Disobedient Archers

[Badass Buddha]

When ordering my archers to fire on a target, they sometimes completely ignore the command and fire on another target that is closer, or has less people. It is infuriating when the large/expensive/elite enemy unit has its back turned, but my archers decide to fire on the unit of five skirmishers that is running around. Does anyone else have this problem, and is there anything I can do? Thanks.

[VIPERLORD]

Only thing I can think of that might help is make sure u have the "fire at will" off. This also helps prevent friendly fire losses. Nothing worse than shooting your own guys in the back of the head while they are busy trying to hold the line. On easy to medium level that may not be such an issue but on the harder levels it can turn an easy win in to a loss pretty quickly.

Hope that helps

[Badass Buddha]

Thanks, but I always have Fire At Will turned off, so it can't be that.

[Biowulf]

How many units are you commanding at a time? I find if you have more than one unit selected at a time they'll often ignore your direct order and attack some random bunch of enemies instead. Usually the closest enemies.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Do you have missile units grouped together?
I have noticed that when they are grouped together they usually ignore your orders to shoot the target you selected more often.
That's when you choose the whole group rather than 1 unit.

[Silence Hunter]

I can confirm with my own testing what Biowulf and Ibn-Khaldun already said: when ordering a group to shoot at one target they will behave as if having fire at will on and target the enemy they like. If you want them all fireing at the same target - order them separately and they'll obey the command properly.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

I usually only group archers when I want them to stay in formation while moving them around on battle map.

[Moosemanmoo]

This happens all the time for me, however after firing one or two volleys at the wrong unit they usually obey my orders

[Fluvius Camillus]

I have even worse types of disobedience.

When I have my archers without skirmish mode and fire at will, I keep them firing as long as I find necesarry. When I think it is time to withdraw them to safety they stop firing, an arrows appears on the unit card, but then start firing again!!! This happens 1/10 the times I do this, so it is not much, but can be extremely annoying!

Also I never group units, I find commanding grouped units to be a bit buggy.

~Fluvius

[seienchin]

This happens all the time for me, however after firing one or two volleys at the wrong unit they usually obey my orders

That is the point!!! Changing targets takes one or two volleys, but there is a way to exploit that.
1. You can just turn of fire at will and than let your soldier start to walk, stop them immideatly and then select the new target. That works and costs about one second.
2. The KI stucks to the 1 or 2 volley formular, so let some of your heaviest troops or unusfull troops march in front and the rest of your army will never be shot at, when you advance quickly. Skirmisher cavallery with the cantabrian circle is usefull too.

[vartan]

Thanks, but I always have Fire At Will turned off, so it can't be that.

I see our friends have answered you endlessly. Good job guys. Here is what I have to say:

Yes, I have had the exact problem you have had. I have to admit, it was quite the sight. I didn't let it frustrate me, though. I turned fire at will off, turned on guard mode, pressed backspace to halt the unit, and proceeded to order the archer to attack a certain unit. End of story. It worked. Note that the whole fire at will and guard mode thing may just be unnecessary. Consider this: if guard mode off, fire at will on, then ordering to attack should work as the unit will walk until in range. This may need a halt order first. If guard on, and fire at will on, then unit will continue firing at current target, will not proceed to your designated target (it may, though, if you halt first). Why? The guard only permits it to fire within range. So once the new target goes out of range once again, then your problem turns cyclic and repeats again.

[Badass Buddha]

Yeah, it was the grouping. Thank you gentlemen.

[Macilrille]

It goes for infantry assaults as well, if for example your infantry is grouped and advancing on enemy line, then enemy general charges in and you want them all (in that particular subgroup) to charge in, surround him and slaughter the general before he can retreat or his support come up, sometimes the group will ignore it and just continue what it is doing. Even when selected one at a time.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Grouping is only good for moving units when you want them to stay in formation.

[Macilrille]

Deffo, or when you want them holding on the defence in guard mode while you send cav around or spring your ambush of scary units.

[TruePraetorian]

I had this happen to me in vanilla ALL the time.

The best solution is to pick each archer's target individually. Choose your ranged unit, attack the target, then repeat with the rest of them.

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.

[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)

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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.