Barbarian Archers

[Breeze]

I played a few campaigns of RTW and I loved it I havent been around or played the BI Series until last night and when I did I can not belive how bad the archers are I sit back and watch and hardly anyone dies.. Anyone know why?

[Monarch]

What archers are you using? Best BI archers are Eastern Archers (ERE unit), closely followed by Gothic Raiders (Goth unit).

Also what are using arrows on? Roman inf are heavily armoured so arrows do minimal damage. But use them on lombardi chosen axemen and they'll mow them down.

[Breeze]

I started off with the light blue guys they are on far right of the map and Yes I'm fighting rome..

Thanks for the Heads up I'll see if i notice a difference when they aren't roman

[econ21]

I think BI substantially weakened archery compared to RTW. They also raised the defence stats more generally, to slow down combat a little. Both changes are very welcome, IMO, as RTW could degenerate into archers mowing down enemies like machine guns and incredibly hectic combat.

With archers in BI, it's a good idea to look out for the armour of the enemy target. If they are well armoured and with large shields, it may be a waste to fire on them. Pick a fleshier target, or try to work your archers round the enemy's left or their rear, so the shield modifier does not come into play (not sure if someone said the shield modifier was doubled in effectiveness against archer in BI, but it feels like that). I think the shield also does not count if the target is running.

But I've done bridge defences as ERE and have certainly lost a lot of men to archer fire, so even Romans are not invulnerable. (3 battles vs full stacks of horse archers etc => I have 1/3 of my men left).

[Breeze]

I do not like it as much, I defended a bridge and would have normally wiped an army out with a defence I used and instead i go whoooped,

I just dont think it is realistic it should kill much more then it did

[econ21]

I just dont think it is realistic it should kill much more then it did

I am not sure you are right. Archery was usually a subsidiary arm of an ancient or medieval army. For skirmishing and harassing. The decisive arms were heavy infantry and occasionally heavy cavalry. Exceptions are horse archer armies like the Parthians and the Huns (and even those would probably close for a decisive engagement when the time was right). And horse archers are actually pretty nasty in BI. It's very hard to catch the blighters and they pepper you as they evade your pursuit.


I defended a bridge and would have normally wiped an army out with a defence I used and instead i go whoooped,

What defence did you use and how did the AI beat you? I actually like it that bridge defences are less of the slaughters they were in all other TW games. It was too easy to exploit against the AI.

Someone here posted how they held off many stacks of hordes as ERE wtih very low losses because they as ERE fielded around 9 archers. I only take about 3 and get much more roughly handled. How many are you fielding?

[Monarch]

I started off with the light blue guys they are on far right of the map and Yes I'm fighting rome..

Thanks for the Heads up I'll see if i notice a difference when they aren't roman

Oh you played Sassanids. Their desert archers arn't too bad. But arn't too good either. Yea apart from on unarmoured cavalry or other archers they won't do too much really on roman infantry.

[professorspatula]

In BI, basic archers are only really worthwhile using on enemy cavalry and lightly armoured targets. If you want to target heavy infantry, you'll have to hit them in the rear where their shield cannot protect them. This makes a change from the original RTW where archers could decimate any unit. You can also switch to fire arrows. Providing each volley kills a solider in the unit, the unit will suffer a morale penalty, so send in some infantry and some cavalry into the rear of the armoured troops while they're still shocked and see them crumble.