Illyric Light Swordsmen

Summary
Light Swordsmen are a late-game infantry brigade available to the Illyric faction group, being faster than hoplites with stronger base stats in melee but unable to boost their defenses through the phalanx formation.

"The short swords and large rectangular shields of the light swordsmen allow them to adapt easily to changing conditions on the battlefield and make them less reliant on their formation for defense than their hoplite forbearers."

- In-game Description

History
Though at least some of the Illyrians are known to have adopted the more defensive hoplite tactics from the Greeks, the Illyrians were also greatly renowned for their skill at piracy and guerilla warfare, and were further influenced in their military by the Gallic invasions of the 4th and 3rd Centuries BC, likely prompting the inclusion of late game swordsmen brigades in their roster.

Tactics
Light Swordsmen are more flexible than hoplites with higher speed, damage, and base defense, but are unable to boost their defenses through the phalanx formation, have slightly worse resistance to missile attack and charges, are costlier in both gold and recruits and have fewer soldiers in their brigade. Illyric Light Swordsmen perform roughly similarly to Illyric or Greek hoplites in combat as long as the latter's phalanx formation would hold, albeit with more offensive stats, but are superior over them in situations where the hoplite phalanx breaks. They are able to defeat weaker Hoplite brigades, such as those of the Latins and Sabellians, even if their phalanx formation holds. However, they do not gain a clear advantage over Heavy Hoplites in most situations.

Compared to other late-game light swordsmen, Illyric Light Swordsmen are cheaper and do more melee damage than Hastati and Sabellic Light Pilum Swordsmen, but lack a ranged attack and require a barracks in order to be recruited. They are not as strong as Etruscan Light Swordsmen individually, but do have a larger brigade size than them.