Egypt (Imperator Augustus) Melee Ship

Assault Octeres - Egyptian Infantry

An arms race in warship size developed between the various nations around the Mediterranean. Size, in terms of the number of rowers, ships length and bulk and above all majesty of the vessel became as much a tool of statecraft as of warfare. A people who could afford such ships were almost certainly rich enough to withstand the strains of any war. A 'four' or quadreme was still a handy warship, able to manoeuvre in battle. The same could not be said of some of the large polyremes, a word meaning many oars. Practical archaeology shows that too many banks of oars simply don't work, so polyreme probably referred to the number of rowers: an octeres is likely to have had some eight rowers per bank of three oars, arranged in three, three, and two to an oar going up from the waterline. King Demetius of Macedon led his fleet at the battle of Salamis in 306BC from the deck of a hepteres or 'seven', but his ambitions didn't stop there. Neither did those of other kingdoms, and later lumbering warships including 'elevens', 'thirteens' and larger. As bigger ships to carry more rowers such vessels could also carry big marine contingents, arrow towers and an array of useful artillery.

(Egyptian Infantry)
Native troops supported the Greek phalanxes of Ptolemaic Egypt. Brave and proud warriors, Egyptians fulfilled several roles, but were most commonly used as peltasts, skirmishers on the flanks of the phalanxes, or as non-phalanx infantry in difficult terrain. Although the Ptolemies adopted all the trappings of the Pharaohs and their religious infrastructure, there was still much unrest among the native population long after the succession. This was due mainly to the way the Greek overlords used the traditions of the Pharaohs to fill their coffers at the expensive of ordinary people. The core of Ptolemaic armies was always Greek until the Battle of Raphia in 217BC, when they faced such a large Seleucid force and Ptolemy IV was forced to muster some 30,000 native Egyptians for the first time. Need overcame the suspicion of the disenchanted natives; the performance of the Egyptians in battle eventually led to a greater proportion of native troops in the Egyptian army and, in time, more diverse roles for those men as they gained the trust of their Greek commanders.

Unit Name Assault Octeres - Egyptian Infantry

Main Unit Key Egy_Infantry_Eight

Land Unit Key Egy_Infantry

Naval Unit Key egyptian_eight

Soldiers 200

Category Heavy Ship

Class Melee Ship

Custom Battle Cost 1450

Recruitment Cost 1450

Upkeep Cost 290

Missile Damage 32

├ Missile Weapon rome_javelin_precursor

├ Projectile javelin_prec

├ Missile Damage 20

├ Missile Ap Damage 12

└ Base Reload Time 15

Accuracy 5

Range 40

Reload 0

Shots Per Minute 4

Ammunition 2

Ship Health 2051

└ Ship egyptian_eight

Ship Speed 4

Melee Attack 14

Weapon Damage 24

├ Melee Weapon rome_shortsword

├ Melee Damage Base 20

├ Melee Damage Ap 4

├ Armour Piercing No

├ Bonus vs. Large 0

├ Bonus vs Elephants 0

└ Bonus vs Infantry 0

Charge Bonus 8

Melee Defence 39

├ Base Defence 14

├ Shield thureos

└ Shield Defence 25

Armour 55

├ Armour padded

├ Armour Defence 20

└ Shield Armour 35

Health 45

├ Man Entity rome_infantry_medium

├ Man Health 40

└ Bonus Hit Points 5

Base Morale 30

Abilities

• Row Hard 30
  Increases speed for 30 strokes.
  Ship speed

Attributes

• Hide (forest)
  This unit can hide in forests until enemy units get too close.
• Resistant to Heat
  This unit tires less quickly in the desert.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Unbeatable hull strength
• Very heavy crew
• Very slow speed
• Strong ramming
• Indomitable boarding

• Average attack
• Weak defence
• Average damage but low armour penetration
• Poor morale

Requires Buildings
Lv. 0	Military Port (greek_port_military_4) Level 3

Faction Availability
Grand Campaign	Egypt Egyptian Nobles Egyptian Secessionists Egyptian Rebels Cyrenaica
Imperator Augustus	Egypt (Imperator Augustus) Egyptian Nobles (Imperator Augustus) Egyptian Secessionists (Imperator Augustus) Egyptian Rebels (Imperator Augustus)