EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

I've ran into early age hoburgs before, but recently took over a province from them held by a hero who dropped a nice weapon called shortsword. Also, this EA province has "hoburg crossbowmen" for only 7/4 in cost. These guys seem pretty sweet with killer range and fixed damage for cheap.

Has anyone had success with these guys?

Is there a general consensous on the best nuetral army units?

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

Those hoburg crossbowmen sure are nice. Although they will drop like flies when subjected to counter fire archers and/or fliers because of their extremely low HP.

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

Elephants?

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

The following are sometimes regarded as choice. These do not include indies that come out of sites, and I'm ignoring mages:
* Hoburg Xbowmen - for the reasons you mentioned.
* Longbowmen - good archery/$, same deal.
* Raptors - suck, but they do fly, so some people like them a lot.
* Elephants - can help early expansion of conquered early.
* Kappa - are the best deal in amphibious troops.
* Amazon Cavalry - can be highly effective when combined with a strong bless.

The following also see use:
* Tribal shortbowmen / woodsmen / atavi - are much better than civilized shortbowmen (strat move 2).
* Light infantry / tribal warriors / atavi - are just chaff, but do have the strat move of 2.
* Lizard warriors, Cavemen - are fairly fearsome given their low *resource* cost, so people recruit them when they need forces in a hurry.
* Shamblers, Icythids - to get into the water.
* Any water unit - for chaff in the water, people will recruit just whatever water poptype they happen to get.
* Human crossbowmen - are generally too resource intensive to mass, but some people use them.
* Knights - likewise, and they always come at the expense of longbowmen. Some people put up big forts on Knight provinces and recruit them anyway.

There are some other exotic troops - asmeg, trolls - but I'm not sure if those poptypes are ever placed randomly.

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

There are very, very few things that have consensus. This might be one of them.

Of the independent troops, I like elephants, most sacred troops when I've got a good bless and trolls. Haven't played much LA at all, so I offer no opinion of the era.

The Hoburg crossbowmen are rare, so I like them a lot the few times they show up EA. But because they are pretty useless on their own, they do not make the top of my list. They are also infinitely more preferable than the extremely lousy normally available Hoburg milita which are the cheapest unit in the game, and still not worth whatever they cost. That's probably another reason to like the Hoburg crossbows.

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

I know they are not the best, but does anybody like cavemen? They have elemetal reisitance, good strength and fair attack with fair hp.

I like the commanders b/c thier worst weakness is lack of armor and you can fix that. The troops arn't bad with Mass Protection or Arrow fend, though they are a tad bit expensive.


What about the horse brothers? I don't like them, I prefer regular archers b/c they are cheaper and eat less. Does anyone use them? If not seems like a waste of a magic site.

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

I like Horse Brother commanders to ferry troops on larger maps. They may only get MP 2 on the way to the front due to the troops they lead. But the get MP 3 on the way back.

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

I've sworn off horse archers in general. They are either a really expensive short bow or a really weak cavalry unit, but either way it's a poor use of gold. The commanders are definitely good though.

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

I do like caveman commanders if I give them the boots that boost strength, the bow that has strength dependent damage (whichever one that is) and orders to fire rear. These are all early game attainable which is the primary reason I like them. I gotten quite a few caveman commanders into the HOF with this combination.

Re: EA hoburgs and other elite neutrals
 

One note about the Hoburgs - they're perhaps the only way of getting crossbowmen in Early Age. That makes them even better than usual.