Your Favorite Archer Unit

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Originally Posted by Sinan

dio: LOL!

zaher longbows are the top bow in game ?
Sorry to go OT, I know this thread is about YOUR favorite archer, not "best" archer.

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No, composite bow lol. But seriously, i am looking only at in-game stats of archers, otherwise i would say that throwing axe is my favorite all-time missile :dizzy2:

Look from this point: put any mongol or timurid archers vs scott guard and you will see a difference, and i consider mongol archers are best eastern archers. Eventually, i give to Venetian Archers second place in my gradation, both from their stats and how they looking:idea2: I just like archers in partial plate and without shield. They make very nice balance vs heavily ranged eastern armies.

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Originally Posted by Furious Mental

Well if you can only so have archers in your army quality does matter. I'd have to say retinue longbowmen or janissary archers simply because I love to watch cavalry impale themselves. Somewhat disappointed the English didn't get a proper bodyguard longbowman in plate as well.

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Though the common man often used the longbow in war, the nobles would rather hire crossbowmen into their retinue. Perhaps the English should have that instead. Or they could just hire mercs :laugh4:

My Fav is the Sicilian Muslim Archers,but I love the plain Longbowmen with light mail armour for looks :yes:

The English didn't have much need for crossbows after they started using the longbow- the longbow fired quite far and very fast, even if it was less powerful than an arbalest. Gascon or Norman crossbowmen were common auxiliaries, but the English nobility didn't seem to use them as bodyguards. For instance, even though he was Duke of Gascony, the Black Prince had English longbowmen in his military household, not crossbowmen.

Venetian archers are a favourite of mine

"Lookin' great in plate since 1208"

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Originally Posted by diotavelli

Death by meringue? Armour-piercing apfelstrudel?

"Watch out, chaps! They've brought cheesecake and they're upwind of us...!"

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:laugh4: Ooooops, I ment "Desert".....

The French scots guard (great stats)
and the English yeoman archers (100 years war...)

Venetian Archers for me as well. They do everything well and they look fabulous. Plus, they're from an Italian faction. It doesn't get any better than starting in Northern Italy!

NAZARIS :Zzzz:

Omg I wish they would bring back Nizaris and Futuwwas. Why is there no crazy jihad archer?

Nizaris were great in MTW/VI. I do miss them.... The impact of the charge was awesome, and they looked as cool as they could in those sprites.

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Originally Posted by Furious Mental

The English didn't have much need for crossbows after they started using the longbow- the longbow fired quite far and very fast, even if it was less powerful than an arbalest. Gascon or Norman crossbowmen were common auxiliaries, but the English nobility didn't seem to use them as bodyguards. For instance, even though he was Duke of Gascony, the Black Prince had English longbowmen in his military household, not crossbowmen.

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True, but I'm not talking about bodyguards, which would have been knights or Men at Arms. I mean the professional soldiers which they would retain out of campaign. The early archers where often just hired for specific campaigns, or called out in emergencies. It was only later that you get retinue longbowmen as modelled in the game :beam:

I loved Futuwwas, they were the bread and butter of my Turkish armies. Ottomans were quite interesting in Late as well, not too impressive but cool. Janissaries never were quite as much fun for me.

It would seem that M2 is missing high attack/low defence archers altogether, as all the "elite" archers are pretty tough in defence as well. Thus most early archer units often seem useless at later times, when in Medieval I you could mix and match some of the older troops with the new ones. Especially archers were useful this way, at least before Arbalests entered the field. Now all you can do with militia/peasant archers at later times is as speed bumps (though that was always my secondary use of Trebizond Archers as the Byzantines in M1 -soaking up charges).

I think they've improved the M2 tech tree over Rome's: "decent - better - best" -system. I like the fact that few units lose their usefulness, though, for example, there aren't basic/good/better spearmen if we don't count the militia ones, but usually one type of Spearmen/armoured sergeants that will do ok anyway. Maybe it's just archers that need a bit of rethinking? Or maybe I'm not using Peasant Archers enough, after all they're fast skirmishers and stable enough if backed with a General's Bodyguard unit.

