All Archer Generals Ranked From Worst to Best
May 26, 2022 16:29:28 GMT
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Post by Kliment Jefremovitš Vorošilov on May 26, 2022 16:29:28 GMT
Since I have some free time and with the GCR boards suffering from inactivity, I decided to rank all generals of a specific unit type from worst to best just for fun and hopefully spark up atleast little activity. I chose archers since it's not the category that requires most work, but is still an actual category, unlike navy. All f2p, non Commander generals who have archer skills or have more points in archery than any other land unit type are ranked. I will consider their value mostly based on their endgame capabilities. Also, remember this is just my opinion and not the objective truth. Alright, here we go.
#14
Ptolemy
Probably not a surprise to anyone he is ranked last. His skills and talent are absolute rubbish for an archer generals and he only has 6 stars in archery. Your archers will very rarely get hit by other archers and when they do, the flat reduction is really bad. Escort is by far the worst navy skill since you don't really want to be attacking land units with navy and the added damage is pathetic. Then lastly Repair is one of the worst, if not the worst talents. +5% city defence per turn won't ever make any difference.
#13
Maroboduus
I may be a bit harsh on him (and I might underrate Siege) and he could be like 2 places higher, but he's non the less a very bad general. Siege really isn't the best skill outside conquests. After all +48 damage isn't evem that big compared to how much units can deal damage on cities regardless. Rain of Arrow is just awful, you don't want to defend cities with archers. Destroy is also bad, the enemy's battering rams really won't ever be a problem. His talent isn't the worst, but doesn't save him either.
#12
Cativolcus
Maroboduus, but with virtually no talent (archers avoid retaliation) and Accuracy instead of Rain of Arrow and Destroy, which in my comparison gives him a very slight edge over Maroboduus, but could be the other way around as well.
#11
Trebonius
I'm not the biggest fan of March, but it is still a good skill and if you have a general with no output and another general with no output but more vision and mobility, I'd of course pick the latter.
#10
Tigranes II
Same as Trebonius, but with obviously better skills and an extra point in archers.
#9
Cassivellaunus
Again, Rain of Arrow is bad and Sailor works only in naval combat - but Counterattack is the best skill any of the generals mentioned so far have, due to archers always getting the counterattack expect when retaliation skills activate and Fearless is a talent that actually does something half of the time.
#8
Dolabella
In a normal lineup Cassivellaunus would be better, but if Dolabella was your main archer, he would be better at that role than Cassivellaunus due to Advantage being arguably the best archer skill when the general has high morale, basically +12,5% at all times. Mountain fighting is mediocre, because mountains are rare and Geography is useful and stacks well with Mountain fighting, allowing easy acces to mountains.
#7
Cleopatra
While she is arguably the best naval general in the game (more on that later) and in an overall ranking he would be much higher, in terms of archer capabilities he is left 7th. She isn't even that much better than Dolabella, but Accuracy ober MF slightly gives her the edge.
#6
Surena
The (in)famous Surena himself. Friedrich “Fried Rice” Paulus 's favourite general really lacks Advantage or Arc Com, however his talent (basically one level of Arc Com, but a bit worse) and his three flat damage bonuses of which 2 are good and 1 is horrible, makes him slightly better than Cleopatra.
Simply put:
Cleopatra:
Arc Com: ~20% average damage when attacking
Accuracy
Surena:
Archer Tactics: ~5% average damage when attacking
Street Fighting: Rarely triggers
Besiege: Probably triggers more tham half of the time so ~12 damage
+6 damage when commanding archers
Marksman
Accuracy
When attacking (without Marksman) it's roughly ~15% - ~18-22 d for Cleopatra, which would probably translate to around a ~2% - 5% for Cleopatra but superior counterattack and Marksman would make Surena a bit better, but Cleopatra is definitely a better purchase.
#5
Li
Sharing two skills with Surena, it's not too hard to decide who is better. While Surena compensates Arc Com a bit with Archer Tactics, it's not enough even when paired with Besiege and Street Fighting, which again is bad for archers (although obviously better than Rain of Arrow).
#4
Pedius
Okay, I admit, I did place him quite high, and the reason simply is that all the archer generals mentioned before are so pathetic. While he loses some ~45 - 70 average damage to Li and Surena, Torch and Rumour make him atleast able to serve as a great support general and would you max their ranks there wouldn't be a big difference with the flat damage bonuses.
