Oooh, a neat little tweak!

[frogbeastegg]

I started up a ERE game yesterday, my first game in months. I found, completely by accident, that one of the old grumbles from 1.0 onwards has been fixed. When you order missile cavalry to attack something with their secondary weapon skirmish mode is automatically turned off. Woohoo! No more units of cav trying to charge, only to turn tail and run away repeatedly until their morale shatters and they rout. Perfect for absent-minded frogs who always forgot to remove skirmish mode until the unit started to dodge away from their target.

Probably old news, but if not ...

[Ciaran]

I wonder if the same goes for infantry missile units. Is that BI- specific or does it happen in Rome 1.3 and above as well?

[Deus ret.]

Probably old news, but if not ...

is this true? in the meantime I've come to micromanage missile cav since even when properly skirmishing they tend to run in the entirely wrong direction, let alone this annoying tail-turning...a perfect invitation for enemy ranged attackers. great discovery!

I don't know about infantry, but it should also apply to vanilla in versions 1.3+.

[Kickius Buttius]

It's true, but I found out when, after charging one weak unit, I sent my horse archers to harass some heavy infantry. I went off to another part of the battle and then noticed that my horse archers were dying at a rapid rate.

Don't forget to turn skirmish mode back on if you want to harass after close combat!!!

[x-dANGEr]

It happens in R: TW and BI and for foot archers too I think. Though, it can be annoying, because people are just not used to it, and you just look their and find your HA not skirmishing off the enemy infantry..

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Horse archers are deadly now, there's nothing better than watching horse archers chasing a fleeing general and picking off his bodyguard while closing and then hacking the man himslef to pieces.

[Watchman]

It's been around a while I think. Not sure how long though, I didn't exactly write the date down when I first became aware of it. Works just the same for foot missiles too, which tends to mainly be useful with disposable javelineers out of ammo. Saves that extra bit of hassle when chasing routers and suchlike anyway, and that's never a bad thing.

That HAs loose arrows when charging, chasing and suchlike was almost certainly there already at 1.0. In RTW they can shoot on the move, and all of the above are just... moving, after all.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Yeah, as I recall it got broken at some point, then fixed.

It still looks very, very, cool.

[Watchman]

It did ? Must've missed that then.

[Oaty]

I hate that feature. Because more often I'm turning it back on than I am than I had to turn it off

[frogbeastegg]

I know it wasn't in 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2, because those are the versions I played more extensively, and I always had trouble with my horse archers in them. I remember well the many complaints about the change to the old system, where skirmish was overriden if you ordered a unit to engage with melee weapons. The BI release version seems the most likely for its introduction, then. I played it a fair bit, but the only campaign which got a lot of playtime was the second one I started as the Saxons, all the others being dumped for various reasons, but mostly to do with the fact they were too easy because no one was attacking me. Until now I haven't played any of the patched BI versions.

I know I don't read many RTW/BI threads, but I went on a reading blitz before updating the guide and I've not heard anything about this before. Shame I found it too late to bung it in the guide. Oh well.

I had occasion last night to discover it works for foot archers too. I wonder ... is skirmish is turned back on when you order a unit to start shooting again? Sounds like not, but worth looking at. I only engage in melee with missile troops when they run out of ammo, or there's no other choice if I/they want to live.

I like it; it's a nice feature. Though it would be best if issuing a shoot order put skirmish back on.

[Ciaran]

That´s why I wondered if it worked for foot missile units as well, those velites or peltasts make for a nice and quick ( and cheap) light infantry once they ran out of javelins and occasionally you need every man in the fight. And they´re good for chasing routers.

[Doug-Thompson]

Sorry for not mentioning this earlier. The "skirmish still on" problem was fixed in BI, when HA were also redeemed from the awful "won't fire while skirmishing" fiasco of 1.2.

Skirmishing, if anything, works too well now for HA. They'll run from anything, to the point that you sometimes have to turn skirmishing off to move them, in perfect safety, to the flank or rear of a target or out of a corner.

And no, foot archers do not go back to skirmish mode if you give them a fire orders, at least not if I recall correctly.