Is Varangian Guard the best unit?

[Commissar]

I did a few tests with it, and not only can it reliably beat Feudal Knights in a straight up battle, but it can also beat 5 spear militia with less than 50% casualties (usually about 60% though). So it's cheaper than Feudal Knights but still beats them most of the time, and it's 510 gold to kill 5 spear militia and still have many models left! What's not to love?

[Inardesco]

No, not best.

Dismounted Conquistadors are arguably the best units in the game.

[Gwaine the Hunter]

Janissary Heavy Infantry is also a good candidate for the "best unit", but I think the Varangians are simply the coolest. Giant axes with giant shields in the back!

[Inardesco]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl3mCF3h-hg

[[TUUONCUOGB]BothChicken]

Right, but you'll almost never recruit Conquistadors in the campaign. If I remember right, you needed to develop a city in the New World to a certain level to get them. Meaning you have to then put them on a boat and send them back to the Old World to fight. Such a waste.

[Darth Cannabis]

I don't like trying to pick out something as best, because everything has its counter.

No matter how strong an infantry (non ranged on foot) is, it will break and rout when naffatum is thrown on it and the middle of thier formation is screaming in pain and burning.

Best unit, I would argue Camel Gunners as a top candidate. Long range (can stay out of reach of spears), gunpowder (fear factor on infantry good armor pierce) cavalry (typically cavalry advantages on lighter melee) camels (as this has its morale effect on horses). Its simply the endgame unit with fewest counters (thou it does have one), being able to either outrange most things or have an additional morale effect against what can catch up to it.

For pure heavy infantry thou, yeah can't do much better than V Guard or dismounted Conquistadors.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by TUUONCUOGBBothChicken:

Right, but you'll almost never recruit Conquistadors in the campaign. If I remember right, you needed to develop a city in the New World to a certain level to get them. Meaning you have to then put them on a boat and send them back to the Old World to fight. Such a waste.

No, cities in the New World allowed you to recruit them from the walls. In Europe you just need the highest tier of barracks.

[Ashur_Arbaces]

If we're talking best heavy infantry in vanilla. It's either Dismounted Conquistadores, Dismounted Christian Guard or Venetian Heavy Infantry. Those 3 units are easily the best infantry they're too close to eachother in preformance to say who's the best.

Originally posted by Inardesco:

No, cities in the New World allowed you to recruit them from the walls. In Europe you just need the highest tier of barracks.

You can only make (Dismounted) Conquistadores in the new world, you need to mod the game to make them available anywhere else.

Best overall unit in the game is Camel Gunners.

[Teh_Diplomat]

I prefer the Camel Gunners, or Venetian Heavy Infantry - they have 16 Def/Att, and are one-handed so avoid the 2-handed issue present with some of the 'Elite' units in Medeival 2.

[Compo]

No love for the Galloglaich :(

Theyre my favorite! i recruit them, train them up, and boat them off to conquer!

I swear the first time i used them (or saw in action close up), they charged an enemy from behind and the first Galloglaich lobbed an enemies head clean off lol. Maybe didnt, but it looked awesome....and ive been a fan of them since :D

[Inardesco]

Galloglaich have no armour in contrast to other units like Tabardiriyya and the Varangian Guard or the Portugese/French Noble Knights.

[Compo]

Yeah..i guess..i havent really played other nations other than England and Norway (once).
Once im done with my current campaign..im gonna probably play England again using another mod lol

[kartalsevgisi]

varangiard guard is viking soldiers

[The Cunning Fox (raZoleg)]

Varangian Guard started with Russian mercenaries, then it was also staffed by Englishmen (the ones escaping viking invasion, they could get a free piece of land for their service as refugees). The "Vikings" were few in V Guard, except a few Norwegians that later became kings because they robbed so much stuff. Varangian guard is considered still the best unit of special forces historically (don't know how it is in game terms).

Varangian Guard was like the elite school for kings, great dukes of Russia and thanes back in the day. In fact, Harald Hadrada came from Varangian guard, who was later the attempted conqueror of British Isles. He paid for his invasion of the isles with the money he robbed when he was in service of the Byzantine empire. The "Kingdoms" expansion that focuses on Britain starts around the same period he arrives to finish his conquest. Historically though, he died in Castletown in Isle of Man, and thus the invasion ended.

[Akedus]

Originally posted by Gwaine the Hunter:

Janissary Heavy Infantry is also a good candidate for the "best unit", but I think the Varangians are simply the coolest. Giant axes with giant shields in the back!

I've found that 90% of the time, JHI are not worth using in MWT2 unless you want to roleplay.

Unless you installed a mod, a unit of Jannisary Heavy Infantry will lose against a unit of Dismounted Feudal Knights if both of them charge at each other because of the two handed weapon glitch. You can say that you could use them defensively but then you could just use other better spearmen units like Sipahi Lancers who are cheaper, statically stronger and has shields. You can also say that you could use the JHI for flanking attacks but then cavalry would do a better job.

JHI are good units but they are far from the best, especially for how much they cost.

[ThePursuer78]

i stick with sherwood archers just because if you can keep them away from the enemy they will shred them but idk i just like archers