View Full Version : Your Favorite Archer Unit
Blood Claw
06-03-2007, 04:38
Hey everyone,
I was just curious as to what everyone's favorite archer unit is. Why do you like it; for its looks, stats, or cost?
I will add my pick later on since I am undecided now.
CMcMahon
06-03-2007, 05:18
For SP, Jannissary Archers. For MP, the Timurid ones that look like the Immortals from 300.
Kobal2fr
06-03-2007, 06:38
Norse Archers. Shoot as well as normal Longbowmen (though not as far, nor AP), hit as hard as a DFK. What's not to love ?
Flavius Merobaudes
06-03-2007, 07:40
Dismounted Dvor or Ottoman Infantry.
I like units that shower the enemy with arrows first and can put up good fight in melee. Gives you some advantage against anyone.
MOUNTED MONGOL HEAVY ARCHERS
Awesome looks, specially in Timurid uniform.
Sherwood Archers: Fun factor, difficulty of use, but JOY to see them with gold chevrons.
Sabadar: Cool looks.
Ars Moriendi
06-03-2007, 16:16
Pavise Crossbow Militia : for cost and effectiveness.
They're cheap and easy to get; free upkeep in cities, long range, AP and big shields making them almost immune to arrows - will win a straight shootout with almost anyone. They're decent in melee too, and will hold walls well enough - the unit of choice for garrisons ; invaluable in bridge defense.
(I remember doing some tests a while ago : you can quite easily beat 2 units of yeoman longbows with one PCM, costing much less than half and losing only 30% of your men)
Norse Archers - Cheap, almost decent missile attack, very good in melee fight.
Dismounted Dvor - Excellent missile attack, very good melee, well armoured and great outlook although not so cheap.
- Guru out
Scotts guards - exellent longbow use ( 9 ap bow missile is best ), very good melee, exellent armor without shield ( half-plate + very high defence skill ) - makes them best settlements defenders and territory patrols at high/late period, i give them 10/10 as archers and 9/10 as medium infantry ( only cause they useing sword and not mace or hammer ). And for sure , they are better than any english longbowmen.
HoreTore
06-03-2007, 18:59
Ottomans, no question. My favorite unit of all time. I actually quit playing MTW after they made them only available in the late period...
Btw zaher, janissary archers have a missile attack of 10...
Kobal2fr
06-03-2007, 19:03
Pavise Crossbow Militia : for cost and effectiveness.
They're cheap and easy to get; free upkeep in cities, long range, AP and big shields making them almost immune to arrows - will win a straight shootout with almost anyone. They're decent in melee too, and will hold walls well enough - the unit of choice for garrisons ; invaluable in bridge defense.
(I remember doing some tests a while ago : you can quite easily beat 2 units of yeoman longbows with one PCM, costing much less than half and losing only 30% of your men)
AFAIK they also get that shield bonus in melee (no matter what the animations look like) which obviously gives them an edge over other archers, in case your guys understand the idiom "archer duel" somewhat litterally :).
Abokasee
06-03-2007, 19:39
North archers
Very good balance, almost a "all purpose infantry" very nice, good range (not much as long bows) and good damage like klobal said :grin3:
Pavise Crossbow men. Regulars or militia. Easy to get and get them early. Good defense and good offensive power. Not overly expensive. I dont play the Muslim nations much so I use Pavise more than anything else really. So these guys get my vote.
Byzantine Guard Archers. They're like purple ninjas.
supadodo
06-04-2007, 02:11
Crossbow Militia/Peasant Crossbowmen
In the case of archers, quantity always beats quality, They are so damn cheap and have such low upkeep and not to mention AP making them a extremely effective solution to knights. Of course any general with common sense will guard these guys from melee enemies.
Furious Mental
06-04-2007, 06:51
Well if you can only so have archers in your army quality does matter. I'd have to say retinue longbowmen or janissary archers simply because I love to watch cavalry impale themselves. Somewhat disappointed the English didn't get a proper bodyguard longbowman in plate as well.
ninjahboy
06-04-2007, 08:14
byzantine guard archers - as joshwa said, purple ninjas + very very very very nice attack
retinue longbowmen, look cool when all upgraded with their armour and stuff + they can deploy stakes, can rape most other archer units + decent melee attack (killed enemy faction heir in melee, that was embarressing :D)
As egypt I love the desert archers. Cheap and long range and capable of shredding anything not wearing heavy armor. They even get bonuses in the desert making them even better at killing crusaders.
Frederick_I_Barbarossa
06-04-2007, 08:27
Pavise Crossbows...the Lords of northern Italy
Caliburn
06-04-2007, 09:56
I like Dismounted Dvor. Aventurier are cool as well - long reange, great look and they are fast and strong in melee.
If it rides a horse... Wink wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.
France still has maybe too many different unit composition options, ueber missiles like scots guard and aventurier, great HA's, great heavy cavalry, great dismounted knights... Pikes galore, decent halberds and arquebuses, and my favourite artillery, serpentines. But I digress.
