better to have your pikemen behind your Musketeers. If you’re facing slow infantry, this gives the gunners an unobstructed view of the enemy and removes the possibly of friendly fire. If you are facing fast cavalry have the pikemen in front of the Musketeers. Or just to the side to intercept their charge.

If you are facing a lot of archers, you shouldn’t even bother with Arquebusiers as their slowness and lack of armour and bugs make them almost useless and they will take too many causalities. Musketeers and Hand gunners still work well. Musketeers have such a huge range so they can rout archers before they can do much damage. Handgunners meanwhile don't use volleys so casualties won’t screw up their fire. They are also well armoured so they are tough for archers to kill.

Any infantry that can hold a line, like heavy swordsmen, spearmen or even knights can be used instead of pikes. Having cavalry on the flanks to intercept attackers is a good idea too.

Another tip is to use archers that can plant states like Longbowmen and Janissary archers use the archers to plant then then pout your musketeers behind the stakes for easy cavalry protection.

It is important to keep Arquebusiers and Musketeers out of counter fire. There is a bug in Medieval 2 that causes Arquebusiers and Musketeers that get hit with missiles to get stuck just shifting men around uselessly instead of just shooting. This is lessened if they are in two ranks but it still sometimes happens. Try to use some other unit to draw fire. Hand gunners do not have the fire_by_rank attribute that the other gun units have and thus don’t suffer from this problem. This isn’t much of a problem for Musketeers because of their huge range; they can decimate the archers before they get too close. A hilltop is perfect for Musketeers, because they get an even longer range and it’s harder for archers to shoot back at them. Always deploy your gunners on a hill if you can.


All Musketeers have a massive range compared to other missile types and a big missile attack. Musketeers have the longest range in the game, with the sole exception of artillery. From the beginning of the battle the enemy are almost always in range and the muskteers will start blasting away at them. Musketeers are also the most accurate gun unit and they piece armour very easily. They suffer from the gunpowder bugs as stated above and can sometimes be useless because of them. When they work however, there are few things deadlier at range.


Hand Gunners are not meant to stay back and shoot like the others. Handguns have a short range and their users have much better attack and defence compared to other gunpower units. They are also well armoured. They are best used to fire a volley or two into the flanks or rear of an engaged unit or simply as the unit approaches to wreck their morale and then charge into the unit they just shot, Their good stats and the enemies’ lowered morale from their gun attack will help them triumph. This will almost certainly make them rout.

Note that often it’s better to use crossbows than arquebusiers. Crossbows have no bugs, they shoot faster and they pierce armour too, just not as well as guns. Crossbows are a more reliable set of units. Hand Gunners and Musketeers have their use but arquebusiers are sort of the worst of both worlds.


Gunpowder are very easy to defeat if you can charge them with cavalry, the problem is getting close enough without your units fleeing in terror. Rank fire gun units take a long time to charge direction and get set up for a volley, so flanking them with cavalry should ensure they get caught by the charge if your enemy leaves them unprotected.

Archers are good too, as the bugs with gunpowder mean the incoming fire will disrupt them and stop them from shooting. Artillery can also disrupt them, giving you time to get closer. Long range archers like longbows are great against guns. Crossbows should work well vs hand gunners.

Arquebusiers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 14 Charge: 1 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 460 Upkeep: 125
Factions: England, Denmark, HRE, Spain, France, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Papal States

Arquebusiers are the common gunpowder unit for most factions. They have a much shorter range than Musketeers, but they still rip up armour. They are very vulnerable to archers because of the bugs with the unit, their short range and the fact they have no armour. Their morale is also quite low for such advanced units so keep them out of melee. Their use over crossbowmen is questionable, especially for Milan.

Cossack Musketeers
Attack: 12 Missile attack: 17 Charge: 3 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 11 Cost: 950 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Russia

Cossack Musketeers are very powerful musketeers; only bettered by Janissary Musketeers. They have a massive missile attack, the huge musket range and a big melee attack for a missile unit, but their defence is low and their lack of armour or shields tend to get them wiped out. Make sure archers don’t get too close.

Hand Gunners
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 13 Charge: 2 Defence: 13 Armour: 7 Morale: 5 Cost: 650 Upkeep: 150 (Spain, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Papal States)
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 13 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 850 Upkeep: 150 (Moors Turks Timurids)

Hand Gunners are very different to the other gun units. They have a lower missile attack and much less range. They make up for it with vastly better defence and armour and a good melee attack. Hand Gunners can handle melee quite well, especially against spearmen and should be used to fire a short range volley or two into the enemy then charge into the melee with their swords. Leave one or two units of Hand Gunners back to keep shooting. The very high morale penalty inflicted by gunpowder will help the chargers break the enemy after a little melee. They are also good for firing into a melee to make the enemy rout much faster. Just don’t use them entirely at range because they aren’t as effective as other gun units and are less accurate.

The Islamic version of this unit has almost double the morale than the Catholic version, has slightly more charge and less armour.

Janissary Musketeers
Attack: 12 Missile attack: 17 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 830 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Turks

Janissary Musketeers have the best missile attack in the game for non-artillery (except for Naffatun) and are extremely lethal as long as they are working right. They fight very well in melee too, with all round excellent stats. They are disciplined and highly trained. If you are the Turks you’ll want lots of these.

Musketeers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 14 Charge: 1 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 540 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Spain, Venice, Milan, Portugal

Musketeers are the basic musketeers and are the worst in melee. They have the lowest missile attack for a musket, but are still deadly at range. If used correctly they come in very useful.

Portuguese Arquebusiers
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 16 Charge: 3 Defence: 13 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 760
Factions: Portugal

Portugal’s Arquebusiers have better stats all round: they have the same missile attack as Sudanese Gunners, so their volleys are devastating and they can also fight in melee decently as they have good attack and defence, far better than standard Arquebusiers.

Sudanese Gunners
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 16 Charge: 3 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 570
Factions: Moors

Sudanese Gunners are better than Arquebusiers in melee but should still stay far out of it. They have a superior missile attack.

Naffatun is a one of a kind unit in Medieval 2. There are 40 men in the unit on huge unit sizes. The men are armed with Naffatun grenades: pots of lethal, fiery chemicals that explode into fire when they hit an enemy. They have a tiny range, the smallest in the game and 5 grenades per man. These grenades are utterly devastating. They hit with area affect damage, ignoring armour and killing even heavily armoured troops like knights incredibly quickly. One Naffatun grenade will kill anyone it hits regardless of how much armour or hitpoints they have. Even generals with their many hitpoints will die from one Naffatun grenade. Two units of Naffatun volleying at once can kill half a unit of foot knights in a few seconds they have a huge effect on morale and can just devastate anything incredibility quickly. All Naffatun need to be effective is a pinning unit. They are small units and take a few seconds to throw their grenades. First thing is to take them off skirmish. Their range is only slightly more than the one that triggers the skirmisher reaction to pull back. If you don’t turn it off your men will just run away. Next you need a cheap unit to hold the enemy, like spearmen. The pinning unit might get hit as well so don’t use something expensive. Charge the enemy with your fodder to make sure they get stuck in a melee with them and run the Naffatun up. If there are any archers around kill or distract them. Then target the pinned unit with your Naffatun. They will throw their grenades into the enemy, causing terrible damage and ripping the enemy apart in seconds. The enemy will break in seconds, no matter what they are and will be utterly destroyed. Naffatun is deadly like no other unit if you use it correctly. They are cheap for how effective they are.

Even though you’ll usually be using them at a distance, remember that Naffatun has very high morale and they are powerful in melee as they have a high melee attack and good defence and armour. They will always be far outnumbered in a melee however.


Naffatun, if not ignored, is easily crushed. Just charge them with cav or shoot them with archers/crossbows and they will drop fast. If you must use infantry just send a unit you don't care about in first so they take the losses from grenades and then send a tougher unit in after to cut the Naffatun down. Keep your general well away from them!

Naffatun
Attack: 13 Missile attack: 23 Charge: 3 Defence: 12 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 380 Upkeep: 50
Factions: Timurids, Turks, Egypt, Mongols

These are the only Naffatun using unit in the game and should be used as outlined above. They have all round great stats.

Knights are elite heavy cavalry. They are usually very heavily armoured and have excellent morale, the highest in the game besides the Great Cross and the like.

Knights will take on terrible odds with no problems and will fight in a losing melee for a long time. They usually have very good attack and some of the highest defence of any unit. The thing that makes knights special though is their devastating charge and their fantastic morale. All Knights have a massive charge bonus: a unit of Santiago Knights charging into a unit of dismounted Feudal Knights will kill half the unit and they will almost instantly rout.

Mounted knights can fight well in melee but the best way to use them is to keep pulling back, allow them to redress the ranks by dragging out a formation and charging them in again to kill another load of enemy. Knights can do this because their heavy armour stops them getting killed while they pull back and their morale lets them pull back without it turning into a rout. The best targets for mounted knights are swordsmen, as they don’t really have any defence against the charge and will suffer many losses. The only drawback to this style of fighting is the micromanagement required. Even I’m guilty of commonly leaving my knights in melee and doing something else.

Crusader knights can only initially be recruited when going on crusade. Once you Crusade as a faction a knightly order associated with that faction will offer to build a chapter house in a settlement, usually your capital. From then on you can recruit that unit in that settlement.


