Veteran muslim spearmen : overrated ?

[CONSTANTINIX]

Hello

I was looking at the Arab conquest list and I was surprised by one unit and it's cost : Veteran muslim spearmen /cost 54

Mainly focused at the antiquity, my reference was the Veteran african spearman /Cost 78 in the Hannibal list
Differences between these two units : one is undrilled and protected whereas the second is armoured and drilled. But the cost difference seems to me enormous for what will be a +25 POA difference once the fight is engaged
Furthermore, playing mainly roman armies , I was wondering that with the cost of the Veteran muslim spearmen , I can only afford a mediocre roman legionary which will be no match for this über spearmen

Is the cost difference based only on these two differences or is there a big discount price given for the arab conquest list as this unit was the backbone of the arab army ?
Sorry if a discussion has already be done on this subject


Regards

[pompeytheflatulent]

Armor is overpriced in price calculations since armor contributes half the POA in melee compared to tabletop. Just a side effect of the changes between tabletop and pc game.

Then again, veteran muslim spearmen operate in a much more archer heavy enviroment compared to mediocre legionnaires.

[Nosy_Rat]

There's no special discount for arab spearmen, it's just that armour costs a lot of points (18 in this case) and being maneuverable some more (6 points). For example, you can find similarly priced unit (60 points, as they are drilled) - veteran hoplites - in various greek lists.

[pompeytheflatulent]

Or, the Anglo-Saxon Hirdsmen, which used to be a carbon copy of veteran muslim spearmen until the last patch, which brought them up to some armor and 60 points, the 6 points spent on armor only bought the Hirdsmen a third of the way from protected to armored.

[Gaznak]

There was a price reduction for armored foot a while back. Mediocre legions used to be 60 bucks each. I don't remember exactly what the parameters were... I think it was drilled average armored foot? In that case drilled armored superior foot might be a little over costed compared to their crummier variants.

[CONSTANTINIX]

Thanks guys for all these answers.


I understand that the point is that units with less armor and good experience have the edge over more armoured units with less experience for the same value

for a 18 points cost , I got
better armor : + 25 melee, better protection against range attacks
or
better experience : + 50 melee, + 50 shock , better dice results for moral checks

I guess I will specialize in overconfident naked armies for the future

[pompeytheflatulent]

Go give axe-wielding Irishmen or Dacian falxmen a whirl.