#3
#2
#1
Navy generals
Okay, so I decided to rank admirals as well, and as with the previous ranking, all generals with more potential points in navy than in any other type/generals with atleast one navy talent or skill will be considered an admiral. The ranking will be based on their naval capabilities.
#10
Ptolemy
Again, not a surprise. Escort is awful.
#9
#14
Ptolemy
Probably not a surprise to anyone he is ranked last. His skills and talent are absolute rubbish for an archer generals and he only has 6 stars in archery. Your archers will very rarely get hit by other archers and when they do, the flat reduction is really bad. Escort is by far the worst navy skill since you don't really want to be attacking land units with navy and the added damage is pathetic. Then lastly Repair is one of the worst, if not the worst talents. +5% city defence per turn won't ever make any difference.
#13
Maroboduus
I may be a bit harsh on him (and I might underrate Siege) and he could be like 2 places higher, but he's non the less a very bad general. Siege really isn't the best skill outside conquests. After all +48 damage isn't evem that big compared to how much units can deal damage on cities regardless. Rain of Arrow is just awful, you don't want to defend cities with archers. Destroy is also bad, the enemy's battering rams really won't ever be a problem. His talent isn't the worst, but doesn't save him either.
#12
Cativolcus
Maroboduus, but with virtually no talent (archers avoid retaliation) and Accuracy instead of Rain of Arrow and Destroy, which in my comparison gives him a very slight edge over Maroboduus, but could be the other way around as well.
#11
Trebonius
I'm not the biggest fan of March, but it is still a good skill and if you have a general with no output and another general with no output but more vision and mobility, I'd of course pick the latter.
#10
Tigranes II
Same as Trebonius, but with obviously better skills and an extra point in archers.
#9
Cassivellaunus
Again, Rain of Arrow is bad and Sailor works only in naval combat - but Counterattack is the best skill any of the generals mentioned so far have, due to archers always getting the counterattack expect when retaliation skills activate and Fearless is a talent that actually does something half of the time.
#8
Dolabella
In a normal lineup Cassivellaunus would be better, but if Dolabella was your main archer, he would be better at that role than Cassivellaunus due to Advantage being arguably the best archer skill when the general has high morale, basically +12,5% at all times. Mountain fighting is mediocre, because mountains are rare and Geography is useful and stacks well with Mountain fighting, allowing easy acces to mountains.
#7
Cleopatra
While she is arguably the best naval general in the game (more on that later) and in an overall ranking he would be much higher, in terms of archer capabilities he is left 7th. She isn't even that much better than Dolabella, but Accuracy ober MF slightly gives her the edge.
#6
Surena
The (in)famous Surena himself. Friedrich “Fried Rice” Paulus 's favourite general really lacks Advantage or Arc Com, however his talent (basically one level of Arc Com, but a bit worse) and his three flat damage bonuses of which 2 are good and 1 is horrible, makes him slightly better than Cleopatra.
Simply put:
Cleopatra:
Arc Com: ~20% average damage when attacking
Surena:
Archer Tactics: ~5% average damage when attacking
Street Fighting: Rarely triggers
Besiege: Probably triggers more tham half of the time so ~12 damage
+6 damage when commanding archers
Marksman
When attacking (without Marksman) it's roughly ~15% - ~18-22 d for Cleopatra, which would probably translate to around a ~2% - 5% for Cleopatra but superior counterattack and Marksman would make Surena a bit better, but Cleopatra is definitely a better purchase.
#5
Li
Sharing two skills with Surena, it's not too hard to decide who is better. While Surena compensates Arc Com a bit with Archer Tactics, it's not enough even when paired with Besiege and Street Fighting, which again is bad for archers (although obviously better than Rain of Arrow).
#4
Pedius
Okay, I admit, I did place him quite high, and the reason simply is that all the archer generals mentioned before are so pathetic. While he loses some ~45 - 70 average damage to Li and Surena, Torch and Rumour make him atleast able to serve as a great support general and would you max their ranks there wouldn't be a big difference with the flat damage bonuses.
#3
Octavian
He is to many, the second best archer general and arguably is, however I have ranked him a close third, but I don't really have a too strong opinion about this. I won't probably have to explain too much why he's better than all listed before, but I'll explain why I ranked him 3rd in the next one.
He is to many, the second best archer general and arguably is, however I have ranked him a close third, but I don't really have a too strong opinion about this. I won't probably have to explain too much why he's better than all listed before, but I'll explain why I ranked him 3rd in the next one.
