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Wouldn't archers among those 7000 soldiers be able to pick off the skirmishers, both during the attack and when the skirmishers were retreating? I'm not saying harassing is negligible, it would definitely slow them down, and archery against swift targets isn't easy. But not taking losses seems weird to me.
First we should ask how many archers, if any, were in that Beotian column. ~:)
The ancient Greeks looked down on archery. It was coward fighting. That's why they had manly hoplites. That's why Paris is such a wuss in the Illiad, he's an archer.
But they used it anyways, like big fat hypocrites. Even the Spartans condemned their helots to the shame of archery.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yyrkoon
-Glee
This reminds me of another case of RTW warfare being mistaken for regular warfare. My friend had just got vanilla, he was showing me some of his stuff on a Gaul campaign, his tactic (on E/E) was charging 4 units of horsemen into an enemy unit, retreating, rinse, lather, repeat, after he routed the enemy army with these ridiculously overepowered horsemen he gave a smug look and commented (and I quote) "If only they had me back then" I didn't know where to begin! And I hadn't even got EB back then so I didn't know quite how weak cavalry was unsupported back then, so I just sort of put my head in my hands and looked at the floor for a while to get over what he said.