well, its not only on the island fo crete that yoiu can hire them, you can hire them all over greece! if you want other kinds of foot archers, im preety sure that theres no other place to get them, but if you want horse archers, scythian territory is the way to go.

There's also some Bedouin mercenaries in the mideast, and occasionally mercenary elephants in Africa, whose crew also has the ability to shoot arrows.

Well I have been meaning to do this for a while, now I have the excuse. I've put the pool, cost, exp, start#, max#, frequency of occurrence, and regions of the some missile units, elephants, and cavalry into a small table.

The short answer is that Cretan Archers are available in 2 pools (Greece & the Aegean), totaling 9 regions: Rhodos, Crete, Lycia, Phrygia, Ionia, Epirus, Aetolia, Attica, and Peloponnesus.

 ------ MERCENARY ARCHERS, SLINGERS, ELEPHANTS, & CAVALRY ------
Pool Area     Cost Ex St Max (Freq.)    Regions
============= ==== == == === ========= =========================================================
                           *** HORSE ARCHERS ***
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Armenia         800 0 0 1 (0.10-0.18)  Colchis, Atropatene, Armenia, Pontus,Cappadocia
Eastern Europe  800 0 0 1 (0.02-0.08)  Locus_Gepidae, Locus_Gothi, Pripet, Hyperbori
Steppes         800 1 1 3 (0.12-0.38)  Tribus_Sakae, Tribus_Alanni, Tribus_Sarmatae,
                                         Maeotis, Scythia, Bosphorus
                           *** BEDOUIN ARCHERS ***
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arabia          750 0 1 1 (0.10-0.15)  Regnum_Palmyrae, Arabia, Nabataea, Sinai
Egypt           750 0 0 1 (0.005-0.15) Nile_Delta, Middle_Egypt, Thebais
Syria           750 0 0 1 (0.05-0.08)  Assyria Syria, Babylonia, Coele_Syria, Phoenicia, Judaea

                            *** CRETAN ARCHERS ***
                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aegean          750 1 1 2 (0.07-0.15)  Rhodos, Crete, Lycia, Phrygia, Ionia
Greece          750 0 0 1 (0.05-0.08)  Epirus, Aetolia, Attica, Peloponnesus
                           *** RHODIAN SLINGERS ***
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aegean          750 1 1 2 (0.06-0.125) Rhodos, Crete, Lycia, Phrygia, Ionia
                           *** BALEARIC SLINGERS ***
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Balearics       750 2 1 2 (0.05-0.08)  Baliares
North_Africa    750 0 0 1 (0.05-0.08)  Mauretania, Numidia, Gaetulia, Sahara
Sicily          750 0 0 1 (0.03-0.05)  Sicilia_Poeni, Sicilia_Romanus, Sicilia_Graecus, Sardinia
Spain           750 1 1 1 (0.05-0.07)  Gallaecia, Celtiberia, Taraconenis, 
                                         Lusitania Hispania, Baetica
                               *** ELEPHANTS ***
                                   ~~~~~~~~~
North_Africa   4000 0 0 1 (0.005-0.015) Mauretania, Numidia, Gaetulia, Sahara
Syria          4000 0 0 1 (0.005-0.015) Assyria, Syria, Babylonia, Coele_Syria, Phoenicia, Judaea
                           *** BARBARIAN CAVALRY ***
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cisapline_Gaul  800 0 0 1 (0.06-0.15)  Cisalpine_Gaul, Venetia, Noricum
Eastern Europe  800 0 0 1 (0.03-0.08)  Locus_Gepidae, Locus_Gothi, Pripet, Hyperbori
Galatia         800 0 0 1 (0.05-0.08)  Galatia,
Gaul            800 0 0 1 (0.06-0.19)  Belgica, Armorica, Central_Gaul, Aquitania, 
                                         Lugdinensis, Transalpine_Gaul, Narbonensis
Germany         800 2 1 1 (0.06-0.19)  Tribus_Saxones, Germania_Inferior, Tribus_Chattii, 
                                         Agri_Decumates, Germania_Superior
Syria           800 0 0 1 (0.05-0.08)  Assyria Syria, Babylonia, Coele_Syria, Phoenicia, Judaea

                           *** SARMATIAN CAVALRY ***
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Armenia        1200 0 0 1 (0.08-0.15)  Colchis, Atropatene, Armenia, Pontus, Cappadocia
Central_Europe 1200 0 0 1 (0.10-0.15)  Regnum_Marcomannii, Boihaemum, Tribus_Iazyges, Dacia
Steppes        1200 0 0 1 (0.10-0.15)  Tribus_Sakae, Tribus_Alanni, Tribus_Sarmatae, 
                                         Maeotis, Scythia, Bosphorus
                           *** NUMIDIAN CAVALRY ***
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Libya           750 1 1 2 (0.06-0.125) Africa, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Libya, Byzacium
North_Africa    750 1 1 2 (0.10-0.15)  Mauretania, Numidia, Gaetulia, Sahara
                             *** ARAB CAVALRY ***
                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arabia          750 1 1 1 (0.10-0.15)  Regnum_Palmyrae, Arabia, Nabataea, Sinai

KEY: Pool cost exp start# max# (frequency) regions

EDIT: Reformatted table to fit in standard browsers better; Indexed.

[This message has been edited by Wartrain (edited 12-21-2005 @ 08:12 PM).]

Just thought it was worth it to mention---Merc Ele's are 4000 a pop.

And with a .005 to .015 per cent probability of them being available, make sure you don't lose them in battle if you get em!!

*bows to Wartrain* You are the guru. Awesome table. Thanks very much for all the time and trouble you take with your replies.