What're the most badass historical units? Operator-like ones, from dawn of man up to the 18thC

What're the most badass historical units? Operator-like ones, from dawn of man up to the 18thC.

Anybody with the following roles:
Scouting
Arson/raiding attack
Field Espionage
Field intelligence

Skaven gutter runners

Einsatzgruppen.

Me and my squad.

Condottieri

Charlie. Thanks for spooking my dad away from the hotel boats on the west coast and onto a rust bucket on the east coast.

shock troops are pretty much by definition some of the most badass. you have to be ridiculously brave to aggressively and quickly push into enemy lines to cause chaos and disorganization.

...you realize they were mostly show, right?

The Varangian guard were basically the Byzantine navy seals.

That's not even remotely true. They were bodyguards and elite infantry, the seals are neither of those things.

Punjabi cavalry. Imagine hit and run horse archers, but with guns.

Alexander's Companions.

Schwarze Reiters (the most expensive mercenaries, since they were cavalry with heavy armor and wheel-lock pistols from the Renaissance).

>badass
>operator
pick one

Sikhs are pretty sikh bro.Arguably some of the best close quarters sword fighters since the roman legions.

Spanish Tercio

Gallowglasses were pretty cool dudes

>The only line we have in historical record spoken by a Gallowglass is a response to his general upon being told that he and his men will be sent out to face enemy artillery and missile fire without support. He replied "You could do me no greater honour, by God's blood."

Viking berserkers.

>cavalry with heavy armor and wheel-lock pistols from the Renaissance

fuck me that's a great sentence

fool-thing, even skaven know the man-things known as the Swiss Pikemen were the most impressive of warriors!

epic, simply epic

I love Gallowglasses because when you think about it they're pretty primitive but they were inexplicably effective well into the 1650s and used in some capacity by basically every military from Ireland to Sweden

Like, a dude with chainmail and a two handed axe going up against muskets and pikes and cannon

I used to love recruiting these in MTW2, I would send generals from the Mediterranean up to Scotland, solely for the purpose of using them as my auxiliaries.

Aragonian almogavars were ridicuolously effective
>a bunch of indisciplined peasants armed with a pair of javelins, a knife and no armor whatsoever BTFOing everything from frankish knights to turkish archers
>mfw