Originally Posted by Lavos
Puzz, if you wouldn't look at everything so black, you'd notice that new archery system (with its flaws of course) is more advanced, than old one. Hitting other than main primary target is still here. Xbows deployed behind some unit will shoot in weird high arch and do little, arrows have bonus shooting in flanks, and even bonus shooting into right side of units that have shield.
Ranged units are less valued not because they don't kill. Their kill ratio is now much higher than before. There is couple of new problems now. They cost a lot (main reason; no need to upgrade foot and cav!), instead of taking lbows or pavise xbows you can take very effective horses or spears-pikes. Also, previously, it was enough that lbows killed four knights from one group, that was enough for that group to rout faster when engaged with other knights. And finally, in mtw it was main job of archer units to force opponent to attack. Defending player had advantage, now its different its more an advantage for who attacks.