Upgrading archers

[Sam Adams]

Shields are relatively useless because you should never be using your archers in hand to hand combat anyway, but to sword upgrades do anything to their missile strength?

Or do improved shields help protect them from enemy arrows?

[Hoplite]

Weapons upgrades have no effect on ranged attacks, but armour upgrades do raise the units armour value, making them more resistant to enemy projectiles. Increasing the valour of an archer unit does make their shooting more effective.

[|OCS|Virus]

personaly I always go for ones that have swords in addition to bows, there very effective. I've noticed that the turks have a lot of these types, but if you put to many of that kind in there it doesn't work to well. LoL

[Brother Derfel]

If I anticipate an archer duel in a battle, I will often give my archers very high armour upgrades. In addition to putting them in loose formation they are almost impossible to hit http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[Leet Eriksson]

armour upgrades is necessary if your going for archery duels,wich is pretty annoying.

[Knight Keimo]

Quote[/b] (Hoplite @ July 06 2003,02:06)]Increasing the valour of an archer unit does make their shooting more effective.
So does they´r valour get better while shooting at distance? It seems so absorb to order them hand to hand fighting just to grow valour.

After you´v build a Master Bowyer it´s possible to train archers with 1-2 valour, but is that all what can do?

I´v played the MTW over a half year now, but never paid attention to that thing.. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[The_Emperor]

yeah Master Bowyer gives a +1 Valor, if you combine this with provinces such as Wales (+1 Valor to Longbows) you can then train Valor 2 Longbows.

Armour is neccessary (but can work against you in the desert) so I always upgrade.

[Hoplite]

Quote[/b] (Knight Keimo @ July 06 2003,13:24)]So does they´r valour get better while shooting at distance? It seems so absorb to order them hand to hand fighting just to grow valour.
Yes shooting dead lots of enemies increases the valour of archers, just not as quickly as fighting successfully in hand-to-hand. This is because of the 'honour-based' valor system that dates back to shogun. It's more manly to kill someone up close and personal than it is to shoot him dead from a distance. In my experience, it takes about a hundred enemy killed at range for an archer unit to go from valor 0 to 1.

[Urban Legend]

Quote[/b] (Hoplite @ July 06 2003,02:06)]Weapons upgrades have no effect on ranged attacks, but armour upgrades do raise the units armour value, making them more resistant to enemy projectiles. Increasing the valour of an archer unit does make their shooting more effective.
I thought increasing valor only increases attack and defence, not to missile attacks. Which makes those archery buildings in VI almost worthless.

[Gregoshi]

Hello |OCS|Virus. Welcome to the Org. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif My curiosity is killing me: what does OCS stand for?

[Hoplite]

Quote[/b] (Urban Legend @ July 06 2003,15:06)]I thought increasing valor only increases attack and defence, not to missile attacks. Which makes those archery buildings in VI almost worthless.
Raising valour also improves the to hit chances of archer units, thus making them more likely to cause enemy casualties.

[Yelping Godzilla]

Also remember high Valour keeps the little bastards from running away if your melee troops rout through them.

Plus, while archers clearly aren't for close combat, they often end up embroiled in it, even if only temporarily. There's nothing more annoying than green, poor quality light cav getting chewed up by veteran upgraded missile units.

I also find myself using archers as extra melee troops to make flanking attacks if our melee lines are equally matched.

EEUURAAH.

[SeveredSoul]

It really dosen't make a whole lot of difference in MP
'cause everyone seems to uses Pav Arbs anyway. The Pav Arb shield more than offsets the accuracy bonus for higher valor archers and other non-shield missile units. Especially with the Pav Arbs longer reach, they DOMINATE in an archer duel.

That being said.....I HATE Pav Arbs. They are just too damned slow. A half decent player will run off the Pav Arbs with Light Cav before the Arbs get in range, every time. And besides..........Light Cav is expendable. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[bighairyman]

i always upgrade my invading army it make me feel good to look at all those gold swords and shields, in the desert though. i don't upgrade them http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[katar]

same here, unless i`m building sandcastles in the desert i will give my lads the best of everything possible as regards upgrades.

[Mega Dux Bob]

If you don't use your archers in melee what do you do with them after they run out of ammo? Have them break to clear the field for reinforcements?

[Crash]

Weapons upgrades supposedly increase casualties among the archers targets, better arrows and arrowheads I suppose. But I can't say that I've personally seen it in a game since I haven't built any archers in a province with metalsmiths yet.

[Mount Suribachi]

Quote[/b] (Sam Adams @ July 06 2003,07:16)]you should never be using your archers in hand to hand combat anyway
Not true.

Sure, you don't charge AUMs with you valour 0 longbows, but...

Archers are quick. Often quicker than enemy inf. Some (eg Desert Archers) are quicker than others and are excellent for chasing down routing troops. Their quickness also enables them to flank and hit the enemy from behind. When they're upgraded with val/armour/swords they can be very effective. Again, some archers are better than others for this - Genoese Sailors & Bulgarian Brigands are better than vanilla archers.

To sum up - upgraded archers in HTH can often make the difference between winning and losing and have done so on many occasions for me.

[Brutal DLX]

Yeah, the hybrid archers have some uses, especially trebizon and longbow ones. But the plain archers, you can use them to charge in from flank or rear as a last ditch effort when you're losing, otherwise have them retreat and make room for reinforcements.

[Lord_PH]

hmm...never tried that...need to upgrade archers
i like to have a lot of archers at a province with bridges

raise a lot of valour

arhers in STW where vital...looks like MTW is the same...

[Sam Adams]

Ya, in a last ditch defense you can use them... but you shouldnt be in that situation either:P