Latin Heavy Hoplites

Summary
Heavy Hoplites are a heavy infantry brigade available to the Latin faction group, and are the strongest infantry available to the Latins without progressing in the military skill tree. They are slow, extremely defensive spearmen, with the ability to enter phalanx formation to further boost their defenses in pitched battles.

"Better equipped and trained than regular hoplites, Heavy hoplites wear formidable bronze armour and carry their namesake hoplon shield. While slow to move on the battlefield, once in position a heavy hoplite battleline can withstand all but the strongest enemy charge."

- In-game Description

History
The Romans, like several other cultures in Italy, are thought to have adopted hoplite warfare from the Greeks at some point in the 6th Century BC, forming the backbone of their armies during the late Regal and early Republican periods. Continued advancements by the Greeks in the quality of armour, such as the invention of the muscle cuirass in the early 5th Century BC which prominently features on the heavy hoplite model in-game, made their way to Rome as well.

Rome would reform its military in the 4th Century BC, abandoning the hoplite phalanx for a more flexible system composed of multiple battlelines of increasingly heavy infantry. The third line, the Triarii, originally continued to fight with the equipment and tactics of heavy hoplites, however.

Tactics
Heavy Hoplites will be the main Latin infantry brigade in the mid-game for both pitched battles as well as sieges, until they can be supplemented with the more flexible Hastati and eventually replaced by Principes and Triarii.

With the highest missile resistance of any infantry in-game and a solid defense stat, Heavy Hoplites are very good at tanking missile damage and very good at maintaining sieges as a result. In pitched battles, they can benefit greatly from the phalanx formation, which provides a great increase to defenses and charge block but only so long as the formation holds.

The Latins have some of the weaker Heavy Hoplites in the game, with a lower charge strength compared to the Sabellics, lower damage than the Illyrics, and lower defenses than the Greeks and Sicilians. Only the Etruscans have arguably worse Heavy Hoplites, with a slightly higher defense but lower damage and much less soldiers per brigade.