Knights are vulnerable to spears just like other cavalry. Even Spear Militia can defeat knights and stop their charge without too many deaths, if you have enough, though they will take major losses in the ensuing melee. A solid wall of spears is the best way to kill them. Crossbows and javelins work very well, as the more knights you can kill before they reach melee the better. Gunpowder works well against knights as well. Pikemen are expendable and can stop their charge if they are in spearwall formation, but don't expect them to win the melee without help.

Chivalric Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 17 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 930 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Spain, France, Sicily, Denmark, Hungary

Chivalric Knights are the generic powerful knights for factions that don’t have a unique unit of them. They share their stats with quite a few other units of knights and have a high attack and defence as well as typical heavy knight armour. Their charge is devastating so crash them into swordsmen and light infantry to crush them. This unit can handle itself well in melee. They are impetuous

English Knights
Attack: 10 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 860 Upkeep: 250
Factions: England

English Knights seem somewhat weaker than other knights at first glance, but that’s until you see they have AP axes as secondary weapons. The combination of a powerful charge, very heavy armour and an AP weapon lets them absolutely crush other knights and heavy troops. They go through enemy knights very quick and are very useful indeed. Make good use of these knights.

Imperial Knights
Attack: 10 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 750 Upkeep: 250
Factions: HRE

Knights of Santiago
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 880 Upkeep: 185
Factions: Spain, Portugal

These knights are all around good units, similar to other knights. They have a low mental state. They are Crusaders.

Knights Templar
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 880 Upkeep: 185
Factions: France, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Papal States, England

These are just like the Knights of Santiago, except they are impetuous. They are Crusaders.

Knights Hospitaller
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 880 Upkeep: 185
Factions: France, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Poland, Hungary, Papal States, England

Again just like Knights of Santiago. They are Crusaders.

Mailed Knights
Attack: 10 Charge: 6 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 680 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Spain, France, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Portugal, Papal States, England

The first knights most factions get, Mailed Knights are the weakest knights in the game, featuring a low charge bonus and medium armour for the class. They are still quite powerful however and have the same high morale as later knights. Be a bit more careful with these knights and consider charging into the flank or rear of units engaged with your infantry for best effect. They have a low mental state.

Norman Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 17 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 880 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Sicily

Norman Knights are a slightly weaker version of Chivalric Knights; they have a surprisingly low charge. They are available early in the campaign however and replace the Feudal Knight for Sicily. They still have the same attack as the later knights and the same armour as Feudal Knights so they are a powerful unit for Sicily. They are impetuous.

Feudal Knights
Attack: 10 Charge: 6 Defence: 16 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 730 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Spain, France, Venice, Milan, Scotland, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Papal States, England

Feudal Knights are the most common knights available in the mid to early game and for the time you get them they are powerful and are strong enough to crash into the front of a unit and do major damage with their charge, but they are best used to hit the flanks or rear. They are impetuous.

Noble Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 17 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 930 Upkeep: 320
Factions: France

Noble Knights are just like Norman Knights, except they have a more powerful charge. They are very tough cavalry and fight equally well in melee or charging repeatedly. They are impetuous.

Polish Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 17 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 840 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Poland

Polish Knights are the same as Noble Knights except slightly more expensive. Use them in the same way. They are impetuous.

Portuguese Knights
Attack: 10 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 700 Upkeep: 250
Factions:” Portugal

The Knights of Portugal are exactly like English Knights, except they have a sword rather than an AP axe for a secondary weapon, making then a lot less useful, but still serviceable troops.

Heavy cavalry are heavily armoured cavalry that are not knights. They are usually just like knights in other ways, since they all have heavy armour, great morale and powerful weapons along with a good charge. Read the section on mounted knights and apply the same tactics to heavy cavalry.

Broken Lances
Attack: 10 Charge: 8 Defence: 13 Armour: 9 Morale: 9 Cost: 730 Upkeep: 320
Factions: Venice, Milan, Papal States

Broken Lances do a good job as they are very heavily armoured, sharing their armour rating with a few other units and a good attack. Their charge is devastating and combined with their massive armour rating it is clear this unit is meant to charge into the enemy repeatedly to smash them apart. They can fight well enough in melee if you prefer to leave them there however. They have a low mental state.

Cavalry Militia
Attack: 8 Charge: 5 Defence: 15 Armour: 7 Morale: 5 Cost: 540 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Venice, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

For a militia unit this unit is tough indeed as they are as armoured as Feudal Knights. Their attack and charge is lower than most cavalry, but they are still well suited for a flanking charge with their heavy armour and come in handy for chasing and wiping out missile units because they can resist arrows with their heavy armour and have a good enough attack and charge to cut them down fast. Just watch their morale, as it is rather low and they have a low mental state.

Christian Guard
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 970 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Moors

Christian Guard are very powerful heavy cavalry with a great attack and can soak up damage with their armour, their charge is also devastating. This unit is the perfect companion to the Moors’ other light troops and will do its duty well indeed. They are disciplined and highly trained.

Demi Lancers
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 12 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 700 Upkeep: 250
Factions: England

Demi Lancers are high tech troops that England gets late in the game. They have a very high charge and fight well in melee with their knight level attack and armour, but their lack of a shield makes them rather vulnerable in melee. There is no real reason to use this unit over England’s excellent English Knights, since Demi Lancers just get a basic sword for a secondary weapon and not an AP axe. They have a low mental state.

Druzhina
Attack: 11 Charge: 5 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 210
Faction: Russia

Druzhina are more like medium cavalry than heavy cavalry. They have good attack and defence and their secondary weapon axe is AP. If you’re facing armoured units charge normally since they won’t use their secondary weapon in the charge then alt+click in melee to get them to use their axes to cut down armoured foes.

Famiglia Ducale
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 14 Armour: 9 Morale: 11 Cost: 880 Upkeep: 320
Factions: Milan

Famiglia Ducale are incredibly heavily armoured cavalry. They are tied for highest armour in the game and can soak up punishment like knights. They are still vulnerable to crossbows, gunpowder and spearmen, but to just about anything else though they are wrecking balls with a massive charge bonus to shred infantry. Their attack is among the highest for this class and with their armour they are perfectly suited to crashing into the front of foot knights and the like to crush them. They lack shields, so their defence is less than some, but their immense armour and their charge should see them killing a lot of enemy. Just remember they are very expensive. For some reason they have a low mental state

Granadine Lancers
Attack: 10 Charge: 6 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 750 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Moors

Granadine Lancers are weaker than some other cavalry and despite being called lancers they don’t have the bone crushing charge units like Famiglia Ducale do. They also have less armour. They still come in handy for flank charges, will still kill quite a lot from the front and they do quite well in melee. The moors are not known for their well armoured troops so this well protected cav is pretty vital to them.

Huscarls
Attack: 11 Charge: 4 Defence: 16 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 690 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Denmark

Huscarls are axe wielding medium cavalry with all around good stats and very high morale. They are better left in the melee, as their axe gives them a low charge bonus. Send them and their AP axes crashing into heavy cavalry or the flanks of heavy infantry and watch the slaughter.

Hussars
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 750 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Poland, Hungary

Hussars are elite medium cavalry with morale higher than knights. They have a powerful knight level attack, good defence and are well armoured. They are perfect for chasing missile units, flanking and acting as general purpose cavalry, as their sky high morale and strong attack make them very useful. They are expensive however.

Latinkon
Attack: 10 Charge: 8 Defence: 15 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 730 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Byzantium

Latinkon can’t compare to knights, but they are still quite powerful as they are well armoured with a good attack and can still take a lot of punishment. Their high charge makes them good for smashing infantry too. They are impetuous.

Men At Arms
Attack: 8 Charge: 7 Defence: 15 Armour: 8 Morale: 5 Cost: 580 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Venice, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

Men at Arms are tough with good defence and very heavy armour, they can take a lot of abuse before dying. They aren’t so good at dishing out pain, as their attack is low for heavy cavalry. They can handle themselves in melee, but you might want to consider pulling them back and charging over and over, as they have a good charge.

Mamluks
Attack: 11 Charge: 5 Defence: 15 Armour: 6 Cost: 820 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Egypt

Mamluks are elite Egyptian cavalry armed with a spear and an AP mace. They are well armoured, disciplined and highly trained, but their charge is weaker because they do not have lances. Send Mamluks against heavy cavalry and the flanks of heavy infantry and use Alt+right click to have them change to their maces, which will let the Mamluks cut them up.

Merchant Cavalry Militia
Attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 14 Armour: 7 Cost: 370 Upkeep: 210
Factions: France, Spain, Scotland, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, England

Merchant Cavalry are basically Feudal Knights without the skill. They may look like knights and act like knights but they are much weaker and have very poor charge, less than most infantry and much, much lower morale. Take advantage of their heavy armour and use them to take out archers and chase missile cavalry, since they will take much less damage from non armour piercing missiles than lighter cav. They are OK for flank attacks as well because of their good defence. They are much cheaper than knights for this purpose too.

Mongol Heavy Lancers
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 850 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Timurids, Mongols

Mongol Heavy Lancers are weaker than you might expect from the Mongols. There are heavy cavalry with better stats than them, as they are basically weaker versions of Hussars. They are still very powerful because of their experience level, fact they are disciplined and the Mongols’ very skilled generals. They have an AP mace for a secondary weapon, so watch out in melee.

