Hoplite

The hoplite was the defining warrior of the Greek city-states — a citizen-soldier who purchased his own equipment and stood shoulder to shoulder with his neighbors in the phalanx. Shielded by the large, round aspis and armed with the doru, a spear of up to three meters, the hoplite was part of a collective weapon greater than any individual fighter. The phalanx advanced as a single wall of overlapping shields and bristling spears; its psychological and physical impact on lighter-armed opponents was immense, as demonstrated at Marathon, Plataea, and Thermopylae. Discipline and cohesion were everything — a broken phalanx meant catastrophe. In the game the hoplite is a superb frontline infantry unit with excellent armor and a formation bonus, but he is outflanked by cavalry and struggles on rough terrain where the phalanx cannot maintain its shape.