Greek Hoplites

Summary
Hoplites are a heavy infantry brigade available to the Greek and Sicilian faction groups. They are slow, defensive spearmen, with the ability to enter phalanx formation to further boost their defenses in pitched battles.

"Disciplined infantry that fight with a long spear and a large round shield. Better equipped and trained than regular spearman, hoplites are generally composed of free citizens who can afford to purchase their own equipment. Hoplites originated in the city-states of Ancient Greece but quickly spread to other Mediterranean cultures like the Latins and Etruscans."

- In-game Description

History
The Greeks were historically the first to fight in hoplite fashion, starting in the 7th Century BC at the latest, with the Etruscans and Latins probably adopting the fighting style over the course of the following century.

The Greeks also retained this fighting style the longest, while other cultures abandoned the hoplite in favour of more flexible heavy infantry in the 4th and 3rd Centuries BC. Though the Greeks did over time begin to augment the hoplite phalanx with lighter infantry such as peltasts, and the larger kingdoms on the Greek periphery such as Macedonia would eventually replace the hoplite with phalangites in the 4th Century BC, many Greek city-states didn't totally abandon hoplite warfare until they lost their independence to Rome.

Tactics
Unlike with other faction groups, hoplites are available immediately to the Greeks and Sicilians without the need for a barracks, and will be the main melee brigade of their early-game armies, giving the Greeks and Sicilians a very strong advantage over other faction groups at the start of the game.

With good missile resistance and strong defenses, Hoplites are good at taking missile damage and suitable for use in sieges. They benefit greatly from the phalanx formation in pitched battles, which provides a great increase to defenses and charge block but only so long as the formation holds. If the formation does break, Hoplites will still prove superior to light infantry of the early game, but will not be able to hold out against late-game swordsmen.

Besides being available unusually early, Greek Hoplites are also one of the best normal hoplite brigades in-game stat-wise thanks to their unusually high defense stat, which is equivalent to that of the more advanced heavy hoplites of other faction groups. This makes them excellent at maintaining sieges and superior to all other hoplites in an even fight except for Illyric Hoplites, who have substantially increased melee damage. However, Greek Hoplites are slightly more expensive than the hoplites of other faction groups, except for those of the Etruscans.