I neglected Hunters too; I think at 90 Hammers production cost, they're somewhat pricey but they're also early 4 strength units obtained along Elven "required" tech paths, can easily gain the Woodsman I promotion you mentioned, and start with 2 movement points making 'em faster than archers outside forests. They also get a 10% strength bonus to start. -jonathonstrange
anotehr quick addition:
there's no anti-recon promotion too which helps "hunters" though they do have a penalty against attacking cities so it's somewhat a fair-good balance.
i used to be able to rush FOL, roughly around the time some one can get to axemen (though this usually meant skipping archery, which isn't a better choice since a hero unit, gildan, helps quite a lot. much more powerful than many axemen to a degree or proper circumstance). but that was a few versions ago...not sure about now
hunters used to be "all the rage" for defense. i'm not sure about now, but there doesn't seem to be any change...so hunters should still be awesome....
archers as city defenders are good against axemen. however, if horsemen still have the natural 40% vs archery units, that they at least did have, they tear/torn archers up defending cities. this is where hunters really take prominance, and hunters are jsut as good on city defense as archers are against axemen as well.
hunters were extremely powerful (and not just for city garrison-protection), and now they are even more powerful and i don't see any current changes that weaken them.
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Y's post though does make me think "Hmmmmm...how would a Hunter-centered pro-active defense work out? Why not try it?" With a quick Apprentice Civic, the Hunters could start at Woodsman I, making them decent early Ljosalfar defenders. -jonathonstrange
AND JUST AS GOOD ON OFFENSE (in the "trees"-forests anyways, especially with ljossalfar)
(and can kill/capture animals)
hunters were the versatile-do everything "miracle-godly-uber unit" and i don't see any reason why they still aren't.
you new players, u don't even know the prowess of hunters
j/k
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this jsut got me thinking.....
i never tried this, but what if:
u used hunters and archers and gildan JOINTLY together. they are both along the exact same tech line (in fact hunting directly leads to archery). half the hunters could be for dealing with horsemen and the other half of hunters for axemen. this than open up archers for whatever u want.
(if the collateral damage? that archers now has works on offense....u got a city siege 'er or does it only do colateral when attacked? even if it only works on defense, that's STILL incredibly powerful as it protects your stack from another stack..like those guarding the city or if you meet the enemy stack in the field, also u CAN use the drill line with it's first strike as a somwhat alternative to catipults in "softening" up targets/cities)