Lothern Sea Guard (Shields)

Lothern Sea Guard (Shields) is a High Elves missile infantry unit in Total War: Warhammer II. Unlike other levied citizen militias, the Lothern Sea Guard remain armed and ready at all times.

Description
The Lothern Sea Guard can fight as effectively on land as at sea, and are equally resolute when defending the walls and fields of Lothern as they are as when battling on the deck of a ship. These dangerous duties require the Sea Guard to maintain a flexible armoury. The vast majority are well-trained in the use of spear, shield and bow - the better to combine the finest aspects of the spear and archer regiments of other cities and realms. Indeed, it is a point of pride in Lothern that the discipline of their warriors far surpasses that of any found elsewhere in Ulthuan. When the armies of Ulthuan go to war, the Sea Guard play a crucial part, crewing the many warships and acting as the vanguard for the oncoming host.

Strategy
The Sea Guard are a duel-type unit equipped with a bow and spear. They are a good mutliroled unit that is recruited by the High Elves from any High Elf Rally Field. At a War Hall, they can be recruited with shields equipped, unlike that of Warhammer 1 factions where you would usually need an armory-type building to get shields. This unit generally replaces High Elf Spearmen in garrisons when you level up cities and settlements, eventually completely replacing even High Elf Archers as well. Later game, High Elf garrisons will mainly compose of shielded Sea Guard and some sort of elite infantry like White Lions of Chrace or Swordmasters of Hoeth, but no archers or spearmen.

Concerning field battles, during the middle campaign game you might be tempted to replace all your spearmen with Sea Guards. This can be highly effective against factions whose infantry suffer a lot from weak missile resistance like the Vampire Coast, but it is a very particular and costly build. Against many other factions, the enemy will make it through your hail of arrows and once your Sea Guards are engaged in melee, their ranged abilities are useless and their lower health and model count compared to Spearmen will cause them a lot of trouble. Their shields do make them excellent for ranged duels with other missile units.