Norse War Clerics
Attack: 10 Charge: 4 Defence: 19 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 750 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Denmark

Norse War Clerics are pretty tough heavy cavalry armed with AP maces. While their charge is tied for the worst in the heavy cavalry class (besides Merchant Cavalry) because they have just maces rather than lances they can soak up damage with their high defence and very heavy armour. It takes a lot to kill these horsemen and they will serve well. It’s best to leave these men in melee as then they can dish out damage far better than they can with their weak charge stat.

Royal Banderium
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 790 Upkeep: 320
Factions: Hungary

The Royal Banderium is a powerful unit with great attack for heavy cavalry and they have good defence and very heavy armour. Their charge is high and they have excellent morale. They can handle melee and repeated charges with equal ferocity. They have a low mental state.

Polish Guard
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 17 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 840 Upkeep: 320
Factions: Poland

Polish Guard are exactly like Royal Banderium except they have 1 more point in defence. Use them in the same way.

Polish Retainers
Attack: 10 Charge: 8 Defence: 15 Armour: 6 Morale: 9 Cost: 650 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Poland

Polish Retainers are the same as Latinkon and should be used in the same way.

Conquistadores
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 17 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 880 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Spain, Portugal (America only)

Conquistadores are powerful troops that are only traininable in the Americas when you can travel to the new world. This means they will mostly be fighting the weak Aztec troops and will utterly crush them. The Aztecs are mostly weak and the Conquisdores’ great stats and sky high morale will let them sit in melee when they are vastly outnumbered and take down loads of enemies. They are excellent at charging the Aztecs too, as none of them are well armoured and they will die in droves from a charge, even though the Conquistadores’ charge isn’t anything special. Take full advantage of these units when you have the opportunity.

Kataphractoi
Attack: 10 Charge: 6 Defence: 16 Armour: 8 Morale: 9 Cost: 790 Upkeep: 250
Faction: Byzantium

Another MTW unit, Kataphractoi aren’t as good as some other heavy cavalry as their attack is lower and they share their defence and armour with several others. They are still powerful units, especially since they are disciplined. Just use them for general heavy cavalry tasks.

Lancers
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 11 Morale: 11 Cost: 930 Upkeep: 320
Factions: France

Lancers are very powerful heavy cavalry for France. They have a strong attack for cavalry, a bonecrushing charge and a truly extreme amount of armour the most of any unit. They are also impetuous. They are like spike covered wrecking balls; carving great holes in enemy units. Their charge is deadly and they fight very well in melee. They are very difficult for non spearmen to kill because of their titanic armour They may be expensive but this is a great unit and some of the most powerful cavalry. They are impetuous.

Qapukulu
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 18 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 1100 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Turks

Another powerful heavy cavalry unit this is better than most with very high defence and heavy armour. Their attack is high like some other heavy cavalry, although their charge isn’t that good. This cavalry is best used to charge once or twice then left to fight it out in melee, especially since they have an AP mace. They are incredibly expensive so try to keep them alive. They are disciplined.

Royal Mamluks
Attack: 14 Charge: 5 Defence: 17 Armour: 6 Morale: 11 Cost: 1050 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Egypt

While these cavalry aren’t as heavily armoured as some they are tied for best attack in the game for a cav unit and with 14 attack they really can tear enemy units apart. Their defence is still high even though they have less armour than some. This is an excellent and powerful cavalry unit and will come in very handy in the Egyptian late game. They have an AP secondary mace and are disciplined.

Sipahi Lancers
Attack: 11 Charge: 5 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 750 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Turks

Sipahi Lancers aren’t the greatest heavy cavalry, but they still have enough attack to pack a punch. They are best left in melee; despite being called “lancers” their charge is weak.

Gendarmes
Attack: 10 Charge: 8 Defence: 15 Armour: 11 Morale: 9 Cost: 770 Upkeep: 320
Factions: Spain, France

Gendarmes don't have the highest stats, but they are tied with Lancers for having the most armour. 11 armour is nuts and makes them more than tough to take down. Their advantage is they can be trained from cities, the only heavy cavalry that can be. While they have lower attack than most heavy cavalry they still have their crushing charge and super heavy armour to fall back on. Repeatedly drive this cavalry into vulnerable heavy infantry and they will be worth their cost. The tactical advantage of city cavalry should not be underestimated!

Much like Generals in RTW, your General is the soul of your army. While the men are the body, the General is their soul that keeps them fighting. Over dramatics aside, the quality of your general has a huge effect on how your troops fight and their morale. An army can suffer from a bad General as much as it can benefit from a great one. A General will almost always be better than a Captain for a leader. Captains have no traits at all and have zero command stars so if you have a General with an awful trait, such as a big morale lowering one, you might actually want to kick him out and let the captain lead the army since he is not actively harmful. Captains still give a morale boost to units close to their unit but it not as much as even a generic General.

There are too many traits to go into here that Generals can get, but here are some tips on moulding a good General.

Start young. As soon as a guy comes of age give him an army and send him off to conquer. The sooner you start getting him Command stars and positive traits the better and the longer he has to improve and serve your faction before he dies from old age.

Get the General involved. While General’s Bodyguards are not as devastating as RTW’s, they are still powerful units and are more than capable of contributing to a melee and hacking troops apart themselves. Getting the General involved personally is a great way to get him good traits, such as bravery ones.

Keep an eye on your General. Watch the melee closely. If your General is cut off from his bodyguard or is bloody and surrounded by people hitting him, pull the unit back to get him out of the danger, if he’s behind his bodyguard and bloody but not actually getting hit you can risk leaving him there a bit longer. If you can’t see your General, pause and find him: his distinctive armour makes him easy to spot. Some of the more useful traits like the scarred traits (that increase your general’s hitpoints, so it takes more hits to kill him) are gained by surviving a battle, but being badly injured. If a General loses most of his hitpoints but survives a battle he will often get a scarred trait. It is a fine line between keeping him in melee long enough to get good traits and getting him killed. Don’t be afraid of throwing your General into the thick of things.

Regardless of his traits, all Generals have a heavy cavalry bodyguard. The size of the bodyguard depends on the importance of the General and his skills. High Command star generals get larger bodyguards, while faction leaders and heirs always get very big ones. Traits about security, like about being paranoid about assassins and such give even more bodyguards. The only faction that doesn’t have a heavy cavalry bodyguard is the Aztecs, as they lack cavalry. In one historical battle the English have a heavy infantry bodyguard for their king.

Bodyguard
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 17 Armour: 8 Cost: 860 Upkeep: 250 (Timurids, Mongols)
Attack: 14 Charge: 5 Defence: 18 Armour: 7 Cost: 900 Upkeep: 250 (Moors, Turks, Egypt)

The early bodyguard for these factions pack good stats indeed and are more than capable of turning the tide of a battle with a charge and protecting the general. They do not have the AP weapon of the later bodyguard, but still serve well.

Late Bodyguard
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 19 Armour: 9 Cost: 1070 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Moors, Turks, Egypt

The late bodyguard for these factions has slightly less attack and more defence and armour but they also pack an armour piercing mace rather than a sword for a secondary weapon. This makes them much more useful, as they can cut up tough units in melee with their great stats and AP attack.

General’s Bodyguard
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 820 Upkeep: 250 (England Spain, France, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Papal States)
Attack: 14 Charge: 5 Defence: 18 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 820 Upkeep: 250 (Russia)

The average Christian bodyguard is a powerful unit, able to turn the tide of a melee with good all round stats comparable to knights. Russia’s bodyguard is even more powerful with great defence and is tied for the strongest attack stat for a cavalry unit. Take full advantage of this if you are Russia. They lack AP weapons so fighting late Muslim bodyguard units with this unit can be hazardous. Note there is a late version of this unit that is provided to generals late in the campaign. The only difference between them and earlier ones is a little more armour.

Khan’s Guard
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 17 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 950 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Timurids, Mongols

Oddly these cavalry based factions don’t have the best general’s bodyguard, as they have lesser stats than some others. They do pack an AP mace for a secondary weapon which helps them along. They are disciplined which most other bodyguard units are not.

Tsar’s Guard
Attack: 14 Charge: 5 Defence: 19 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 840 Upkeep: 320
Factions: Russia

Tsar’s Guard are the toughest general’s bodyguard in the game and they guard the faction leader. They have powerful stats, with the best defence out of the bodyguards and a powerful attack. Their charge isn’t very good, so it’s better to leave them in melee.

Light cavalry are lightly armoured cavalry that move faster than heavy cavalry and have more stamina. They usually have low defence and armour, but most of them are at least decent in melee. They are best used to attack enemy archers and perform flanking attacks on weaker foes. They are also the best unit for catching routing enemy units because of their speed. Don’t use light cavalry in a head on brawl with melee infantry or heavy cavalry; they aren’t designed for a head on fight and will quickly suffer causalities.

Javelin cavalry are much like light cavalry, but have the advantage of AP javelins as well. If you can you should always get the more versatile and useful javelin cavalry over light cavalry.

