archer's group formations

[MizuKokami]

something i recently began wondering. in group formations, there is a formation called, 'double line'. do archers, when in this formation, fire at different trajectories? the row in back fireing high, and the row in front fireing straight?

[Puzz3D]

No, but I believe the double row is more effective than a triple row due to loss of accuracy from the 3rd row.

[The Wizard]

There isn't any triple row. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[jadast]

I think the double line in group formations puts one unit in front of the other. In the foot first your melee units will line up in front of your archers. In archer first your melee units line up behind. And there are three line group formations. With the three lines you get options to put up a cavalry screen. But to answer your question I do not think this affects the angle of fire.

[The Wizard]

I know, but I guessed Yuuki was talking about a triple row like a double row.. there doesn't seem to be any true order in the double row, unlike the cav-melee-archer formations and their like.

[MizuKokami]

that's a bummer, because firing high to cause the enemy to put their shields over their heads, then firing straight while their shields are up, is a very viable tactic. you would think that would be the sole purpose for lining your archers up in two rows. are you sure yuuki, have you actually tested to see if one row of archers do the same damage as a double row does?

[ShadesWolf]

Archer formation will depend on what type of tactices you want to play. A doulbe line does appear to be better.

But for sheer force, if you have a lot of archer units use Wedge as it gives an almight bang to the enemy

[Brutal DLX]

I think there's a little misunderstanding here.
Yuuki probably meant one archer unit in two or three lines, and Kokami was talking about several units of archers in the two rows formation.
As for the latter, no they don't fire higher or lower, but it is a good option to choose if you want to maneuver your archers more quickly, because they aren't spread out across the battlefield that much. But the back row might suffer accuracy penalties as well.
I also often put my archers in wedge formation, it has its benefits.

[MizuKokami]

maybe it's just me, but i'm fairly certain yuuki knows what a double line group formation is. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

[lancer63]

I have found that the double row of archers is great against advancing enemies. It's kind of medieval carpet bombing. I´ve seen enemy militia routed by my treb. archers after suffering some 60% casualties vs. nothing. But double rof is a sure way to lose 2 ranged units or more if you don't keep them from the new, after VI patch, flanking cavalry sweep. Is it me or the AI has taken a new fancy of charging archers from the flanks as if they were surfing the pipeline?

[Kraxis]

Wedge certainly has its benefits. You can concentrate a lot of archers onto a very small area and still have a rather nice accuracy (more people in the 'front' ranks than in Close).

[MrWhipple]

Hommer Simpson sez "Ooooooohhh Wedge"