Greetings Fellas!

[Lonekommie]

Big howdy bang-whizz to you guys, finally decided to register on the forums after a week of lurking :D

I dusted of MTW and VI the other day and started playing only to realize what a great game it still is, despite its dated graphics. Other so called "real time strategy or real time tactics" titles pale in comparision to its realism, heck its Turn based system is ALMOST as enthralling as Civ IV. I would love to get MTW.2 but my pc just cant handle it :(

Just have a couple of questions for now, before i get into the deeper end of the strategic pond.


Respectively (for VI and Vanilla), what are the factions that contain the best skirmishing/ranged units, like to discount the English since i dont find their longbowmen to be all that effective for me. To give you an overview of my tactical playing style, I prefer to harass and cut units to piecemeal with amassed ranged units, before crushing them with a small amount of Heavy inf./Heavy Cav. or mop them up with a sizeable force of Light Cav.

Also is a bug present in preventing archers from firing inside castles, since to my dismay my castles and fortress were garisonned with archers/longbowmen, but rarely did they get the chance to unleash an arrow.

Cheers,

Lonekommie

[HopAlongBunny]

If you want archers, Turks might be a good choice.

More varieties of ranged units than most ppl want to deal with: archers, desert archers, Futuwa, Janissary Infantry, Janissary Archers, Horse Archers, Turcoman HA's, another elite HA I can't remember atm:p

All this and you get fanatics too! fanatics with axes, fanatics with bows!

But wait there's more!

No Pope! No traveling the world to marry off your children! No friends at all!!!

The Christians want your land and women; the Muslims want all that and more!

Who could ask for anything better?

[Jxrc]

another elite HA I can't remember atm:p

Sipahi of the Porte ?
In the medieval campaign, Turks are indeed your best bet. Hungarian could also tempt you (mounted X-bows, HA, Szekely, jobbagy) but you would then have to deal with the Pope and the marrying of your princesses (on the other hand the heavy infantry available to all catholic factions is yours to use while Turks only have true heavy infantry as from the Late period with quite heavy building requirements)... Spain or Aragon could suit yuou if you want "mounted-javelinthrowers".

In VI, my guess would be that the Welsh are most likely to catch your fancy (but they do not have any heavy infantry at all as far as I can recall)

Regarding archers in siege they are pretty useless in MTW once the fortication is a keep or better. If they defend they can only fire with some accuracy once the assaulter is inside the keep and the assaulter has a unexplained tendency to immediately engage your archers as soon as it has breached the gate/wall ...

They can bea bit more useful on the offence, not that they can fire more efficiently before the gate/wall has been breached but they can deal with "bottlenecks" created by high valour units plugging holes.They get killed by arrow towers and the like in the process but sometimes do more damage than H-t-h units that can be slaughtered with inlficting anything other than sympbolic losses. For instance, if you do no have any siege equipement, can only breach the gate and cannot overcome an unit that is just too good for your HTH units (a jedi byz prince comes to mind), peppering it with arrows can help you a lot. Arbalester and X-bows are better at that kind of job though. If the fortifaction is just a fort archers can be quite useful when assaultingh since they can destroy wall and gates by shooting at them (I guess you knew that but well ...)

Hope it helps,

[caravel]

Respectively (for VI and Vanilla), what are the factions that contain the best skirmishing/ranged units, like to discount the English since i dont find their longbowmen to be all that effective for me. To give you an overview of my tactical playing style, I prefer to harass and cut units to piecemeal with amassed ranged units, before crushing them with a small amount of Heavy inf./Heavy Cav. or mop them up with a sizeable force of Light Cav.

Welcome Lonekommie,

The Turks or the Byzantine are your best bet. The latter have the heavy cavalry and horse archers and one skirmisher units (Trebizond Archers). The Turks have the best selection of skirmishers and horse archers though. Also with Armenian Heavy Cavalry you will have the only cavalry unit you will ever need.

[Lonekommie]

Thanks for the responses.. gonna try turks in a new campaign, think ill have to read that H.A's guide in the guide section.

[HopAlongBunny]

The HA article is a must read

Very good info and advice.

Quick tips: be patient; let them chase you (you decide where to fight...if you fight at all); micro-manage everything to get the most out of them; Jedi generals will die eventually; you don't have to hold the field to win (HA armies can attack/inflict harm and withdraw...just don't use one of your real generals to lead the guerrilla action)

Enjoy!