Arab Cavalry
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 13 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Moors, Egypt

Arab Cavalry are good in a fight for light cavalry. They have good attack and their defence is good for this class of unit. They will still lose to heavy forces head on, but are perfect for decimating lighter troops with a flank attack and missile units with a charge. They are quite expensive.

Border Horse
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 9 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 390 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Scotland

Border Horse are average light cavalry but they still pack a good attack. Their defence is low however and they will suffer in a serious fight. Just stick to the light cavalry uses outlined above. This unit can be useful to support Scotland’s pikemen and wipe out archers shooting the slow moving pikes. They have a low mental state so watch their morale.

Byzantine Lancers
Attack: 8 Charge: 5 Defence: 13 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 500 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Byzantium

Byzantine Lancers have good defence for light cavalry and are disciplined and highly trained. They have a better charge than some other light cavalry, so crashing them into the back of a flanked unit is a good idea. They are good at charging and withdrawing due to their highly trained tag.

Hobilars
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 7 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 280 Upkeep: 150
Factions: England

These light cavalry are one of the original ones from M: TW and are still useful for chasing routers and running down missile units. They are too weak to be much use in a serious fight. You could charge them into the back of engaged enemies, don’t expect them to last too long. Their morale is low and they have a low mental state so they can rout quite easily. They are very cheap so they are quite disposable.

Militia Cavalry
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 10 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 320 Upkeep: 150 (Byzantium)
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 11 Armour: 4 Cost: 350 (Russia)

Militia Cavalry are weak light cavalry. They have a low attack but their defence is quite respectable for militia. Their morale is lower than other light cavalry. Only use these troops for chasing routers and attacking weaker missiles. Even tough archers can cut this unit up.

Mongol Light Lancers
Attack: 10 Charge: 6 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 590 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Mongols

Mongol Light Lancers as you’d expect are quite tough and have some of the best stats for light cavalry. These troops are the small fry of the Mongol invasion compared to the other units the Mongols have. They can be annoying, but they are easy enough to kill with heavy cavalry or spearmen. They have high morale, as high as elite troops and are also disciplined.

Mounted Sergeants
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 13 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 470 Upkeep: 175
Factions: France, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Papal States

Mounted Sergeants are common Catholic light cavalry. They have good stats for light cavalry with good attack and decent defence. They come in handy to screen the usually infantry heavy armies of Catholic factions and stop them getting picked apart by missiles.

Scouts
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 11 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 410 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Denmark

Scouts are another unit of weak light cavalry. They are about the same as Militia Cavalry and have the same low morale. Use them in the same way.

Stradiots
Attack: 11 Charge: 5 Defence: 10 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Venice

Stradiots are elite light cavalry. They have the best attack for light cavalry in the game and a good charge, high morale and they are fast. They also have a AP secondary mace. They are very useful light cavalry to flank and chase missile units and their morale and speed makes it easy to use them to support your main force and smash into the rear of enemies. These are the most useful light cavalry. Try not to use them too recklessly as they are expensive for light cavalry.

Javelin cavalry are very useful, versatile troops. They are light or medium cavalry with good stats and throwing javelins. Their javelins are AP and are devastating to slower infantry and distracted cavalry. If opposing cavalry are in melee and not moving the jav cav can pick up some easy kills. They have the same staggered firing style of infantry, but their much greater mobility makes it far easier for them to shred armoured units under a hail of metal death. All jav cav can fire while moving in any direction. All javelin cavalry have access to skirmish mode so they can pull back from charging infantry while hitting them with their deadly missiles. They are also fast enough to skirmish away from heavy cavalry. Like the infantry version, javelin cavalry work best when they can fire into the flank or rear of a unit, bypassing their shields. Use cheap spearmen or the like to hold the unit, or use the javelin cavalry to unbalance a melee in your troop’s favour, by hurling javelins into the enemy’s flank. Almost all of these cavalry are good in melee, so don’t be shy of charging into a flank, especially the powerful Boyar Sons and their AP axes.

Boyar Sons
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 670 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Russia

Boyar Sons are useful jav cavalry, able to function well as medium cavalry, as well as whittle down armoured targets. The axe they use in melee is AP as well, so they can charge into armoured units and cut down the weakened survivors after the javelin deluge. They also have good morale. This is the best javelin cavalry and one of the most useful units, since they can launch AP missiles before following it up with an AP melee weapon.

Desert Cavalry
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 3 Defence: 8 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 540 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Moors, Egypt

Desert Cavalry are the weakest javelin cavalry in the game, but they still pack the same punch with their javelins as most others. The Moors need this cavalry to counter heavy Catholic infantry.

Granadine Jinetes
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 3 Defence: 13 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 670 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Moors

These javelin cavalry are just like Desert Cavalry except they are well armoured. Always use this cavalry over Desert Cavalry when possible.

Jinetes
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 3 Defence: 15 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 520 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Spain

Jinetes are slightly stronger than their Moorish counterparts in melee, but have slightly less armour and have the same missile attack. They should be used in the same way.

Polish Nobles
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 10 Charge: 4 Defence: 17 Morale: 9 Armour: 5 Cost: 800 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Poland

Polish Nobles are the toughest jav cavalry; they have the best missile attack of any jav cav and are the best in melee as they have better stats than some knights and very high morale. Don’t hesitate at all to use them as heavy cavalry with the added bonus of throwing AP missiles. They have high morale as well.

Horse Archers are mounted troops with bows. This combination of long range missiles and mobility makes them the perfect troops for harassment, as they can kill enemies with their arrows, then withdraw before the enemy can catch them. Almost all horse archers use bows and their missile attack tends to be lower than foot archers to represent the lessened accuracy of horseback archery.

The best way to use horse archers is to ride around to the rear or right flank of the enemy so you can hit them in their unshielded side or weakly armoured back so you’ll kill a lot more with their arrows. Attacking from the front with horse archers is less effective, as they have a usually low missile attack and many shots will be blocked by the enemies shield or absorbed by armour, unless they are firing at unarmoured or lightly armoured targets like Spear Militia or Armoured Sergeants.

Always try to move to the flank or rear with them and make sure to keep skirmish mode on, unless you have them in a secure position you don’t want them to leave. Make sure to keep horse archers out of melee, as with a few exceptions, they are weak in it. Foot archers and gunpowder are also strong against horse archers, as the horses are a big target, usually lack armour and have less missile attack. If you are facing infantry missile troops besides javelins with horse archers, charge them and fight them in melee, but remember that some archers are quite tough and will beat horse archers in melee.

Medieval 2 also features a few units of mounted crossbowmen and one longbow equipped horse archer unit. Mounted crossbows should be used much like mounted gunpowder, except that they don’t cause a morale penalty. Take advantage of their ability to shred armoured units and try to keep them out of counter fire.

Armour upgrades are very important for this unit class. Many of them are unarmoured and getting them some armour will give them a better chance of surviving incoming fire. Get them armour upgrades ASAP.


Horse archers will be shredded by foot archers. Just bring foot archers.

Byzantine Cavalry
Attack: 7 Missile attack 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 520 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Byzantium

Byzantine Cavalry are poor shooters but they aren’t bad in melee and work quite well as light cavalry for charging into a flank, though their horrible charge bonus and light armour handicaps them. Their morale is low, so be careful with them.

Cossack Cavalry
Attack: 9 Missile attack 8 Charge: 4 Defence: 11 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 700 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Russia

Russia’s famous Cossacks, these HAs shoot well and have good attack for such light cavalry and a good charge for their class so they can charge into a flank and use their decent melee stats to fight for a while. They will die quickly however because of their lack of armour. They have very high morale; the same as knights.

Dvor Cavalry
Attack: 11 Missile attack: 10 Charge: 4 Defence: 16 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 800 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Russia

Dvor are strong horse archers, the best in the game! They have a powerful attack and great defence for horse archers, as well as an AP axe for melee. They shoot very well and have very high morale, making them very versatile. This unit can shoot at light units from a distance to cause causalities and charge home and fight then well, or charge heavily armoured troops their arrows are ineffective against and crush them using their AP secondary weapon. These are some of Russia’s most useful troops and you should use them.

French Mounted Archers
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 4 Defence: 14 Armour: 6 Morale: 9 Cost: 1030 Upkeep: 210
Factions: France

French Mounted Archers, like Dismounted French Archers are not available in the grand campaign as they do not appear. This is a crying shame because they are remarkably deadly troops. The thing that makes this unit so powerful is they are armed with LONGBOWS with the power and armour piercing ability that comes with them, as well as possessing the mobility of horse archers. This makes them very deadly vs. slow heavy infantry and other armoured units. I’m not sure why England doesn’t get a mounted longbow unit, but super annoyingly you can only take advantage of this unit in custom battles and online multiplayer.

Granadine Crossbow Cavalry
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 9 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 580 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Moors

As one of the few mounted crossbow units in Medieval 2 these are very useful. They are quite well armoured for missile units, though they have weak defence and you still should keep them out of melee. They are quite superior to the generic Mounted Crossbowmen unit.

Hungarian Nobles
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 4 Defence: 16 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 750 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Hungary

Hungarian Nobles are like weaker Dvor. They can fight in melee just as well as shooting and don’t hesitate to charge them into a flank if needed after showering the enemy with arrows.

