Sabellic Heavy Hoplites

Summary
Heavy Hoplites are a heavy infantry brigade available to the Sabellic faction group, and are the strongest infantry available to Sabellic factions 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
While some of the Sabellic tribes who received the most Greek influence, such as the Lucani, are known to have at some point started fighting as hoplites, the exact extent of hoplite warfare among the Sabellic tribes is unknown and it's possible that this style of warfare did not reach the tribes more distant from Greek and Etruscan civilization.

Some tribes, such as the Samnites, would adopt a more flexible heavy infantry capable less reliant on staying in formation and additionally capable of missile fire with heavy javelins, eventually making hoplite warfare obsolete in the Italian peninsula.

Tactics
Heavy Hoplites will be the main Sabellic infantry brigade in the mid-game for both pitched battles as well as sieges, until they can be supplemented with the more flexible Light and Heavy Pilum Swordsmen. Even in the late-game it can be useful to keep Heavy Hoplites around for sieging purposes and certain battlefield roles, since the Sabellic factions lack an equivalent to the Latin 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.

Sabellic Heavy Hoplites have a higher charge damage than the equivalent heavy hoplite brigades of other factions, making them good at quickly overwhelming lighter brigades. In protracted melee engagements, however, they are inferior to Illyric Heavy Hoplites who have a higher damage output, and to Greek and Sicilian Heavy Hoplites who have higher defenses. Etruscan Heavy Hoplites also have slightly higher defenses, but less attack and a much smaller brigade size making them less effective overall.