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, Lonekommie!


Yeah, the Turks are almost certainly the best faction if you like skirmishers. I've never quite gotten a proper handle on them myself (Eggies for life!), but they're easily a fan favorite here. Feel free to share with us how things are progressing!

[Knight of the Rose]

I prefer to harass and cut units to piecemeal with amassed ranged units, before crushing them with a small amount of Heavy inf./Heavy Cav. or mop them up with a sizeable force of Light Cav.

First of all - welcome! I am steadily amazed that an almost decade old game can attract new players.

Secondly, I would say Turks, obviously. But as an outsider consider the Italians or the HRE. Both can recruit Mounted X-bows fairly easy, they are "fast" and fit the skirmisher role perfectly. They have a reduced rate of fire, but pack a nice punch, especially up close. And Catholic armies have some nasty hv. cav and inf. The Italians even more so with their, well, Italian Infantry. I've never gotten round to actually training Swabian Swordsmen, but I've heard they should be nice too.

Happy gaming, just finished a Turk campaign myself and had a blast, as usual.



/KotR

[bondovic]

Welcome, indeed.

Some easy modding of the "startpos" file will give you access to the Novgorods in early (since fighting the horde after 25 turns in "high" campaign is sometimes too much). They have the rulers of the steppes - Boyars, along with the slightly weaker Steppe Heavy Cavalry, vanilla Horse Archers, mounted X's and get the arb family for foot missile use later on. Add to this the slav javelinmen and you get even more versatility in skirmishing.

That being said, I DO prefer the Turks. Their Turcoman Horse (especially when trained with valour bonus from Tripoli) are lots tougher than Horse Archers, and that is the edge for me. Being able to use CA's in more than one way is simply an overwhelming advantage. Boyars, Steppe Heavy Cavalry, Byzantine Cavalry and Mamluk Horse Archers are all potent in melee, but they aren't unstoppable - other heavy cavalry will give them fits since mentioned units aren't "fast". Turcomans don't have that problem. They can easliy outrun HC and are still tough enough to dispose of light infantry in melee.

Szekely are nice. But they charge on their own.

[Brandy Blue]

Here are a couple of suggestions for Viking era. If you don't choose the Welsh, you could try the Irish or the Picts. Both lack heavy units, and the Irish lack archers, but the Irish have fine short range skirmishers. If you know how to use javelin type units its not too hard to win battles using just kerns and one or more general unit, though you will be forced to melee sooner than you might like. The Picts can tech up to mounted crossbowmen, which are the only mounted missle troops in early, and their beserkers could be useful as part of the final rush to wipe out the demoralized enemy.

Has anyone tried using the Saxons as a skirmishing faction? I know it sounds crazy, but they have Defnas, which means they can soon tech up to horsemen with a local +1 valor bonus. If they keep teching up their stables building line and add armor/weapon bonuses, they could end up with a fine unit for delivering a crushing charge to the harassed enemy. They are also near Guent. If they take it from the Welsh, they could soon tech up to arhers with a local +1 bonus, and work up to +3 valor archers if they keep on teching. Then of course +1 valor huscarls from Wessex would make a perfect crushing charge unit. I've never tried using the Saxons like this. Anyone know if it would work?

[Roark]

I usually use Saxons as the hammer & anvil faction that they are, but if they've got access to Guent, then they can skirmish. Valour 3 archers could be used in the same way as Futtuwas in the Viking era setting, as most rank & file troops are of decidedly poor quality. So, yeah, I think it could work.

Insofar as the Medieval campaign, the Turks are king. Every man and his dog has a bow. With XL, you've got the Mongols too, but their roster is very limited (albeit hard as nails) and, to be honest, quite boring.

In my biased opinion, the only reason to play Egypt in this regard would be for Nizaris, who are still one of my favourite units ever. Best infantry skirmishers in the game.

[Mithrandir]

Welcome :).

There's ofcourse also the ranged camelunits...

[Roark]

LMAO...

O, Grey Pilgrim... That is the only situation in which I would say that your profound love of the Tall Smelly Ones is misplaced.

[Mithrandir]

No, no, not at all... seriously...

Not per se for their ranged feature, but they'll still destroy calvalry like their melee brothers...

[Roark]

Yeah OK, but as soon as one gains access to the Middle East, those Camel Archers look decidedly poor in comparison to their Bedouin cousins...