The Missile Thread - Hints, Tips and Information

**Oleander Ardens** · 03-03-2015, 22:01

I just wanted to share a couple of interesting points about the various missile units in TW:A, some of which are perhaps not known or appreciated...

1) Cheap archers seem to kill hard anything unless under close to perfect circumstances like light horse standing around or a secure position on a wall shooting into unshielded light infantry. However a couple even cheap archers are almost as efficient at attacking the morale of the enemy troops by stacking flaming arrows and whistling shot.

Indeed a single cheap archer with whistling arrows can help a great dealt to break enemy units or reducing the rate of fire of a high quality ranged unit for 20 seconds. Keep in mind that the arrows cover often quite a large area, affecting thus more then one. This is especially valid if the targets spread out, overlapping thus. This is easily checked by pausing the game and mousing over the red downward triangle on the left of the unit stats.

2)Slingers slow down enemy units and reduce their charge bonus for 12 seconds which is especially handy against cavalry charges. With their high rate of fire and the usual spread of shot they can affect quite a few units, in some cases five to six targets where slowed. Precision shot is very valuable because they lack armour piercing ammunition and a 50% increase comes in very handy.

Overall slingers seem to kill in field battles more then cheap archers, mostly due to their rapid shooting. A special case are the rather expensive Armenian slingers with their great range of 175 and large shields. Those guys excel at skirmishing and counterfire with their only weak point being endurance due to their low number of shot.

3) Decent and good archers are a step up in killing power even if this step sometimes doesn't seem that big. They generally have better stats, shoot faster and have more arrows. Overall flaming arrows plus precision shot does the most damage to enemy targets, especially to big ones like horse. The morale penalty on top is also a great plus and can be stacked with whistling shots from selected units. Once the damange boost expires heavy shot might harm heavily armored units more but this has to be tested again to be sure.

Some (Eastern) archers have actually a small missile block chance due to their small shields even if they shot, making them a bit more useful at screening the army especially if they also have better health and decent armour, The Germanic longbows are surprisingly the only ones with 200 range outranging their Hunnic competitors by 50, with all the resulting advantages.

4)Crossbows are the big ranged killers, especially with flaming arrows if precision shot and quick reload are activated unless the enemy has a very high missile block chance. For many factions archers and slingers seem to mostly there to support their crossbows and other troops.

Part two will come later. My PC crashed and somehow only a fraction of part 1 was posted...

**Bramborough** · 03-04-2015, 00:37

I agree with the archer bit, and matches my experience. The rationale behind the mechanic seems reasonable.

The 2nd point is more interesting; saw a fairly detailed thread about this very topic on TWC, so others are seeing the same. I guess I haven't fooled around with TWA slingers enough to have a first-hand opinion. The rationale behind the mechanic, however, baffles me. Sudden appearance of stones causing uncertain footing, so soldiers/horses now closely eyeing the ground to watch their step? That's all I can come up with. Is there any historical/literary background to this? Am not second-guessing, just interested. I have no idea.

**Greyblades** · 03-04-2015, 14:18

Perhaps some of the men are becoming concussed and slowing down? If some of them are running around dazed it would ruin the cohesion of the formation and make charges less effective.

**JeromeBaker** · 03-04-2015, 15:53

When using whistling arrows, can they negatively effect your own troops? (ie you have the archers behind a line of spearmen and they are firing them over the heads of the spearmen into an enemey advance...)

**Greyblades** · 03-04-2015, 15:54

That was how they worked in shogun. Will have to test.

Edit: yes it does, even when you are shooting the enemy in the back while in melee the whistling arrows will affect your troops fighting them.

Incidentally I found that my fears of crossbows not being able to arc over infantry were unfounded, for some reason I had gotten it in my head that they were like firearms.

**JeromeBaker** · 03-04-2015, 17:17

Originally Posted by Greyblades

That was how they worked in shogun. Will have to test.

Edit: yes it does, even when you are shooting the enemy in the back while in melee the whistling arrows will affect your troops fighting them.

Incidentally I found that my fears of crossbows not being able to arc over infantry were unfounded, for some reason I had gotten it in my head that they were like firearms.

I had the same impression. I thought crossbows came around because they shot bolts with increased velocity to provide armor penetration compared to a traditional bow. To arch a crossbow shot would mean you are shooting from too far a range wouldnt it?

At least with the velocity of modern crossbows when hunting, you definetly are not arching a shot up in the air and hoping it comes down on the buck.... You are indeed shooting it much more similar to a firearm based on the range you should be shooting from.

The crossbow units later on in the WRE campaign I had were awesome. I wasnt using them like traditional archers, but now that I know they can shoot over a line of infantry I am going to use them more (plus they get flaming shot and heavy shot options like regular archers do, and I dont remember previous TW games having those options on crossbow units)

**Slaists** · 03-18-2015, 14:27

Originally Posted by Bramborough

I agree with the archer bit, and matches my experience. The rationale behind the mechanic seems reasonable.

The 2nd point is more interesting; saw a fairly detailed thread about this very topic on TWC, so others are seeing the same. I guess I haven't fooled around with TWA slingers enough to have a first-hand opinion. The rationale behind the mechanic, however, baffles me. Sudden appearance of stones causing uncertain footing, so soldiers/horses now closely eyeing the ground to watch their step? That's all I can come up with. Is there any historical/literary background to this? Am not second-guessing, just interested. I have no idea.

In general, you will slow down if you have to dodge missiles (unless you choose to ignore them): the move speed or any other action (other than dodging) you're involved will be slowed down. It's the 'suppressing' effect of missiles. Probably all missiles should have the effect not only slingers or 'whistling arrows'.

As to javelins: I see that they do insane amount of friendly kills even when you manage to position them so they shoot in the backs of engaged enemy. On a related note, I hate that CA has taken out the "kills" stat from post-battle summary. That gave a pretty accurate estimate for friendly fire casualties.

**Bramborough** · 03-19-2015, 18:33

I agree...and it's a minor change which is actually somewhat bizarre, because I can think of no remotely feasible reason for them to have removed that little feature. I guess maybe somebody thought the unit cards looked a little cluttered...but then, of the bazillion criticisms leveled at recent TW games, am pretty sure I've never read "I don't like the kill counts on the post-battle display unit cards."

That said, the data is still there; appears in a mouse-over pop-up. I too have noticed heavy kill-counts for javelin units....numbers which seemed a little high to me. Would be nice if there was a breakdown, distinguishing number of friendly fire kills (or alternately, number of friendly fire deaths suffered).

**Oleander Ardens** · 03-23-2015, 19:29

Originally Posted by Slaists

As to javelins: I see that they do insane amount of friendly kills even when you manage to position them so they shoot in the backs of engaged enemy.

True. Ideally you want to shoot into the right flank or back of an enemy blob and target the closest unit. Generally enemy cavalry should be your prime target if possible, especially if there is no to little of your own in the mix. The additional bonus against cavalry enlargers the gap between enemy kills and 'friendly fire', doubly so with the Frankish skirmishers and their special +30.

Overall the considerable need to micro is the main reason why with the Franks I just use them one one wing.

P.S: Whistling shot can be great because it deals so little damage while hammering the morale and giving the rate of fire penalty. Not that it makes that much of a difference in kills with the poor Nordic archers. If you have a unit with decent moral winning a fight, especially against the often-encountered levies, stacking penalties will give you a quicker victoriy with fewer casualities suffered.