Originally Posted by
LordK9
In the past I complained that the AI ties one arm behind its back by building mainly missile units which are quite easy to defeat. Well, I read an interesting article in "Military Heritage" which stated that Medieval armies WERE mainly archers of some sort often close to 80% longbowmen in English armies. It stated that during the War of the Roses, very few battles were fought with mounted knights because the longbow was so accurate and fast firing that few knights reached the line before their horses were killed. It also stated that when on a static defense, archers were very affective at stopping mounted troops even if they did reach them because archer units carried pointed posts that were stuck into the ground. Moving archers was thus risky as they would have to unplant the posts and carry them forward then replant them prior to firing. Some other tidbits that at least I didn't know: crossbows were loaded lying on the ground on one's back - the loops at the end were for the feet until later models had a mechanical pulley pull that could be loaded standing up. All but the French basically discarded them except for castle defense because they proved too slow firing to be effective in field armies. Also, most crossbow companies were mercenaries the most sought after companies came from a place that doesn't get a bonus for them in the game - Genoa.
So, now I'm wondering, did the producers try to do a historical thing with the builds or is it merely as prior stated just due to the AI fighting AI to AI battles without firing missiles at all (seems counter-intuitive to me). Maybe archers are NOT overly affective vs armor as I stated prior.
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