Gallic Noble Swordsmen

Summary
Noble Swordsmen are powerful late-game swordsmen available to the Gallic faction group, and one of the strongest units in the game in general.

"Recruited from wealthy families that can afford the best equipment available. Noble swordsmen sacrifice some mobility on the battlefield for significant offensive and defensive capabilities."

- In-game Description

History
Though many of the Gauls fought in a lightly armoured fashion and didn't adopt the hoplite panoply of the Greeks, they did adopt the usage of chain mail by at least the 3rd Century BC or earlier. The Gauls are often the ones credited with the invention of chain mail, but it is also possible that it was originally developed by the Etruscans instead. Regardless, the Gallic adoption of mail is reflected in-game by the late-game Noble Swordsmen brigade, which depicts a group of wealthy elite warriors drawn from the Gallic upper classes.

Tactics
Noble Swordsmen are a massive improvement over Naked Skirmishers, sacrificing some speed for much better defenses and charge blocking and and even having slightly better damage and charge strength. They are, however, more expensive in both gold and recruits, requiring a whopping 120 recruits to field a full strength brigade.

Galic Noble Swordsmen are a very powerful late-game infantry, with superior melee stats to every other infantry except for Greek Hypaspists and Etruscan Heavy Swordsmen, and are capable of defeating Heavy Hoplites even if the latter are in a phalanx formation. They are also remarkably cheap in gold for their quality, but more expensive in recruits than all but the Greek Hypaspists.