I've got these Ventian archer chaps at the moment and they're not half as hard in hand to hand as their stats would make them appear - and damned expensive at 610 a pop. They do look good in their shiny arnour though, so I'm persevering.
samiosumo
06-04-2007, 12:33
Mamluk Archers: awesome at going in and coming out but not needed to do that as they are very good at hand to hand (blame the mace/axe thingy, I forget)
eh?? A filter of some kind???
Peasant Archers
I know I know, THERE - I SAID IT.
Its fun to watch them wet themselves and run when confronted by a mob of rednecked hicks running at them with pitchforks.
The Moorish Dessert Archers...they are real killers.
Ottomans, no question. My favorite unit of all time. I actually quit playing MTW after they made them only available in the late period...
Btw zaher, janissary archers have a missile attack of 10...
Yes, but they are not useing longbows and then they dont have AP.
diotavelli
06-04-2007, 15:01
The Moorish Dessert Archers...they are real killers.
Death by meringue? Armour-piercing apfelstrudel?
"Watch out, chaps! They've brought cheesecake and they're upwind of us...!"
dio: LOL!
zaher longbows are the top bow in game ?
Sorry to go OT, I know this thread is about YOUR favorite archer, not "best" archer.
Monsieur Alphonse
06-04-2007, 16:52
Any archer that can put stakes before him. I like a good BBQ
Furious Mental
06-04-2007, 16:53
Well the range is the same as alot of other archers but the longbow units' missile attacks have an armour piercing attribute, so it depends on what you are up against.
Dismounted Dvor - No AP on their bows but 11 is one of the highest in the game. Their melee has AP and they have good stats for melee as well.
I liked Ottoman infantry as well but the downside is they don't have good stamina. After emptying even just half their quiver, they're already tired and pretty crappy in melee even with their decent stats.
dio: LOL!
zaher longbows are the top bow in game ?
Sorry to go OT, I know this thread is about YOUR favorite archer, not "best" archer.
No, composite bow lol. But seriously, i am looking only at in-game stats of archers, otherwise i would say that throwing axe is my favorite all-time missile :dizzy2:
Look from this point: put any mongol or timurid archers vs scott guard and you will see a difference, and i consider mongol archers are best eastern archers. Eventually, i give to Venetian Archers second place in my gradation, both from their stats and how they looking:idea2: I just like archers in partial plate and without shield. They make very nice balance vs heavily ranged eastern armies.
Zajuts149
06-05-2007, 00:19
Well if you can only so have archers in your army quality does matter. I'd have to say retinue longbowmen or janissary archers simply because I love to watch cavalry impale themselves. Somewhat disappointed the English didn't get a proper bodyguard longbowman in plate as well.
Though the common man often used the longbow in war, the nobles would rather hire crossbowmen into their retinue. Perhaps the English should have that instead. Or they could just hire mercs :laugh4:
My Fav is the Sicilian Muslim Archers,but I love the plain Longbowmen with light mail armour for looks :yes:
Furious Mental
06-05-2007, 04:41
The English didn't have much need for crossbows after they started using the longbow- the longbow fired quite far and very fast, even if it was less powerful than an arbalest. Gascon or Norman crossbowmen were common auxiliaries, but the English nobility didn't seem to use them as bodyguards. For instance, even though he was Duke of Gascony, the Black Prince had English longbowmen in his military household, not crossbowmen.
phonicsmonkey
06-05-2007, 06:26
Venetian archers are a favourite of mine
"Lookin' great in plate since 1208"
Death by meringue? Armour-piercing apfelstrudel?
"Watch out, chaps! They've brought cheesecake and they're upwind of us...!"
:laugh4: Ooooops, I ment "Desert".....
The French scots guard (great stats)
and the English yeoman archers (100 years war...)
Venetian Archers for me as well. They do everything well and they look fabulous. Plus, they're from an Italian faction. It doesn't get any better than starting in Northern Italy!
Callahan9119
06-05-2007, 15:26
NAZARIS :Zzzz:
Furious Mental
06-05-2007, 16:56
Omg I wish they would bring back Nizaris and Futuwwas. Why is there no crazy jihad archer?
Nizaris were great in MTW/VI. I do miss them.... The impact of the charge was awesome, and they looked as cool as they could in those sprites.
Zajuts149
06-06-2007, 07:35
The English didn't have much need for crossbows after they started using the longbow- the longbow fired quite far and very fast, even if it was less powerful than an arbalest. Gascon or Norman crossbowmen were common auxiliaries, but the English nobility didn't seem to use them as bodyguards. For instance, even though he was Duke of Gascony, the Black Prince had English longbowmen in his military household, not crossbowmen.
True, but I'm not talking about bodyguards, which would have been knights or Men at Arms. I mean the professional soldiers which they would retain out of campaign. The early archers where often just hired for specific campaigns, or called out in emergencies. It was only later that you get retinue longbowmen as modelled in the game :beam:
Caliburn
06-06-2007, 09:39
I loved Futuwwas, they were the bread and butter of my Turkish armies. Ottomans were quite interesting in Late as well, not too impressive but cool. Janissaries never were quite as much fun for me.
