Does Valour improve fighting ability?

Does Valour improve fighting ability or just the 'bravery' of the unit in battle?

For example, do archers with high Valour score more hits?

well yes/no

becos the unit does not rout as quik it will kill more units i think but maybe it does.

my usual amry inf get val4 and 1 weapon witch seems to keep them fighting and killing for a good time.

last game i held off 2 byz armys in mp with a double unit size mod so it was my militia and knights about 1500 vs 3000 byz inf my inf fled but held on long enough to let my allys horses flank and then my passivs and merc calv gen charging in to give the final routing blow.

a vgg all due to high valour i would say.

i got 2500 kills and 1450 losses sum militia made it back home.

All Valour increases fighting ability in melee for all.

For every two ranks of the general your troops get +1 to attack and +1 to defense. That is then calculated to 1 Valour.

While if your unit has fought and defeated a lot of enemies they might get another Valour themselves. That Valours is a bit different as it adds +2 Morale as well.
Valours you get from provincebonusses include this as well. They are the true Valours.

But both types can be seens as small pennants on the unit. And you can see your own units strength if you press F1 during the battle (almost everything included).

Archers do get better, but sadly it is very little. It is only noticeable when they reach about Valour 5-6. But by then they should be capable in melee as well.

Great answers, thanks guys.

I had noticed my archers seemed to be a little more effective as their valour increased but I wasnt sure if this was due to upgrades in weapons or variations in the enemies armour. But I do enjoy giving them a good 'Agincourt' style pelting before melee and it's so much better when they hit something

I think now I'll make sure my archers have armour upgrades so they live long enough to become really deadly with a bow.

When you start using artillery you will see huge differences in the accuracy of that artillery as thier valor goes up. If you play multi and choose to have some artillery, apply at least 3 valor to those units and they get quite deadly.