Illyric Hoplites

Summary
Hoplites are a heavy infantry brigade available to the Illyric faction group. They are slow heavy 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
Archaeological evidence reveals that the Illyrians imported weapons, armour and tactics from the Greeks, and wealthier Illyrian warriors may have fought in a manner similar to hoplites. However, exact details about Illyric army compositions tend to be lacking, and the amount of Greek tactics and equipment used may have varied depending on the tribe's economic prosperity and proximity to the Greek world, with certain Illyric tribes being more renowned for their piracy and guerilla tactics as opposed to rigid phalanx warfare.

Tactics
Hoplites are the first improvement in infantry available to Illyric factions and are a big step up from skirmishers and spearmen, though the player will likely want to replace them with the even stronger Heavy Hoplites as soon as they can afford to do so.

With good missile resistance and decent 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.

Illyric Hoplites are one of the best normal hoplite brigades in-game thanks to their high melee damage, which is equivalent to that of the more advanced heavy hoplites of other faction groups. This allows them to defeat most other hoplites in an even fight and go toe-to-toe against Greek and Sicilian Hoplites, who have higher defenses than normal but are also slightly more expensive in gold. As such, Illyric Hoplites are the most cost-effective in many melee situations, but unlike Greeks and Sicilians they do require a barracks upgrade to be constructed and are therefore not available immediately at the beginning of the game, and the Greek and Sicilian Hoplites are better in situations where melee damage doesn't matter such as during sieges.