Kazaks
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 380 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Russia

Kazaks are basic Russian horse archers. They have a weak missile attack and are terrible in melee. Get this unit armour upgrades to give them a chance and you are better off avoiding melee entirely and just using them to shoot.

Mamluk Archers
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 4 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 900 Upkeep: 210
Factions: Egypt

Mamluk Archers are another tough unit of horse archers, wielding secondary AP maces and small shields, making them very handy in melee.

Magyar Cavalry
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Hungary

Magyar Cavalry are lightly armoured horse archers, but their defence still sucks. Besides their armour they are the same as Kazaks and should be used for shooting and kept out of melee.

Mongol Heavy Archers
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 4 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 9 Cost: 900 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Timurids, Mongols

Mongol Heavy Archers are exactly the same as Mamluk Archers, including the secondary AP mace, except they are disciplined. This unit has no upkeep so the Mongols don’t go bankrupt.

Mongol Horse Archers
Attack: 8 Missile attack: 8 charge: 4 Defence: 6 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 590 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Mongols

These horse archers have better melee attack than some, though they have weak defence and no armour so they are easy to hack down if you can hit them. Being Mongols, they unsurprisingly shoot well. Zero upkeep.

Turkish Horse Archers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 420 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Timurids, Turks

Turkish Horse Archers are just like Kazaks and should be used as basic horse archers and kept far away from melee. They have low morale and, unlike Kazaks, a low mental state so they can rout quite easily.

Mounted Crossbowmen
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 10 Armour: 5 Morale: 3 Cost: 470 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Venice, Milan, Portugal, Denmark, Papal States

Mounted Crossbows are far weaker than their infantry counterparts, but are still great against enemy armour. Their horses mean they can skirmish away from enemies and can fire on the move. Their missile attack is low, so they won’t really be all that effective against unarmoured units compared to archers, so target the armoured enemies with them. They are tolerable as light cavalry in melee too, as they pack a lot of armour for mounted missile troops.

Sipahis
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 8 Charge: 3 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 760 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Turks

Sipahis are another unit of HA that are just like Hungarian Nobles. Use them in the same way.

Skythikon
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 380 Upkeep: 175
Faction: Byzantium

Again, these HAs are just like Kazaks.

Lithuanian Cavalry
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 3 Defence: 11 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 500 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Poland

Despite not having armour, Lithuanian Cavalry are OK in melee, since they have a great melee attack for horse archers and just about excusable defence. Their missile attack is average, but they can be used as light cavalry as well as shooting so they are versatile.

Strzelcy
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Poland

Strzelcy are mounted crossbowmen that have less armour, but more defence than standard Mounted Crossbows. Use them in the same way.

Turkomans
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 8 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 510 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Timurids, Turks

Turkomans are another basic horse archer unit. They have melee stats than some and they pack a small shield, but should still be used purely to shoot. They have low morale and a low mental state.

Vardariotai
Attack: 10 Missile attack 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 17 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 800
Factions: Byzantium

This is another very useful unit of horse archers, among the best. Along with a great missle attack they are able to fight well in melee and function as light cavalry if required. Don’t hesitate to throw them against weaker units or into a flank. They have knight level morale, are disciplined and are highly trained.

Camels, much like RTW's camels are made for one purpose and that is killing off cavalry. Camels get +2 attack vs. cavalry and at the same time cavalry get -4 attack vs. camels, giving the camels a huge advantage. Camels get -4 against elephants like horses however, so keep them far away. Camels are never armoured and will suffer greatly at the hands of infantry. Keep camels far away from melee infantry and focus on hitting the cavalry with them. They can still be used to hunt down weaker ranged infantry.

Tuareg Camel Spearmen
Attack: 11 Charge: 5 Defence: 10 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 600 Upkeep: 300
Factions: Moors

The only recruitable unit of camels in Medieval 2, Tuareg give the Moors a big advantage over their Christian neighbours. The only other camel units in the campaign are mercenaries.

Elephants

Elephants are well known as devastating units: they were deadly in RTW unless properly countered. In Medieval 2 they are toned down and incredibly rare, but still remain rather dangerous. Because of the much better morale of units, elephants have a hard time routing them quickly like in RTW. Very tough units like knights will just sit in melee with the elephants and steadily wear them down. For best results you should crash into the centre of the enemy line with elephants and use them in an attack with other units at the same time. A large group of infantry will keep the heat off the elephants as they do their deadly work.

Elephants
Attack: 10 Missile attack: 16 Charge: 9 Defence: 16 Armour: 13 Morale: 9 Cost: 2090 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Timurids

The basic elephant; they have good stats and hitpoints and serve well for charging into the enemy and scaring them. They have arquebusiers on their backs and the morale crushing fire from these help the elephants rout enemies. The arquebusiers are very accurate compared to foot Arquebusiers and can really put a few extra holes in an enemy unit, given a minute or two. This unit cannot skirmish. Note that this unit’s upkeep is zero, so the Timurids don’t bankrupt themselves keeping it around.

Elephant Artillery
Attack: 10 Missile attack: 28 Charge: 9 Defence: 16 Armour: 13 Morale: 9 Cost: 2750 Upkeep: 0
Factions: Timurids

Elephant Artillery, historically accurate or not are normal elephants with small serpentine type cannons mounted on their backs, rather than guys with arquebuses. The cannons have a small area of affect, but since there are 15 elephants in the unit they can unload a hail of lead if you have a few units of them. A volley from two units of cannon elephants basically covers the area in front of them to a good distance with shells. If a unit is caught anywhere in their fire they will usually suffer 1/3 of their number in causalities in one volley. 2 or 3 volleys will crush that unit. Firing them into a mass of troops will kill tons and they will rout very quickly. Don’t underestimate the power of elephant artillery. If enemies make it past the hail of fire and engage the elephants they won’t have an easy time in melee and it will take a while for elephants to start dropping.

Artillery are large siege engines designed for bashing down walls and indirectly firing on troops. They have a long range and an area of effect attack

Standard artillery includes all non-gun artillery. All artillery, save ballistae is fairly inaccurate and you have to be lucky to hit a unit directly with their missiles. Artillery are all different and more information can be found in the unit descriptions.

One thing common to all artillery is they need another unit of infantry or cavalry nearby to intercept cavalry charges and stop the artillery crew getting dragged into melee. Artillery crews are small and while they are surprisingly good at melee as they have some armour and knives, a cavalry charge will slaughter them and they will be cut down in melee with anything tougher than peasants, as they are far outnumbered.

Artillery isn’t the crushing, deadly force you might expect it to be. They are more a constant low level barrage of missiles, chipping away at the enemy and killing some now and then from the safety of behind your lines. They can kill some enemies in a battle, but never rely on your artillery to win you a battle, unless it’s a siege.

Most gunpowder artillery on the other hand is fairly accurate. Cannon, Serpentine and especially Basilisks can consistently hit units and they will dish out tons of losses. All gunpowder artillery can destroy stone walls very easily, as their shots have a lot of power. The ultimate example of this is the Turkish Monster Bombard that can destroy even the biggest of walls in one shot. Gunpowder artillery is very useful for destroying towers to make the assault less costly for your troops.

The Rocket Launcher, an amusing artillery weapon used by the Mongols fires a huge barrage of 36 rockets, which are very inaccurate and land over a large area and are flame weapons. They are excellent for weakening masses of troops and for firing at enemy artillery since the large projectile coverage gives them a good chance of hitting an enemy artillery piece directly and destroying it outright, or setting it on fire, making it useless.

An annoyance of artillery is the fact it has a minimum range. If you tell a unit to fire and it’s in range, but the unit wont shoot, that means the enemy is too close to target. Only large cannon type artillery have minimum ranges, Ribaults do not. Use fodder and other troops to keep enemies far enough away from the artillery so it can fire, or target more distant enemy troops.

All artillery crews have the same stats: Attack: 6 Charge: 0 Defence 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 and are disciplined and highly trained. They can hold on for a little while vs spearmen and will not rout until most of them are dead but this is obviously something to avoid.


Light or heavy cav are the best artillery hunters. Charge the crews with them and they will rout them quickly.

Ballista
Attack: vs. troops: 55 vs. buildings: 10 Charge: 0 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 370 Upkeep: 150
Factions: All

Ballistae are common artillery and every faction has them. They fire large, arrow like bolts and have a longer range than archers, although it is a short range for artillery. In both flaming missile and normal missile mode they will kill 1-6 per missile, as the missiles pierce though men and will often kill the line of men behind the first man it hits if the unit is lined up and marching. They are quite accurate. While much more effective than RTW’s version, ballistae aren’t really going to make a dent in an army themselves, although they are OK for sitting behind your lines and constantly hitting the enemy with bolts for a constant low level barrage to hurt their morale. Ballistae are effective against wooden walls, but stone ones will take a lot of hits to destroy and the ballista crew will get killed by wall defences before they can do much.

Basilisk
Attack: 63 Missile attack: 330 Charge: 0 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 1080 Upkeep: 400
Factions: Russia, Portugal, Poland, Hungary

Basilisks are the most advanced cannon in the game, needing a ton of buildings and a very advanced city. Only a few factions get them. They are about as accurate as Cannon but have more building attack and a longer range. They are worth upgrading to if you can, but it will take time to get the infrastructure in place. Often Cannon work well enough already.