It would seem that M2 is missing high attack/low defence archers altogether, as all the "elite" archers are pretty tough in defence as well. Thus most early archer units often seem useless at later times, when in Medieval I you could mix and match some of the older troops with the new ones. Especially archers were useful this way, at least before Arbalests entered the field. Now all you can do with militia/peasant archers at later times is as speed bumps (though that was always my secondary use of Trebizond Archers as the Byzantines in M1 -soaking up charges).
I think they've improved the M2 tech tree over Rome's: "decent - better - best" -system. I like the fact that few units lose their usefulness, though, for example, there aren't basic/good/better spearmen if we don't count the militia ones, but usually one type of Spearmen/armoured sergeants that will do ok anyway. Maybe it's just archers that need a bit of rethinking? Or maybe I'm not using Peasant Archers enough, after all they're fast skirmishers and stable enough if backed with a General's Bodyguard unit.
Low defence archers would also mean they would finally be creamed by cavalry un-charging their rear...
CMcMahon
06-06-2007, 10:36
After playing a custom battle with a full stack of Sherwood archers versus a full stack of Highland Nobles... and taking out 65% of them before they even touched me... I'm going to change my vote to them.
rebelscum
06-07-2007, 13:17
Peasant Archers
I know I know, THERE - I SAID IT.
Its fun to watch them wet themselves and run when confronted by a mob of rednecked hicks running at them with pitchforks.
There is a handy skirmish button that stops this. try putting these guys in front of your valuble skirmishers just to give you that extra few seconds to get the good ones out of the way when charged.:skull:
After playing a custom battle with a full stack of Sherwood archers versus a full stack of Highland Nobles... and taking out 65% of them before they even touched me... I'm going to change my vote to them.
What experience level did they have ?
I love those guys. At gold chevrons they are killers, taken out a few enemy captains/generals with them. My nick for them: Sherwood Snipers.
Despite my heated rivalry with the Mongolian horde, Mongolian Infantry and Mongolian Heavy Horse Archers are two of my favorite archer units. I do agree with others about Venetian Archers. They do look great in plate.
Tschüß!
Erich
CMcMahon
06-07-2007, 21:08
What experience level did they have?
None. I just loaded up a custom battle and clicks 20x on each unit. I don't doubt at all that I could have taken two enemy stacks out without losing any units.
Ars Moriendi
06-10-2007, 00:03
After playing a custom battle with a full stack of Sherwood archers versus a full stack of Highland Nobles... and taking out 65% of them before they even touched me... I'm going to change my vote to them.
In my first campaign (England, of course) I completely ignored the Robin Hoods.
After reading your post, I ran a test to see if they're really worth it, and damn you're right :
https://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5053/sherwoodnm3.jpg
Ten sherwood archers, 20 highland nobles, perfect victory - no losses for my side. Impressive performance.
(this was played on Medium, but still...)
got to go with dismounted dvor
DeathBUA
06-10-2007, 02:45
I'm a huge fan of Genoese Crossbowmen and their militia equivalents.
Holy mother of God are these guys deadly. Especially the non-militia types. You can almost just use full stacks of those, especially if you crank them out of a fortress that has a swordsmiths guild in it. When they are 9melee, 14 missile and 16 or 17 defense....yikes! :2thumbsup: :beam:
Actually I'm playing Milan right now, and the HRE attacked a group of 4 Genoese's, 4 italian spear militia and a mailed knight that was going to reinforce my front lines with a full stack of armoured spears and mailed knights. Those X-bowmen had killed over 30% of the army before they even got to my spear militia... :hmg: :jawdrop:
Then I charged them against the flanks and somehow pulled off a heroic victory only losing 20% of my men...dang fine archer unit in my mind.
PrestigeX
06-10-2007, 09:31
Aventurier.
I am sure that stats , or cost perhaps they are not the best. However, I've found them to be exTremely useful battles i play, especially with support of Pikemen. They have good crossbows and are more than capable in a melee, also they are quick.
Sir Robin the Brave
06-10-2007, 18:41
Norse Archers because of the fact they can shoot up a unit and then stab 'em to death in combat :p like proper raiders!
Norse Archers because of the fact they can shoot up a unit and then stab 'em to death in combat :p like proper raiders!
Haven't played the Danes yet, but these look like a good and cost-effective early melee unit. Anybody just spam them, turn off fire at will and skirmish and just melee with them?
Hellenic_Hoplite
06-11-2007, 06:21
basically any kind of longbowmen because they can deploy stakes and act as light infantry which makes them great all around units but out of all of them my top 3 are sherwood archers, retinue longbowmen and welsh longbowmen (though they did make the welsh longbowmen a bit too weak they should have been stronger considering the welsh invented the longbow)
Askthepizzaguy
06-11-2007, 08:13
Yes, I am aware they are not the best archer by far... but...
Yeoman archers (England) are my favorite. They are the only way to win the Battle of Agincourt, and they saved my butt. They shot plenty of armored foes to death, and I'll be gosh-danged if they didn't leap into action armed with little swords when the time came.
Good, obedient, brave little things. I'm sentimental when it comes to only marginally effective troops that fight like real men. Anyone can build a massive army of full plate mounted archers... it takes guts to win a battle with little or no armor, sh*tty weapons, and a little thing called bravery.
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