Javelins in close combat

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Range of a unit is equal for all men in the unit. If one guy is in range all are in range.
If you are talking about ordering your men to throw javelin while in combat, they will all throw even if they shouldn't have clear shot. Many will die by the sword while the animation takes place...

[ludwag]

so do they all throw in the same angle straight forvard? And do they hit their friends in the backhead, or are only the first line throwing, while the others are just doing their animation? and what about the amunition?
sorry I was very unclear in the first post :P

[Aemilius Paulus]

Well, first of all, you cannot have friendly fire casualties caused by missiles from the same unit. Also, whenever throwing javelins/pila remember that the closer the better. My personal favourite is to let an enemy unit engage mine and then send another javelin-throwing unit behind the engaged enemy, as close as possible to that enemy unit as one can get without actually going into hand-to-hand combat. Then I will order that javelin unit to fire. Usually the casualties from the first volley are at about 40-60% for a 25 defence unit. After the second volley that enemy unit is routing. All that from a unit whose javelin attack is 6.

Oh, and keep in mind that as MAA said, if your unit is already fighting, ordering them to fire at the enemy is a huge blunder. Especially if you are fighting cavalry, who has a large push value. Not only this, but very few javelins will actually be thrown.

[bovi]

No, it's unlike Shogun, where archers would occasionally hit their own unit upon releasing their arrows, even if the enemy was a long way off. In RTW a unit cannot harm its own members, so all the members will attack perfectly well against the enemy unit that's trying to slay them. However, if another unit is in melee and you attack the ones they're fighting, you'll hit a lot of your own troops in the back, with the shieldless effects that entails.

Edit: Slow...

[AqD]

Range of a unit is equal for all men in the unit. If one guy is in range all are in range.

Noooooo.... Each of soldiers in one unit has his own range and ammo. You could see that sometimes only half of an unit throws/fires missiles, and the ammo may not seem to have decreased

[Celtic_Punk]

this much is true. Not all will loose their javilins. But arrows are different, most of the time they will loose even if theres a massive tree in the way... its quite aggrivating when im trying to drop arrows from street to street. they shoot at a 45 degree angle when they shoot be firing 80*