Low defence archers would also mean they would finally be creamed by cavalry un-charging their rear...

After playing a custom battle with a full stack of Sherwood archers versus a full stack of Highland Nobles... and taking out 65% of them before they even touched me... I'm going to change my vote to them.

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Originally Posted by Budwise

Peasant Archers

I know I know, THERE - I SAID IT.

Its fun to watch them wet themselves and run when confronted by a mob of rednecked hicks running at them with pitchforks.

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There is a handy skirmish button that stops this. try putting these guys in front of your valuble skirmishers just to give you that extra few seconds to get the good ones out of the way when charged.:skull:

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Originally Posted by CMcMahon

After playing a custom battle with a full stack of Sherwood archers versus a full stack of Highland Nobles... and taking out 65% of them before they even touched me... I'm going to change my vote to them.

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What experience level did they have ?

I love those guys. At gold chevrons they are killers, taken out a few enemy captains/generals with them. My nick for them: Sherwood Snipers.

Despite my heated rivalry with the Mongolian horde, Mongolian Infantry and Mongolian Heavy Horse Archers are two of my favorite archer units. I do agree with others about Venetian Archers. They do look great in plate.

Tschüß!
Erich

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Originally Posted by Sinan

What experience level did they have?

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None. I just loaded up a custom battle and clicks 20x on each unit. I don't doubt at all that I could have taken two enemy stacks out without losing any units.

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Originally Posted by CMcMahon

After playing a custom battle with a full stack of Sherwood archers versus a full stack of Highland Nobles... and taking out 65% of them before they even touched me... I'm going to change my vote to them.

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In my first campaign (England, of course) I completely ignored the Robin Hoods.
After reading your post, I ran a test to see if they're really worth it, and damn you're right :

https://img152.imageshack.us/img152/...herwoodnm3.jpg

Ten sherwood archers, 20 highland nobles, perfect victory - no losses for my side. Impressive performance.
(this was played on Medium, but still...)

got to go with dismounted dvor

I'm a huge fan of Genoese Crossbowmen and their militia equivalents.

Holy mother of God are these guys deadly. Especially the non-militia types. You can almost just use full stacks of those, especially if you crank them out of a fortress that has a swordsmiths guild in it. When they are 9melee, 14 missile and 16 or 17 defense....yikes! :2thumbsup: :beam:


Actually I'm playing Milan right now, and the HRE attacked a group of 4 Genoese's, 4 italian spear militia and a mailed knight that was going to reinforce my front lines with a full stack of armoured spears and mailed knights. Those X-bowmen had killed over 30% of the army before they even got to my spear militia... :hmg: :jawdrop:

Then I charged them against the flanks and somehow pulled off a heroic victory only losing 20% of my men...dang fine archer unit in my mind.

Aventurier.
I am sure that stats , or cost perhaps they are not the best. However, I've found them to be exTremely useful battles i play, especially with support of Pikemen. They have good crossbows and are more than capable in a melee, also they are quick.

Norse Archers because of the fact they can shoot up a unit and then stab 'em to death in combat :p like proper raiders!

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Originally Posted by Sir Robin the Brave

Norse Archers because of the fact they can shoot up a unit and then stab 'em to death in combat :p like proper raiders!

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Haven't played the Danes yet, but these look like a good and cost-effective early melee unit. Anybody just spam them, turn off fire at will and skirmish and just melee with them?

basically any kind of longbowmen because they can deploy stakes and act as light infantry which makes them great all around units but out of all of them my top 3 are sherwood archers, retinue longbowmen and welsh longbowmen (though they did make the welsh longbowmen a bit too weak they should have been stronger considering the welsh invented the longbow)

Yes, I am aware they are not the best archer by far... but...

Yeoman archers (England) are my favorite. They are the only way to win the Battle of Agincourt, and they saved my butt. They shot plenty of armored foes to death, and I'll be gosh-danged if they didn't leap into action armed with little swords when the time came.

Good, obedient, brave little things. I'm sentimental when it comes to only marginally effective troops that fight like real men. Anyone can build a massive army of full plate mounted archers... it takes guts to win a battle with little or no armor, sh*tty weapons, and a little thing called bravery.