Bombard
Attack: vs. troops: 55 vs. buildings: 120 Charge: 0 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 610 Upkeep: 250
Factions: France, Spain, Timurids, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Byzantium, Russia, Turks, Egypt, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Papal States, Mongols, England

Bombards are the first gunpowder artillery you can make and are very powerful at smashing down walls for their cost. While highly inaccurate, they can decimate smaller walls in a few shots and even the biggest walls will fall quite quickly. They are a bit too inaccurate to be used against troops, but a hit will kill quite a few. You might as well disband your other arty, besides trebs, when bombards come along.

Cannon
Attack: vs. troops: 63 vs. buildings: 250 Charge: 0 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 870
Factions: Timurids, Sicily, Russia, Turks, Egypt, Denmark, Poland

Cannon have just a tiny bit more range than the Bombard: 380 vs. the Bombard’s 375. They are also noticeably more accurate. They are the later version of bombards and are very powerful at smashing walls, more than twice as strong., Upgrade to them as soon as you can!

Catapult
Attack: vs. troops: 55 vs. buildings: 30 Charge: 0 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 150
Factions: Spain, France, Timurids, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Byzantium, Russia, Turks, Egypt, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Papal States, Mongols, England

One of the first siege engines you’ll use, Catapults have a rather short range, but can fling large rocks at walls, causing much more damage than ballistae. They work well against wooden walls and smaller stone walls, but large stone walls will take quite a long time to bash down with. You should use a lot of these units early on for your siege needs, but when you can, you should switch to trebuchets, as their longer range and more powerful missiles make them much better. Whenever you need a wall beat down though, catapults are a fine and easily accessible engine that, given enough time, can bash anything down.

Grand Bombard
Attack: vs. troops: 55 vs. buildings: 180 Charge: 0 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 730 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Spain, France, Timurids, Milan, Russia, Turks, Egypt, Portugal

Grand Bombards are larger versions of the normal Bombard cannon. They are available soon after bombards by constructing the next building in the gunsmith line. They do a bit more damage to buildings and have quite a bit more range. They are worth building instead of bombards, but not really enough to disband your current bombards if you can’t replace them easily, as you’ll be moving onto Cannon soon.

Culverin
Attack: vs. troops: 63 vs. buildings: 230 Charge: 0 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 800 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Spain, France, Venice, Milan, Scotland, Portugal, Papal States, England

Culverins are much better than bombards. They are more accurate against walls and can knock down stone walls in a few shots. Having them for sieges is very handy. They also have a much longer range than bombards.

Monster Bombard
Attack: Vs troops: 63 Vs buildings: 1000(!) Charge: 0 Defence: 9 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 1900 Upkeep: 400
Factions: Timurids, Turks

These massive cannon are the ultimate siege guns, able to breach the biggest of walls in a single shot. They are slow to fire, but there is no other gun more suited to sieges. As you’d imagine this gun isn’t a good one to use against troops as it’s just too big and inaccurate. They have very high morale, more than other artillery crews so they won’t break. Note that this gun does not have a reloading animation unlike other artillery. When the gun fires it is pushed back and slowly rolls forward again, then the barrel moves forward slowly as well. When the animation finishes, the gun fires again. It has about the same rate of fire as smaller guns, despite its size.

Mortar
Attack: vs. troops: 63 Vs buildings: 150 Charge: 0 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 520 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Scotland, Sicily, Venice, Papal States, England

Mortars are different to other artillery, as they fire high into the sky and land on walls, rather than being fired at them. This means they can easily arc over walls to hit troops inside settlements and behind obstacles.

They aren’t very accurate however and not that good at actually destroying walls, as they don’t dish out that much damage and their range is shorter. They are cheaper than even basic bombards. They work ok as cheap artillery, but cannon are better.

Ribault
Attack: vs. troops: 63 Vs buildings: 5 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Cost: 400 Morale: 9 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Spain, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Papal States, England

Ribaults are a collection of small tubes mounted together on a carriage. They are fired as one, shelling the target with multiple projectiles. The repeated gunpowder hits wreck morale very quickly and they are quite accurate; usually getting at least a few hits every volley. Ribaults have a small range and you should position your troops to the side of a Ribault, unless you want them to get nailed when it fires as they can’t arc their shots. Ribaults are the most effective artillery against troops and are cheap. They are quite common as mercs, grab them if you can.

Rocket Launcher
Attack: vs. troops: 63 vs. buildings: 10 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 1100 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Timurids, Mongols

Rocket Launchers are powerful artillery pieces that are unfortunately only available to unplayable factions. They fire a barrage of flaming rockets over a wide area, causing great damage to units caught in the area. Because they fire a collection of projectiles, there is a good chance of scoring multiple hits and the flaming nature of the missiles further lowers morale, because of the fire attack. A good hit from the rocket launcher will kill 10-20 enemies and drastically lower their morale, making them one of the most effective artillery.

Remember that this artillery has no minimum range and they are useless against walls, as they do no damage.

Serpentine
Attack: vs. troops: 63 vs. buildings: 10 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 700 Upkeep: 150
Factions: France, Denmark, Poland, Hungary

Serpentine have a huge range, despite their small size. They are designed for use against troops rather than buildings, as they have a tiny building attack and the same troop attack as other arty. They are noticeably more accurate than other artillery and their shots will hit in a smaller area, rather than the wide, random damage area of larger siege guns. If you want to use artillery against troops, this is the gun to use.

Trebuchet
Attack: vs. troops: 55 vs. buildings: 90 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 430 Upkeep: 250
Factions: Spain, France, Timurids, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Byzantium, Egypt, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Papal States, Mongols, England

Trebuchets are the most advanced non gunpowder artillery and they are unique as they have three firing modes. Besides the normal fire mode and flaming missiles, they also have the ability to fling half a rotting cow at your enemy. The cow stays on the ground after firing and any enemy troops walking over the cow become sick, signified by their banner flashing green. This lowers their morale threshold.

While they may still look like they are on eager morale, after a melee starts, or they are otherwise subjected to morale pressures, their morale will fall much more quickly than normal while they are affected by the cow. Anyone who walks over the cow carcass on the battlefield will become sick, including your own men if you move them too close. Firing cows is best used on defence, where you can fire a few cows in the enemy’s path, so they walk over them before the clash with your front line, which will make them rout much more quickly. Just don’t let your men chase them over the cow if there is more fighting to be done, otherwise you men will become sick and you’ll be at a disadvantage.

As for the more normal modes of the treb, it is much more powerful against buildings than the catapult and can tear down walls quite quickly, although large walls will take some work.

These troops are the Aztec army that is encountered in the new world. They don’t really fit anywhere comfortably, so they get their own section. All Aztec units have little or no armour and all of them are vulnerable to missiles. Aztec units are weak and their advantage is their great numbers, as they will always far outnumber you. Aztec units also have very high morale and some of them cause fear in opposing infantry.

Arrow Warriors
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 4 Defence: 11 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 400

Arrow Warriors are a javelin unit, though they do not pierce armour so their missiles aren’t a threat and even though they use a spear like javelin in melee they don’t get a bonus vs. cavalry. This is a unit you should mop up with little effort, particularly with swordsmen, since they use spear like weapons. They have high morale so they will hold for a long time.

Aztec Archers
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 1 Defence: 8 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 370

The Aztec’s only archer unit, these guys are weak archers that shoot poorly, but aren’t bad in melee for archers. By the time you can reach the Aztecs you’ll have loads of heavily armoured, powerful units that will render these archers mostly useless.

Aztec Peasants
Attack: 7 Charge: 1 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 180 Upkeep: 90

Aztec Peasants are the toughest peasants in Medieval 2: they have the best attack for peasants and good defence, again, for peasants. They will, of course fall very quickly to your invasion force.

Aztec Spearmen
Attack: 7 Charge: 2 Defence: 6 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 220 Upkeep: 125

These spearmen are the Aztecs’ only anti cavalry unit. They have an average attack, but very poor defence and will die quickly in melee with just about anything. They will do some damage to cavalry and are best whittled down with missiles, as they completely lack armour.

Aztec Spear Throwers
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 4 Charge: 1 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 220 Upkeep: 125

This unit is reminiscent of RTW’s skirmisher units, as they throw javelins that are not armour piercing, have next to no defence and are cheap, disposable fodder. That is exactly what these troops are; they are not a threat at all and will die in seconds. Their missiles are almost harmless.

Aztec Warriors
Attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defence: 10 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 320 Upkeep: 155

Aztec Warriors are the rank and file of the Aztec armies, with decent attack and good defence for the Aztecs. They have average morale and are no match at all for most units from Europe. Engage them with knights or swordsmen and they will die in droves.

Bodyguard
Attack: 14 Charge: 3 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 11 Cost: 410 Upkeep: 0

This unit is the personal bodyguard of Aztec generals, who are of course on foot for this faction. Since the Aztecs lack heavy armour, this general is far more vulnerable than any other European general so use archers and crossbows to whittle down his guard, or just charge them with strong troops. They wield macana clubs and will take a lot of losses from a cavalry charge. You should have no problem killing this general, even though his bodyguard have good stats and are disciplined and highly trained.

