Quote:
Originally Posted by rdonj
Actually, one good thing about minotaurs is they're very good at expanding. I'm not sure pangaea can expand faster than with minotaurs, or at least they've done the trick quite well for me.
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The minotaurs of EA are not too hot IMO. Their price as a general unit is too high because they die too easily and don't put out enough damage. IN LA the minotaurs with heavy armour are a totally different beast, but there they get shadowed by the dryad hoplites and black centaurs (but I still do recruit bunches of them in LA)
Imagine a normal situation while you are expanding. Minotaurs rush in trampling. First impact (on round two of the combat) is massive, unless of course there are size three defenders. The battleaxe is great with berserking strength of about 20, but they still get off only two attacks from each square (assuming the minotaurs aren't separated, which sadly happens often) each round. If the opponent was size two, the minotaurs will wade into enemy ranks, but if they dont rout from first impact, the minotaurs now get whacked by lots of enemies. If you are storming a fort this is great because it opens up the gate for your other troops to storm through, but in a field battle this is not too cool actually.
Centaurs are size three too. They will chuck the javelins on round one, and from round two on they will get off two attacks each; that is four attacks from each square. Grantedly with lower strength than minotaurs, but with slightly better attack skill, and they don't get separated but fight in blocks (so they do not get surrounded by lots of smaller enemies), and they have shields. Centaurs live much longer than minotaurs. Still, I use them against AI and indies mostly on the flanks in small blocks (six seems to be the number I like for them on flanks, don't know why actually, but I've learned to like six on the flanks) with orders Attack Rear
Now lets take a look at the revelers. Size two, two attacks each. That is six berserking attacks at skill 15 and strength 16 against each square. Sure, less protection than minotaurs and especially centaurs, but they put out much more damage than centaurs (and if fighting size 3 enemies, much more damage than minotaurs) one might consider when looking at the unit first time. As a bonus, you can recruit three revelers for the price of one centaur (and in vanilla, three per each minotaur -> in CBM minotaurs are slightly more affordable, but still IMO not the choice of troops you should recruit most of the time; you *need* minotaurs to take forts, but that is about it).
This is not to say you can not expand fast with minotaurs at the early game. Fast early expansion is what Pangaea is good at
You can expand just as fast, or even faster actually, with Revelers