Talk:Shotel Warrior/@comment-1643434-20160202111433

though most people have noticed already, Shotel Warriors actually kinda suck en-masse. they're made out of paper and will be slaugtered by any and all troops with range, and even though they can kill enemy infantry/light cavalry 1v1 they only do it just barely and aren't cost effective i sustained combat with really any type of enemy troop, be it cav, archer or infantry (save halberds, sort of, and enemy skirms, though your siege onagers can do that job even better).

I still love this unit thought and I always research Royal Heirs, because I like to leave my castles at home with the Ethiopians as they lack Hoardings and Treadmill Crane which are what really make forward castle building a good strat for the long term. As soon as i see there's trouble in my base, any one of those castles can spit out a group of Shotels in no time at all, and the low HP of the shotel warrior is mostly irrelevant in this situation since the enemy is in limited number and also distracted with attacking your buildings and villagers. Their high damage, in this situation, will let them kill those units as soon as possible, and they are fast enough to catch up with paladins/hussars moving between locations or chasing down your trade carts. If i do have a castle close to the battle, Shotels can be used as emergency filler to keep a push from losing steam, or you can use a small group of them in place of cavalry to dismantle enemy siege when you're on the back foot.

on the subject of raiding with them... it's not impossible but it's definitely not a strategy you want to lean on. they're not cheap at all like their description suggests and they just wont survive long enough to justify their cost if the enemy has any defensive troops or they have to run past a defensive structure,

Shotel Warriors are great assassins and fill in a few gaps that are left by the Ethiopians lack of a capable cavalry force but they certainly don't replace it and even though it's tempting to spam them, each one need to be created for a distinct purpose.