Tips:

These test were all done before the patch.

After many 1 unit vs 1 unit these are some of my choices.Best buy for youre $$$.
Russian Tsar/Gothic Knight/ France Lancer is perhaps the best cavs.
Russian coosack and Moors camel gunner are best missle units.
Scottish Royal Pikemen is one of the best Infantry/counter cav
Trebuchet is one of the best art/you get 2 and the dead cows rock for crushing there morale.I know others do more damage but for destroying troops and other art Trebuchets are my choice.Most art only does about 63 unit damage.
Elephants are great but route easy. I know there are other great units that can throw down.These just are some of my choices
My Gothic Knights always do well.And russian viking dudes beat most dismounted knights.

I would have to agree with boru as many of the 1 V 1 test were with me. He knows what is good and whats not. I can say this as he beats me alot in frendly pratice games.

I find with England using Dismounted English knights are very good at taking down front lines. They have a high attack. I think its
21 or 22 but low defence. They are also good at taking Cav.

when buying units notice the price jump any time you get more than 4 of the same unit.Its best to not get more than 4,So find a army that has more than 1 good cav/inf unit.Unless its unlimited $$$ then no worries.

Hello fellow Dragons here is another tip.

If you join or host a battle with no rules heres a good way to win.
In most no rules games players pick ART or archers.

Well instead of archers or ART pick more infantry or more cavalry.
This will give you extra man power, but this wont win alone you
have to walk to the enemys armys, This is incase they have ART.
As it will have less of a chance of hitting your men.

When you get close to your foe charge in for the kill. If he has had archers or cannons he will have less battle worthy men & you will have more battle worthy men or cavalry making your job to kill them much easyer.

Good Luck and Good Hunting to all Dragons

very true Black Dragon

When using pike units make sure to have guard mode ON when expecting a cavalry charge and they will lower pikes and brace for impact.
However when fighting other infantry units it's good to switch guard mode OFF and they will keep their pikes up untill the last moment but will lower pikes just before they engage. This seems to be more effective and they will fight much like the phalanx from Rome.
That said they are still a bit prone to taking out their swords randomly so i dunno if that's a bug or a game mechanic...

Ay very true Mcfly....some good advice m8.

We ran some test and discovered no unit can defeat portugal aventuros fully upgraded.Dismounted Christian guard came close as did the scotish pikes.Just a little bit of info....dont go head on vs aventuros.Advice...
use black powder,arrows or one hell of a flank.

AYE portugal is one tough mother( ).....

Boru, just thought mate, we never tried JHI did we? Looking at the totalwar forums they are meant to be the 'be all - end all' unit 1 on 1...even with the relatively crappy stats.

No joy the JHI got trounced pretty soundly. But there is 1 unit we discovered - the Danish Obudashears(sp), they got to 1 unit each duking it out untill the last aventuro was mauled on the floor by that cool finishing move

So yeah they CAN be beaten even if very marginally.

that was the greatest little finish.

Since the release of the patch i have noticed venetian heavy infantry can now defeat almost any inf.(The patch wasnt supposed to do that) was it?Any way I now use them to break pike formations and just about any other inf.There weakness how ever is strong cav.
I also noticed a sleeper unit that nobody uses...Stradiots.
On paper not a great choice ..but after many test i realized they can tackle almost any cav.They are very fast and they use maces up close.The main part is how cheap they are.So for a great late period army that is the right price i choose Venetians. They also have good cheap muskets..what more could you ask for

i have learned the hard way that you should always get 2 to 4 missle cav and build youre army off that.They balance you out and they counter other good players missle cav.Right at start send youre ha out and start plucking there hvy cav and general.If you see some fast counter cav coming retreat a bit dont let them get more than 6 horse lengths of you pepper them as they chase you.If they send 1 or 2 then you should have youre HA attack and kill it before more can come.I also use my HA to charge in on foot archers,most people have archers set on skirmish so they will fall back or straight up route from the simple cav charge.
Im sure most of you know this,but for the noobs (like me) this stuff helps

just thought id give a shout out for the lesser known but very expensive sadabara inf of the turimid faction. i think they are among the best archers and they fight very well in melee when the time comes .mongolian inf and dissmounted dvors of russia also deserve recognition.

My friend Cribster plays Russians all the time and those dismounted Dvors can kick some major ass.