English Invincible

[ataribaby]

So I wouldn't say [longbowmen] are overpowered, merely powerful. They will be beaten by the heavily armoured genoese crossbows after all, and I suspect also by musketeers.

That's what I thought before running tests; i.e. that Milan had the SAS of missile units with her Genoese Crossbows. Pitted against each other one-on-one however, Longbowmen will massacre the Genoese simply by their devastating shooting rate.

Having seen this in effect I get really irritated when fielding my own crossbow units because of how long it takes them to reload. Crossbows are accurate and highly damaging, yes; but when it comes down to brass tacks you need a unit that'll actually have the speed to loose off the majority of its ammo, cutting the enemy down before they can shoot back. That's why I love longbow units.

In fact considering that England has only mediocre cavalry and its infantry are mostly of the bugged 2-hander variety, longbows are really the only thing England has going for it.

Don't forget Armoured Swordsmen - 1/3 cheaper upkeep and slightly better armoured than DFKs. Aggressive sieges are much easier to execute when you can afford enough decent heavy infantry to do the job properly.

The AI will always attack you if you outnumber it by 1.2 to 1 with archers. Trust me with 15 archers - there is never a situation where you need to attack the AI.

That's a very interesting piece of information. I've always read players' accounts of how devastating stakes can be. But I've found the AI is hardly ever on the attacking stance in battles - probably because my armies are cavalry and infantry heavy. I'll try this tactic out.