#2
Drusus
Yes, I ranked him above Octavian. It was a really tough choice and changed my opinion a few times, but now I've come to conclusion that Drusus is slightly better, but anyone's free to change my mind.But I'll show why I think Drusus is better with a simplified comparison. Let's start with comparing them and not counting the damage boost from Inspire assuming all skills are at level 4:
Octavian:
Accuracy: if we assume your archers would be attacking cavalry atleast half of the time maybe a bit more, we can say it's about +8-10 total/average damage when attacking or around 3.5 - 7.5%.
Besiege: Probably a bit more than 50% so maybe around +10 - 12 when attacking
Counterattack: +20 when counterattacking
Archer Commander: +25% average damage whem attacking
Archer Tactics: +5% average damage when attacking
So in conclusion, Octavian's simplified damage boosts from skills and talent are around +40% when attacking and +20 or ~9% when counterattacking.
Drusus:
Rain of Arrow: -
Hide: -20 damage from enemy archers
Advantage: +10% damage
So Drusus' damage boosts from skills excluding Hide and Rain of Arrow would be 10% damage which means 30% less when attacking and 1% more when counterattacking.
Okay, well isn't this a clear victory for Octavian? It would be, but Drusus still has Inspire. Of course you can use Oration, but losing stacks and getting flanked can still happen which along with the nature of his skills make Drusus a more reliable damage dealer. While for a very skilled player Octavian is probably a far better campaign general, Drusus is certainly much much better in DB, Arena and Epic War. Anyways, now I'm going to stop writing, or else I'll change my mind again and I'll have to remake this. I was thinking about a shared second place, but thought that'd be boring, but maybe we can say they're equal.
Yes, I ranked him above Octavian. It was a really tough choice and changed my opinion a few times, but now I've come to conclusion that Drusus is slightly better, but anyone's free to change my mind.But I'll show why I think Drusus is better with a simplified comparison. Let's start with comparing them and not counting the damage boost from Inspire assuming all skills are at level 4:
Octavian:
Accuracy: if we assume your archers would be attacking cavalry atleast half of the time maybe a bit more, we can say it's about +8-10 total/average damage when attacking or around 3.5 - 7.5%.
Besiege: Probably a bit more than 50% so maybe around +10 - 12 when attacking
Counterattack: +20 when counterattacking
Archer Commander: +25% average damage whem attacking
Archer Tactics: +5% average damage when attacking
So in conclusion, Octavian's simplified damage boosts from skills and talent are around +40% when attacking and +20 or ~9% when counterattacking.
Drusus:
Rain of Arrow: -
Hide: -20 damage from enemy archers
Advantage: +10% damage
So Drusus' damage boosts from skills excluding Hide and Rain of Arrow would be 10% damage which means 30% less when attacking and 1% more when counterattacking.
Okay, well isn't this a clear victory for Octavian? It would be, but Drusus still has Inspire. Of course you can use Oration, but losing stacks and getting flanked can still happen which along with the nature of his skills make Drusus a more reliable damage dealer. While for a very skilled player Octavian is probably a far better campaign general, Drusus is certainly much much better in DB, Arena and Epic War. Anyways, now I'm going to stop writing, or else I'll change my mind again and I'll have to remake this. I was thinking about a shared second place, but thought that'd be boring, but maybe we can say they're equal.
#1
Mithridates VI
Surprise, surprise. Imo, the best skill set of all archer generals including IAPs and a great talent and full 9 points in archery as well. Really, what's not to like except that he's an archer general. But for his own unit type he's even more perfect than Belisarius (but not better than Vercingetorix
). Just make sure he has more stacks than the enemy and he will destroy everything on his path. When the banner of Mars comes, he'll rival even Attila and Caesar.
Surprise, surprise. Imo, the best skill set of all archer generals including IAPs and a great talent and full 9 points in archery as well. Really, what's not to like except that he's an archer general. But for his own unit type he's even more perfect than Belisarius (but not better than Vercingetorix
). Just make sure he has more stacks than the enemy and he will destroy everything on his path. When the banner of Mars comes, he'll rival even Attila and Caesar.Navy generals
Okay, so I decided to rank admirals as well, and as with the previous ranking, all generals with more potential points in navy than in any other type/generals with atleast one navy talent or skill will be considered an admiral. The ranking will be based on their naval capabilities.
#10
Ptolemy
Again, not a surprise. Escort is awful.
#9
