Archers and collateral damage

Title says it all but just to clarify. I did a very unscientific test in a quick battle. Told my 2 units of archers to aim at some Feudal knights that were intermingling with some mounted sergeants. in 5 volleys a good ten knights fell but no sergeants. I have camera lock on (a feature sorely missing in the newer titles IMO) so i couldn't see exactly where the arrows were landing, but probability was on my side.
So can arrows kill things they aren't aimed at? I've always assumed so but never actually known.

Yes, they can. This kind of friendly fire is really irritating when you forget your archers on auto-fire. Also, were your Feudal knights backs towards the Archers? If so then that also would explain why your men died and not the enemy ones.

Once my unit gets enganged I always tell the archers to stop firing in the direction of the enemy's unit it is engaged with. That means that my archers are NEVER set at fire at will.

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Originally Posted by Dellathane

So can arrows kill things they aren't aimed at? I've always assumed so but never actually known.

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They can and you can spot it if two enemy's units intermingle. If you archers are ordered to fire at unit 1, when it is mixed up with unit 2 both start to take casualties.

I do find the idea of Friendly Fire still very good, it makes you micro manage your archers and your arrow supplies.

But the more powerful the archers, the more damage they make. Longbowmen on your own troops can cause serious problems.

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Originally Posted by Gilrandir

They can and you can spot it if two enemy's units intermingle. If you archers are ordered to fire at unit 1, when it is mixed up with unit 2 both start to take casualties.

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When I see 2 or more enemy units marching interspersed, I tend to focus on those to increase my kills. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the engine computes hits on the intended targets first (unit selected to fire upon), then will compute collisions on the missed shots. Bridge battles are a prime example, the mass of troops stuck on the bridge increases the chances to hit something.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry should have made clear that the knights and sergeants were both enemy units. I know ALL about friendly fire, which is why I was surprised when none of the sergents died.

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Originally Posted by Dellathane

Thanks for the replies. Sorry should have made clear that the knights and sergeants were both enemy units. I know ALL about friendly fire, which is why I was surprised when none of the sergents died.

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Feudal Knights only have 1 more armor point than Mounted Sergeants, and they have the same shield, so they don't have much greater survivability than the MS. Thinking about it again, I'm guessing that you were getting a lot of hits on the intended target unit (cav are big and juicy models to hit), so not many "misses" were left over for the Sergeants.

That's probably it. The feudals were closer to the archers so that makes sense. I won't expect much collateral at all if aiming at cavalry in the future. Good to know for General hunting