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Friendly fire wasn't that big a problem in R:TW, but I'm getting the impression that it's even less of a problem in BI.
Sure, if a unit melee attacks an enemy that's under intense arrow fire, the attacking units going to suffer some serious shots in the back. However, overlapping archer units and archers behind infantry don't seem to cause many friendly losses at all.
That's true, but I find the shooting at routers to be even more severe. I don't remember being this afraid of chasing routers when they were still in range of my archers. The worst part is that as soon as a unit in range routs the archers fire, regardless of the routers are surrounded my friendlies.
In a battle where I brought 12 units of horse archers (mercs) and a unit of Equites Veteranii I got the Equites reduced to a mere 20 because the enemy unit broke and suddenly all my HA began shooting at them... It was silly.
From what Kraxis has said previously, shots in the forward quadrants are much less deadly than in RTW, but still effective in the rear (moreso? I don't know.) Therefore, chasing routers is likely to get your men mown down by FF, while firing at the enemy's back while they are in melee should not (since your men are facing the fire.) I think this would explain what you have both described.
Hmm. I don't know, but I though FF could be pretty bad in RTW (maybe overall not as bad as MTW, but somewhat more concentrated; instead of losing two or three guys per volley in MTW, you lost more. But combat ended before this could get bad).
I don't remember if they did this in RTW or not, but on fire-at-will ("which one's Will?) archers will stop shooting into enemy units meeleeing with your own units after one or two volleys.
FF in 1.2 was never a big deal as I remember it, although I've been playing MTW:VI lately. I did find that placing javelin units too close would cause some serious damage to your units though, the javs just wouldn't clear the meleeing men's heads, anyone place their javs really close and have that problem? (Not that it shouldn't exist, it makes perfect sense, just curious.)