This is a tricky one because the Unsullied literally have no combined arms. It's all spearmen with shields like the OP states. No ranged weapons (beyond throwing your spear). One thing that impacted me about the Unsullied later on in the excretable later seasons of
Game of Thrones is that they did upgrade their armor it seems when they arrived in Westeros. You see it first in the Assault Upon Casterly Rock. They've expanded their armor on their shoulders and sleeves with an expanded helmet and face cover even. Of course... like ALL armor in
Game of Thrones, anything sharper then breadknives cut through it like butter. But they have armor.
It's important also to note that as Tyrion narrates the tactics of seizing Casterly Rock, he states the Lannisters are better armed and
armored so the Unsullied likely still have inferior armor to your standard above average Westerosi infantry soldier. But Tyrion also states (rather rightly IMHO) that the Unsullied fight with more zeal and determination. And from what we can tell in the Battle of Winterfell... are literally nigh unbreakable.
That's the Battle that really impresses me upon the Unsullied. I read the article from the OP and it's all facts based like in regards to how castration leads to low testosterone and other maladies and effects, and how the Spartan style training didn't actually lead to uniformly superior troops compared to the other Greek City States, and that the Unsullied are more like Sumerian phalangites and completely out of date, as well as the in-universe warnings of the not so wise nor good Masters of Astapor stating how changing their training and upbringing will ruin them.
I have nothing to contest the comparisons to the real world, nor anything in regards to the Good Masters statement. I don't think the Unsullied were diminished in their battlefield quality however and that their operations in Westeros rather proved it. Up to that point they fought some battles, but most of it was Unsullied doing stuff like patrols and counter insurgency and civil police and other things that diminished their fighting capacity. They needed the Second Sons and whatnot for more flexibility. They were even flawed as 'bodyguards' one time when Daario managed to somehow infiltrate close to Daenerys (which is odd since Barristan Selmy was there as well but I digress).
But when they arrived in Westeros they captured Casterly Rock... which was apparently undermanned. But again the Lannister troops were described as good and well provisioned and the Unsullied (TEN GOOD MEN) were able to infiltrate the Castle like special forces style and then open the gates allowing the Castle to fall. This is important because after seeing several seasons of Unsullied struggle, we get to see the Unsullied (or at least some of them) are really good individual combatants. We knew Grey Worm was, he showed it several times fighting the Harpies but also when a party of Unsullied infiltrated Mereen and incited a successful slave revolt from within. Grey Worm himself showed distinction fighting in Yunkai earlier as well.
So it seems that when prepared, Unsullied can fight with sword or in close quarters with a fair amount of competency. As long as they aren't literally ambushed out of nowhere.
But their main benefit is that they are unbreakable infantry. As in almost literally unbreakable. The Siege of Winterfell showed that. In the (ridiculously laid out) opening Battle you had the Knights of the Vale, Wildings, the remnants of the Nights Watch and the Northern Armies all standing beside the Unsullied when a literally swarm of undead practically tsunami'd over them. Almost all of the forces were basically speedbumps except the Unsullied. And keep in mind, while many of the Northerners best men might've been dead, the Knights of the Vale were likely more intact. But they got rolled as well. The Unsullied held. Which is stating something since the Undead were literally swarming and pulling down everyone. They were holding and held until the heroes could fumble into creating their flame trench and sealing the fate of the Unsullied... who were still holding well beyond everyone else, to their inevitable fate.
But even with having highly skilled, well trained, unbreakable spear infantry, they are still unsupported. Most fantasy armies... have combined arms as rudimentary as it might be. I think the Unsullied would be a great component of other armies. For example having just read the Knights of Bretonnia, I think a few thousand Unsullied would've served Bretonnia far better then the larger numbers of absolutely dreadful Men at Arms Bretonnia typically used when battling Beastmen, Greenskins, Undead and Norscans. And as a bonus the Bretonnians could still look down upon, spurn and spite the lowborn Unsullied while still admiring their utter lack of use of dishonorable ranged weapons.
But on their own?
Hmmmmm... the first army I could think of is
Dragon Age: Origins and the Darkspawn... specifically at the Battle of Ostagar. Now the Darkspawn do have ranged enemies. Genlock and Hurlock Alphas, as well as Emissaries but in the opening Battle the Darkspawn horde was basically baited into charging the Fereldan forces in a narrow area. The Darkspawn horde didn't even bother with the whole ranged weapon thing and threw themselves into the melee. To their credit, so did the Fereldans of course, but here it'd be the Darkspawn throwing themselves into a seemingly inferior force of unbreakable infantry with really sharp and long spears.
Not sure why Thedas doesn't have much long spear fighting, maybe due to the lack of horses and cavalry, but if the Unsullied can hold against a hundred thousand Undead, I think they could handle a smaller number of Darkspawn and even the Ogres would have a really bad time getting skewered on long spears. If thousands of Undead can't drag down the Unsullied spears, I don't think the Darkspawn will have anymore success. And once their spent (minus any No Limits Fallacy ArchDaemons) the Unsullied can then proceed to poke and prod and advance upon the Darkspawn once their momentum is spent.
Anyways... as for other fictional armies... ummm... fictional history armies?
The Germanic Barbarian Horde from the opening battle of
Gladiator? They have bows... but their arches didn't seem that effective. Certainly not more than the Lannister archers firing upon the janky Unsullied tortoise formations during the Siege of Casterly Rock.
Perhaps ironically, the Servile Rebels in the
Spartacus TV series since they seem to love leaping into melee combat. Like literally... they leap into melee combat... in slow motion... easy pickings for a long spear from a named character.
The Romans in this series might also be underserved due to their lack of cavalry and effective missile troops as well.
Moving up through fictional history, how about the Battle of Brihtwulf in Season Three of
Vikings? Remember the ineffectual archer fire? Remember the shittiest spear wall in the 9th Century? Be nice to see those Vikings charging up the beach, not harassed by arrows, and coming face to spearpoint with a proper phalanx bottling up the beach. OUCH! You just try and cut through those spears or jumping over the shields guys.
Like in most of the battles in or
Spartacus, replace it with an equal number of Unsullied... 🤷♀️
In fact as I think about it, the Unsullied might actually operate pretty good in place of the Northern Army in the Battle of Stirling in
Braveheart. Unlike the later Battle of Falkirk, the Scots didn't even have an archer contingent. They did have light horse present but they were used to attack the rear and archers. Here they'd only have spearmen to fight. And honestly I think the Unsullied are good enough to take on Scottish Light Horse as seen in that movie. And they could form spearwalls and have better unit cohesion than the Scottish could. And even if it de-evolves into a general melee, the Unsullied aren't exactly bad in that kind of fight. During the Sack of Kings Landing they did decent enough.
It's always odd when it seems like the bad guys in Narnia or
Lord of the Rings have better balanced armies then those shown in historical war movies... but it's fine.
Possibly. What about Army of Anubis from The Mummy series?
The Army of Anubis requires beheading to kill them. That'd be tricky with a spear. Which is unfortunate because long spears provide an invaluable damage bonus versus large targets. They'd probably do better against the Medjai... well no actually because the Medjai would just bring their guns to the fight then. 😛
