Graal Knights are a type of heavy cavalry unit available to the Romano-British in Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion.
Description[]
With the withdrawal of Roman forces from Britannia the local people have been forced to look to their own defence. These "knights" have undertaken to defend good Christian folk - sometimes for pay - against the pagans who threaten them in the far-flung corners of the Empire. They are dedicated warriors, and draw upon the military traditions and skills that the Romans brought to their home islands, in particular, the heavy cavalry skills of the Sarmatian auxiliaries who were once stationed in Britannia.
Graal Knights can be relied on in battle to be first into a fight and amongst the last to leave the field.
Tactics[]
Graal Knights are one of, if not the most elite cavalry unit in the western world, with very little that can stand up against them in a straight fight. Graal Knights are very tough units, with the only comparable units being those from the eastern world where horsemen are more valued, such as the Eastern Roman Empire's Equites Clibinarii or the Sassanid's Cataphracts. As it is, the Romano-British are quite literally across the known world from these two factions so Graal Knights are highly unlikely to come up against them. Imperial German Bodyguard from the Western Roman Empire is the only western unit that can hope to stand up against Graal Knights and even then they have slightly inferior stats and less men in a cohort.
Graal Knights have fantastic stats in almost all areas. While not quite as good as the Clibinarii Immortals available to the Sassanids, very few units can hope to stand up to the knights and live to tell the tale. They have near unrivalled charge statistics making them excellent shock cavalry for destroying morale and killing units before pulling back with minimal casualties. They also excel at being flanking cavalry, charging in from the rear to deal the final, morale crushing blow to an enemy army. When fighting other cavalry, Graal Knights are decent anti-cavalry cavalry, though their low cohort numbers means they can easily loose half their number if unsupported.
Due to requiring a level 5 stables to build and only in the capital, Graal Knights are a very late game unit, something that will rarely be seen over the course of a normal campaign. Usually the first settlement for the Romano-British that can produce Graal Knights will be Londinium or Avaricum, as they both start with quite high population and can reach the rank of 'huge city' quite early. However, since the Romano-British are an emergent faction, money is hard to come by reliably and in a high enough quantity to afford not only the buildings to unlock Graal Knights but also the economy to recruit and upkeep them, as they are very expensive to maintain and retrain. No other faction can reliably recruit Graal Knights, as mercenaries of them will only spawn on Britannia or in Gaul, and even then they are an extortionate cost of nearly 3,000 gold per mercenary unit and approaching 500 gold per turn to upkeep. When seen on the battlefield, Graal Knights are invaluable but generally supported by a cheaper and more numerous cavalry unit such as the Sarmatian Auxilia to keep them safe and their casualties to a minimum.
Trivia[]
- Graal Knights are thought to be based off the knights of King Arthur, legendary King of the Romano-British people.
- An alternate interpretation of their name which backs up this idea is the name 'Grail Knights' or 'Knights of the Grail'. This is due to the word 'Graal' meaning 'Grail' in Breton, the old language of the Britons, and the Holy Grail is prominent in Arthurian legend.
- Being only available in two provinces, Graal Knight mercenaries are the rarest of all the mercenaries, and the most expensive at nearly 3,000 gold.
- Graal Knights are ONLY available in the CAPITAL. As such, only one settlement can ever build Graal Knights at any one time, as you can only have one capital. This settlement must be the capital, as mention, and have the Circus Maximus built.
Gallery[]