Cuahchiqueh
Attack: 14 Charge: 3 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 11 Cost: 540 Upkeep: 0

Cuahchiqueh are the same troops as the ones used for the bodyguard and they should be dealt with in the same way: massed missiles and powerful cavalry charges. They are rather good in melee, have very high morale and are impetuous. Focus on them first with your missiles and only melee as a last resort.

Coyote Priests
Attack: 14 Charge: 3 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 11 Cost: 480 Upkeep: 0

Coyote Priests have the ability to chant like RTW’s druids, raising the morale of Aztec units in the area. They also frighten enemy infantry that are close to them, which is all the more reason to kill them as quickly as possible with missiles or cavalry charges. Try to take out the priests first, if you can, to remove their morale bonus. They are just as tough as Cuahchiqueh in melee.

Eagle Warriors
Attack: 20 Charge: 5 Defence 9 Armour: 4 Morale: 11 Cost: 340 Upkeep: 0

Eagle Warriors are a step above normal warriors in the ranks of the Aztecs, but in Medieval 2 they are worthless, as they are two handed weapon users affected by the bugs. Their two handed macana clubs act like polearms, which makes them little more than fodder. They have great morale, so it will take a while to rout them.

Jaguar Warrior
Attack: 14 Charge: 3 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 11 Cost: 570 Upkeep: 185

Jaguar Warriors are the Aztec elite, but suck as they use two handed macanas and thus suffer the 2hand bug, just like polearms. they have knight level morale and are disciplined so they will win or die. Of course they will mostly die.

This category covers the peasant type units of factions and other units where combat isn’t their primary use. Peasants, much like the previous games are weak and useful for fodder and as just more bodies to throw at the enemy. Medieval 2’s Catholic Peasants are surprisingly strong however.

Carroccio Standard
Attack: 12 Charge: 4 Defence: 16 Armour: 5 Cost: 750 Morale: 11 Upkeep: 85
Factions: Venice, Milan

The Carroccio Standard is a cart with flags that is guarded by a small unit of elite spearmen. These spearmen have very high stats and will never rout. They will fight to the last man, no matter what, to protect the standard. The standard projects a morale boost around itself, making any troops in its vicinity harder to rout.

The spearmen unit only has 60 men and while they are very tough and highly trained, they will not hold on long if attacked, as they are greatly outnumbered by most units. They can support other units as part of a battle line well however. Keep the standard safe. If you alt+right click on an enemy the spearmen will leave the standard to fight and from then on can be moved around normally. If you click on the standard they will reattach to it and begin pushing it again. If they are attacked, they will detach from the standard to fight.

Peasants
Attack: 4 Charge: 1 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 1 Cost: 110 Upkeep: 90 (Spain, France, Venice, Milan, Poland, Hungary. Russia, Byzantium)
Attack: 1 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 1 Cost: 90 Upkeep: 90 (Moors, Turks, Timurids, Egypt)

Catholic Peasants are actually tough for peasants. They have a low attack, but not totally useless and enough defence to take a hit or two. Their morale, despite being the lowest in the game keeps them in melee till ½ of the unit is dead, as long as they aren’t flanked or anything and they come in handy for fodder or decoys, as they cost virtually nothing. Don’t sell peasants short: early on they can have a place in your army as line troops and later they still come in handy as fodder or garrisons. They can, rather amusingly be upgraded to light mail even though they keep their pitchforks. They have a low mental state unsurprisingly.

The Muslim version of Peasants are virtually useless units. They are, for whatever reason, far weaker than Catholic Peasants with a 1 in every stat. Use them for arrow fodder and to push siege equipment, they are also tolerable for holding troops while you hit them with naptha although tougher, yet still cheap troops like Spear Militia would be better for that, as they will stay alive long enough for you to finish your movement or attack.

Highland Rabble
Attack: 2 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Cost: 120 Upkeep: 90
Factions: Scotland

Highland Rabble are even weaker than Catholic Peasants, but they have a lot of morale for peasants and the impetuous trait, which means morale shocks have less of an effect on them and they will hold on for a long time, even when taking terrible causalities. The combination of great morale for their class and extreme cheapness make these guys the perfect fodder, able to stay in a fight and hold the enemy, even while getting massacred.

Transylvanian Peasants
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 270 Upkeep: 100
Factions: Hungary

Transylvanian Peasants are very different to the majority of peasants. They wield armour piercing polearms, but have horrible stats and no armour. They have more morale than most peasants and will hold on till a lot of them have been cut down. This unit won’t actually kill many enemies because polearms suck and their stats are terrible, but they can serve as cheap fodder, able to hold an area and dish out some kills of their own for a little while. They are cheap enough to make lots of.

These troops are available only when you create a crusading army. They vary very widely from steady spearmen, to peasant fodder to elite knights! The new and interesting troops is part of the fun of crusading. Consider having two generals go on crusade and have one recruit units like Pilgrims and Flagellants follow your general with your main troops. You can use these as garrisons after the crusade so your crusade troops can move on.

Flagellants
Attack: 10 Charge: 4 Defence: 4 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 90 Upkeep: 70

Flagellants are two handed club users so they won’t be killing much of anything, though they have better stats than the other peasant crusader fodder. They have very high morale and are disciplined, so they will take a lot of punishment before routing. They are the perfect ram pushers and fodder.

Pilgrims
Attack: 2 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 35 Upkeep: 90

Pilgrims are weaker than Catholic Peasants stats wise, but they are the cheapest unit in any Medieval 2 or Rome Total War game! They are impetuous. These men come in huge numbers as there are usually a lot of them available for recruitment. They are excellent for using to push siege engines and to tie up enemies, as well as charging in a huge mass to lower enemy morale with their extreme numbers. They are extra useful on crusade, because you can’t afford to lose too many crusade troops and you can keep more crusaders alive to use after the crusade by using these guys as fodder. They are also great to use as garrisons after the campaign. They are deceptively useful and you should have at least some in your army and use them to fill spare army slots.

Crusader Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 17 Armour: 7 Morale: 11 Cost: 220 Upkeep: 300

Crusader Knights are just like Chivalric Knights, except only recruitable during a crusade and much, much cheaper. They have more upkeep however, which will make them very expensive indeed to keep around after the crusade is done. They are very important to have cuz hey free knights for a while and they let you chase down the fleet muslin cavalry and smash into their infantry.

Crusader Sergeants
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 110 Upkeep: 185

Crusader Sergeants are the same as the Armoured Sergeants that many Catholic factions can normally recruit and thus make good filler for a crusading army. Almost every army needs some spears and these men do their job well.

Religious Fanatics
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 70 Upkeep: 90

Religious Fanatics are very cheap troops. They use two handed clubs and have non-existent defence. They do have a ton of morale and are impetuous so they are almost unroutable. Their two handed weapons makes them pretty useless at actually killing because of the 2hand bug, but their extreme cheapness and their staying power makes them some of the best cannon fodder in Medieval 2, as they can sit in a melee for a long time and hold the enemy, while dishing out their own kills and they are good troops to fill a stack when you join a crusade. Basically think of slightly more expensive more attack oriented Pilgrims and use them in the same way.


These troops can only be hired on a Jihad and thus only if you are Muslim. The Muslims get badly shortchanged and only get two units!

Ghazis
Attack: 10 Charge: 3 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 9 Cost: 100 Upkeep: 70

Ghazis are just like the MTW unit of the same name. They are AP axemen with a good attack, but no armour and low defence, so they will kill fast and die fast. They are very, VERY cheap and are best used as flankers. Hitting the enemy from behind lessens the chance your Ghazis will be focused on and killed. They do a good job vs. spearmen and the like, but can also cut up armoured troops. You should always recruit these guys when you go on a Jihad as they are very cheap and very useful. They are impetuous and have high morale, so they won’t be routing anywhere.

Mutatawwi'a
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Cost: 60 Upkeep: 70

Mutatawwi’a are one of the cheapest units in the entire Total War series. They are just like Religious Fanatics, except they are Jihad troops instead, so hire them if you have some spare space in your stack as they also possess high morale and are impetuous. Like their counterpart they make good, cheap garrisons after the Jihad.

Flemish Pikemen
Attack: 9 Charge: 3 Defence: 8 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 340 Upkeep: 155
Regions: Central Europe in French lands.

Flemish Pikemen actually have armour unlike most pikemen and have a decent attack. Their defence is still very low for a melee unit and with the pike glitches they really aren’t worth recruiting except to fill stacks.

Mercenary Spearmen
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 14 Armour: 5 Morale: 5 Cost: 660 Upkeep: 185
Locations: Everywhere

These are the mercenary version of Armored Sergeants and as a result are always handy. You always need spearmen in an army and they are cheap, so hire them before you attack. They have good morale and will hold until most of them are dead, unless they are surrounded. They are one of the most common merc units and are always worth grabbing.

Slav Mercenaries
Attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 7 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 350 Upkeep: 150
Locations: Centre of map

Slav Mercenaries are exactly the same as Spear Militia and should be used as such. Their price is hardly any different either. They are not great fighters, but serve as good filler for stacks.

Welsh Longbowmen
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 490 Upkeep: 180
Locations: England

Welsh Longbowmen are just as useful as the English basic longbow and it’s nice as other factions can get access to their power, but they are terrible in melee, featuring the same stats as Peasant Archers. Keep them behind a nice line of spearmen.

