Sherwood Foresters

[Rhyfelwyr]

I've just completed a short campaign as England, M/VH. It was a fun campaign, nice to try out the Longbowmen etc, plenty of cavalry kebabs. Also love English Knights, those AP axes are a godsend.

Anyway, the one thing that disappointed me was that I never got to use those Sherwood guys. I understood they are available from the Woodsmans Guild line, but despite getting one in Caen I still couldn't build them. Do you really need a level 2 guild just to get them?

[Eyes330]

Yes, and it takes ages to get a level 2 guild, even if you're pumping out longbows every turn. They're only mini-robin hoods and while great archers in their own right have half the soldiers of your standard longbows so I don't use them much. The level 2 guild requirement also means they can only be recruited from one place so for all the requirements, they aren't worth it

[Noncommunist]

I think I read that they do have their uses, however, the uses aren't in the main line of battle. They probably have to do with hiding or battlefield assassin work or something like that. Someone more experienced with them than I could probably give you a better explanation.

[DMG90]

From what I understand:

Positives:
-Stronger Missile Attack than other archers
-Stronger Melee Attack than other archers
-Higher Defense than other archers
-Lots of extra abilities (long range, flaming arrows, effective against armour, expert at hiding in woods, good morale, very good stamina)
-2 HP compared to 1 HP of most other units

Negatives:
-High upkeep/recruitment cost
-Half as many archers per unit

In summary, they are statistically better than other archers so they cost more to recruit and maintain. Some people say that they aren't as good because they only have half as many archers per unit, but others point to their double HP to make it up. And yes, they are generally supposed to be used as battlefield assassins, creeping through the woods and slaughtering an enemy unit. Personally, I think they are a good unit and well worth it. Considering you can only get one settlement to get the Masters/HQ Woodsmen guild, the costs prohibitives aren't that high (as you won't be able to recruit tons of them).

[WhiskeyGhost]

They make excellent General Assassins

[Korlon]

I'd have to say, don't bother with these guys. The two hp doesn't mean anything when you're not supposed to let your archers engage in battle anyhow. Even if they have higher attack, it's not that much higher, not enough to warrant half the unit size of a regular longbow unit. If you put a longbow unit next to a sherwood unit and then made them fire into enemy formations, preferably of the same unit type, the longbowmen will kill more simply due to their larger size.

[DMG90]

I just find them more fun than anything else. To get a troop of little Robin Hoods and recruiting them from Nottingham no less.

[Korlon]

They're quite fun indeed. It's ahistorical, but they're fun to have around, like cheating a 20 unit stack of peasants with 9 experience and gold equipment.

[fireblade]

Due to their smaller size they gain experience twice as fast.

Fireblade

[Raz]

2 HP doesn't make up for the loss of the size of their volleys. They're only knocking off half as many arrows in a single volley as compared to a standard sized unit of archers.

[DMG90]

Due to their smaller size they gain experience twice as fast.

Fireblade

Yeah. I forgot to mention that. Because they're only half as many of them and they're still killing the same number of enemies because of their increased attack over larger archer sizes, they're experience is gained much faster. You can get them pretty high, pretty quickly.

2 HP doesn't make up for the loss of the size of their volleys. They're only knocking off half as many arrows in a single volley as compared to a standard sized unit of archers.

Eh, kind of. Because they're attack is stronger and they'll gain experience faster, they may actually be just as good against a random enemy and better against a stronger enemy.

I'd test out regular archers and Sherwood Archers against a general unit and see what happens.

[lars573]

Sherwood foresters aren't a replacement for longbows. Quite the opposite, they really aren't designed to be used on the line of battle at all. Foresters in my experience are more along the lines of Hashasin or Hungarian battlefeild assassins. If you use them in the same way as those units then they can shine.

[Old Geezer]

Although I have never used them as such, it seems from their small unit size that they would be excellent for defending walls because they're so maneuverable and because they have good defensive stats as well as long range. Anybody have experience with them defending walls?

My biggest problem with them is moving them about to a place that I can replace their losses.

[uanime5]

2 HP doesn't make up for the loss of the size of their volleys. They're only knocking off half as many arrows in a single volley as compared to a standard sized unit of archers.

2HP isn't good for anything other than a warrior. If they're never going to engage in melee they don't need 2HP.

[Korlon]

There's no point in gaining experience faster as that only increases melee attack and defense skill. They're supposed to be archers. They're not supposed to be the melee, battling it out with infantry or cavalry.

[Rhyfelwyr]

So does the Level 2 Guild need to be in Nottingham to get them?

I wasn't planning on using them to replace Longbowmen, more like the Hashashams I had a lot of fun using before..

EDIT: Sorry, browsed through the Citadel and just realised I already had a thread on this.

And BTW, anyone know about Gothic Foot Knights? I can't find these guys to recruit in my HRE campaign. At least I just got Reiters!

[Ramses II CP]

Nottingham is irrelevant to getting Sherwoods. Any castle with a level 2 Woodsmen's Guild can train them.

Personally I always convert Nottingham to a city.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

And BTW, anyone know about Gothic Foot Knights? I can't find these guys to recruit in my HRE campaign. At least I just got Reiters!

They aren't in the campaign, unless you mod them in.