The effects of fire arrows...

I was in a battle where I had tons of Caucasian Archers (6!!) but only a few melee troops (2 pontic thorakitai, 2 hillmen) , against a half stack of AS (a 3 jews, 2 thorakitai, 2 panda n 3 half depleted klerochoi).

By some miraculous luck I managed to draw them out (relatively) individually, surround, then rout with fire arrows....

I want to ask if the effect of fire stack or not? would 6 units raining fiery death on 1 target have 6 times the fear effect? (I know for certain there's 6 times the kill effect....)

I don't think it stacks, but being surrounded maybe stacked with fire arrows...

No, but the pure damage from the arrows killing people would, and if one unit routs it causes the morale of nearby units to go down.

My guess is the fire-penalty would not stack. What you observed was the effect of being surrounded, no nearby support, massive missile fire and casualties, and fire arrows. Since fire arrows are supposed to have reduced accuracy, you would probably have been better of by having only one or two units use fire arrows and the rest normal ones.

Getting a unit of good archers like Cretans or Caucasians to shoot a unit at close range in the back with fire arrows destroys morale, Its seems especially effective on lower end phalanxes.

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Originally Posted by Captain Jazzy

Getting a unit of good archers like Cretans or Caucasians to shoot a unit at close range in the back with fire arrows destroys morale, Its seems especially effective on lower end phalanxes.

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Especially effective on any such units with <=10 morale.

And that's why half of your archers should ALWAYS shoot fire arrows! rout rout rout little roman! if I catch you I eat you! (sweboz lullaby)

Its why archers really are better than slingers.

... against unarmored routable foes. against armored elites/bodyguards slingers are the way to go. best have both, slingers to decimate the elites and maybe even kill the general and archers to scare the levy troops and cause a chain rout.-

Or have both in your army to deal with different situations. For defense, archers>>>Slingers, especially on walls.