Welsh Spearmen
Attack: 7 Charge: 3 Defence: 6 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 470 Upkeep: 150
Locations: England

Welsh Spearmen are like slightly stronger Spear Militia and have low stats and no armour. They have the same morale as Sergeant Spearmen and serve well as filler.


Galloglaich
Attack: 17 Charge: 6 Defence: 9 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 830 Upkeep: 180
Locations: Ireland only

Galloglaich are broken 2 handed axemen and shouldn’t be used.

Free Company Men At Arms
Attack: 16 Charge: 5 Defence: 11 Armour: 8 Morale: 5 Cost: 710 Upkeep: 180
Locations: Western Europe

These men are effectively knights and are very powerful indeed. Their upkeep is quite cheap for how strong they are, so hire then when you see them.

Sudanese Tribesmen
Attack: 13 Charge: 3 Defence: 8 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 440 Upkeep: 155
Locations: South of map in desert provinces

These mercs are just another unit of swordsmen. They have a very good attack, but their defence is low so they will die quickly, particularly since they have no armour whatsoever. Use them as flankers and keep them far away from missile fire. They are impetuous.

Tlaxcalan Mercenaries
Attack: 9 Charge: 2 Defence: 10 Armour: 4 Morale: 5 Cost: 400 Upkeep: 125
Locations: The New World only

Tlaxcalan Mercenaries are as weak as other native troops, but are very useful as fodder and support for your invading armies. It’s worth hiring a lot of them. Getting new men to the Americas is difficult so use these mercs to absorb losses so your invasion force is preserved. Hire masses of them and then send them in first to start a large melee with the Aztec frontline and then shoot into it, or charge cav into the rear. This is an effective way to whittle down the Aztecs without losing too many irreplaceable men.


Armenian Archers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 1 Defence: 6 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 560 Upkeep: 150
Locations: East of Constantinople.

Armenian Archers are decent archers: they pack a good missile attack, but their lack of armour and defence means they should be kept far away from melee.

Balkan Archers
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 1 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 290 Upkeep: 120
Locations Centre of map

These crappy mercs are Peasant Archers with another name. They are very cheap and decent early on and serve well for emergency army filler later. Massed missile fire is useful, so don’t sneer at then if you have some free space.

Bulgarian Brigands
Attack: 9 Missile attack: 7 Charge: 1 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 660 Upkeep: 150
Locations: Centre of map

Bulgarian Brigands, another returning Medieval 2 unit are pretty tough archers; they can handle themselves in melee very well for archers and have some armour. They work well as high risk archers on the front lines that will see some melee, as they can shoot well and survive some melee action better than any other unit of merc archers.

Catalans
Attack: 12 Missile attack: 12 Charge: 4 Defence: 12 Armour: 4 Morale: 11 Cost: 720 Upkeep: 180
Locations: Greece, Venetian lands.

Catalans are strong javelin infantry with all round good stats and a powerful missile attack. They will come in very useful against armoured targets and they can mix it up well in melee with lightly armoured foes. They are the only javelin troops in Medieval 2 to have armour without upgrades, so they can take more abuse than other javelins. They have excellent morale, higher than knights so they will do their duty.

Free Company Longbowmen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 1 Defence: 8 Armour: 5 Morale: 3 Cost: 930 Upkeep: 180
Locations: England, Italy

While quite rare and quite costly to hire, the fact they are Longbowmen make these men very useful mercs indeed. They are incredibly handy to any faction for combating heavy troops and should always be hired. See the archer section for more information on Longbowmen.

Irish Kerns
Attack: 2 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 1 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 380 Upkeep: 125
Location: Ireland only

Irish Kerns are javelin infantry with all around terrible stats. They have average aim, but their melee stats suck severely and you should keep them far away from melee if you want them to stay alive. They are available only in Ireland, so you won’t be using them much.

Mercenary Crossbowmen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 12 Charge: 1 Defence: 7 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 860 Upkeep: 180
Locations: Everywhere

Mercenary Crossbowmen are common mercs and you’ll find them all over the place. They are great early on, as their wide availability gives you quick access to AP missiles and it can take a little while to get settlements up to where they can start producing crossbowmen. These guys are always good filler for an army, as they have a higher missile attack than most recruitable crossbows. Keep them out of melee or they will die very quickly.

Mercenary Pavise Crossbowmen
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 12 Charge: 1 Defence: 15 Armour: 6 Morale: 3 Cost: 930 Upkeep: 180
Locations: Everywhere, but much rarer than Mercenary Crossbowmen.

These are just like recruitable Pavise Crossbowmen. See the Crossbowmen section for more. These are very useful mercs.


Alan Light Cavalry
Attack: 11 Charge: 5 Defence: 13 Armour: 4 Morale: 9 Cost: 830 Upkeep: 250
Locations: Western Europe

Alan Light Cavalry are quite powerful for light cavalry: they have good attack for their class, good defence and are lightly armoured. It hardly matters though, as they are extremely expensive and have ridiculous upkeep, as much as knights! Don’t bother with these units as their cost isn’t worth it.

Bedouin Cavalry
Attack: 9 Charge: 4 Defence: 9 Armour: 0 Morale: 5 Cost: 630 Upkeep: 180
Locations: South East of map

Bedouin Cavalry are very light cavalry with a decent attack but no armour and low defence. They are OK for chasing routers and attacking archers and missile units, but too light to be useful for anything else. They aren’t really worth their cost. They have a low mental state.

Serbian Hussars
Attack: 13 Charge: 6 Defence: 15 Armour: 5 Morale: 11 Cost: 1030 Upkeep: 250
Locations: East Europe

Serbian Hussars are powerful medium cavalry. They have a great attack equal to knights and the same huge morale; though they aren’t impetuous. They are like slightly less durable knights, despite being more expensive. If you are a faction that doesn’t get knights or you need powerful cavalry these men will be very useful. They have high upkeep, so don’t leave them standing around.

Mercenary Frankish Knights
Attack: 10 Charge: 6 Defence: 16 Armour: 7 Morale: 9 Cost: 1080 Upkeep: 300
Locations: Spain

Merc Frankish Knights are exactly like Feudal Knights and should be used in the same way. They are very costly and also impetuous so make sure they don’t charge into anything stupid and waste your investment.

Mercenary German Knights
Attack: 8 Charge: 7 Defence: 16 Armour: 9 Morale: 5 Cost: 950 Upkeep: 300
Locations: Central Europe and England

Merc German Knights have a low attack for knights, though their defence is as good as other Knights. Their morale is only 5 compared to the common knight morale of 9 or 11. This is balanced however by the fact they use a secondary AP mace making them powerful against other knights and heavy cavalry. Despite this, their lower morale is a major weakness and it is not fun at all to drop a pile of money on this unit and watch it flee.

Serbian Knights
Attack: 13 Charge: 8 Defence: 16 Armour: 8 Morale: 11 Cost: 1320 Upkeep: 300
Locations: Eastern Europe

Serbian Knights are powerful with a great attack and powerful charge, their defence is the norm for knights and they are heavily armoured, making them everything a knight should be and very useful cavalry. They are however the most expensive knights in the game and their high upkeep also doesn’t help. Only hire these knights if you are rolling in money. They are impetuous so be careful with them.


Akinjis
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 620 Upkeep: 150
Locations: South east of map

Akinjis are very basic horse archers that are weak in melee with very low defence and no armour. They are only average at shooting, but are useful for factions that can’t recruit horse archers so they can fight the locals on an even footing. They are impetuous, so even though their morale is low they have much more staying power than their morale would indicate. They are rather expensive for a pretty weak unit, so only get them if you really need them or are rolling in money.

Cuman Horse Archers
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 3 Armour: 0 Morale: 3 Cost: 620 Upkeep: 180
Location: North East Europe

These are exactly like Akinjis and should be avoided unless needed. They cost more in upkeep too.

Mounted Crossbowmen
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 5 Charge: 2 Defence: 10 Armour: 5 Morale: 3 Cost: 470 Upkeep: 175
Factions: Everywhere

Mounted Crossbows are very useful mercs, as mobile armour piercing missiles are always useful. They are cheap too.

Turkopoles
Attack: 6 Missile attack: 6 Charge: 2 Defence: 10 Armour: 4 Morale: 3 Cost: 720 Upkeep: 210
Locations: All along the south of the map

Turkopoles are a good bit better than Akinjis in melee, although they should still be kept far away from it. Their aim is the same as Akinjis, but their armour helps them a good deal in ranged duels. Use them in the same way.


Mercenary Monster Bombard
Attack: vs. troops: 63 vs. buildings: 1000(!) Charge: 0 Defence: 9 Armour: 4 Morale: 11 Cost: 1900 Upkeep: 400
Locations: East Europe (rare)

Merc Monster Bombards are just like the Turk’s Monster Bombard and are thus incredibly useful to have at a siege, since the biggest of walls crumbles uselessly under their onslaught. They are unbelievably EXPENSIVE however (do they fire solid gold cannonballs??) as they have a ridiculous upkeep and their hire cost is very expensive indeed. If you can afford to keep them around, they will be worth their weight in gold during sieges. Just make sure to protect them well, as they are one of the rarest merc units. You never really need this unit as sieges are possible with any artillery or just with a wall assault, but Monster Bombards are fun, so hire them if you see them!