Disobedient Archers

[Moosemanmoo]

I also had the common problem of moving your entire army in formation and it creates a single-line. Found out that you can't move your cav and your inf/ranged at the same time..now i always move my cav in groups seperate from the infantry. Haven't had a single problem since

So basically, if your units aren't listening you need to give the units individual orders.

Try using shift when you order them, they'll usually stay in formation

[vartan]

Try using shift when you order them, they'll usually stay in formation

That doesn't help, because shift has nothing to do with formations. Shift shows where the units end up. Holding alt and moving moves the units to the selected spot in formation while facing the same direction. This doesn't seem to work recently and not even grouping helps. The engine fails at the most basic of things like moving an army, so if anything, nobody needs to be surprised if anything else fails!

[NikosMaximilian]

Have you grouped the units when they were absolutely stopped? If you group units when they are marching, shooting arrows, fighting, etc, then the group won't stay in formation. Also try to avoid overlapping units, because that can make a mess out of a formation in rough terrains. Don't leave gaps, but also avoid units from mixing.

The ideal way to organize groups is to put your entire army in the desired formation before the battle starts, with their respective commands ordered (fire at will, skirmish mode, guard mode, etc.). Once you put everyone in formation and pressed "Start Battle" don't stretch or change the individual formation size of particular units who are grouped, because that'll make the group formation that you ordered in first place lost.

If the enemy comes at you, keep everyone at halt and divide it into smaller groups according to your tactics. If you are the one attacking, you can either keep everyone in that big group until you engage the enemy or make a stop at a certain point of your march and divide them into smaller subgroups. Playing as typical Romani or Diadochi armies my sub-groups consist of:

I- Archers/Slingers
II- Main battle line of Heavy Infantry (Phalangitai, Hastatii, etc)
III- Auxiliaries in second line and flanks(Spearmen, Skirmishers, Light Infantry)
IV & V- Cavalry wings
VI, VII, etc- FM, artillery (if used)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the OP and the archers issue:

Apart from the obvious (Fire at will off), there could be another reason:
Are those enemy units that you are trying to shoot outside the archers range? If so, and you have both Skirmish AND Guard Modes on then your archers might not attack. In order to get in range they'll have to get very near those closer enemy units that you've mentioned (Skirmish mode) and guard mode makes archers shoot enemies in while in range, but they don't pursuit them if they are retreating and move out of range.