Campaign 8, Anatolia; Question

[Illanor]

Im playing the 8th Campaign, Anatolia the coming of the persians on very hard difficulty
As I was progressing and fighting off the persians I noticed some things

one the combat archers such as Parthian Archers and the Sparabara seem to rape my heavy cavalry with ease (Xystophara and Kinsmen)
Even though I researched elite Light infantry barracks and elite archer barracks I cant seem to build them
due to this when the Persians introduce Immortals into their armies I can only try to win with numbers

so is there a tech limit set on what u can or cant recruit
and why are heavy cavalry so weak against archers
plus are light cavalry worth using in the fights or are they meant to be used only as scouts

[brasidas]

Off the top of my head, elite archer barracks are only available for persians and if you are a greekcavalry side then elite light infantry are not available to you. All cavalry seem to be weak, The HC need their defence against projectiles beefing up, LC are especially weak, no armour.

[Illanor]

I understand that but my confusion comes from the fact that Kinsmen are the HC you get from the elite HC barrack
Immortals Im assuming (since the upgraded archer barracks lets me build Sparabara ) is the next unit u get when u build the elite archer barracks

so if both units do not have any upgrades (ie no armor, damage or any other bonus) how come the Kinsmen looses to Immortals in a straight 1 on 1 fight when Calvary is supposed to be great at taking out archer
and most times this happens in normal terrain meaning that the Calvary should have the advantage over combat archers who thrive in rough terrain

[brasidas]

I tested this in the sandbox. 1 on 1, kinsmen v immortals, and kinsmen won quite easily in the melee after suffering 3 casualties due to arrows. In my view the Immortals should have stood up a little better in the melee. NB Immortals were not only archers but also elite spearmen.
As a contrast I tested immortals v skythian horse archers. The immortals easily won the battle of arrows, the skythians breaking while the immortals suffered no casualties (not what i would expect)

My advice is to try the sandbox and if you are dissatisfied with the outcome mod the units attributes in the squad file using the mod kit.

[grahambriggs]

Historically, Immortals were the best equipped of the sparabara units and men would be promoted from a sparabara unit to the Immortals to keep the latter at a strength of 10,000 men.

The battlefield role of both was to set up a line of supported mantlets into a wall and shoot from behind them. Should have been effective vs cavalry (but wasn't against greek Hoplites)

[Mazeppa]

Actually, heavy cavalry is very effective against skirmishers. However, when facing combat archers, they dominate against parthian archers, but on the other hand, they don't fare well against sparabara and immortals. Though (someone correct me if I'm wrong) I believe the sparabara are more effective than immortals when facing heavy cavalry - based on my experience with them