Why won't my archers shoot?

[nightcrawlerblue]

I'vew been playing for a couple weeks now and I've noticed that my archers don't like to shoot at the enemy. Even when I have the height advantage I'll order my archers to fire at an enemy well within range and 10-12 of them will aim and fire while the rest of them stand there looking stupid. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knew the solution to my problem (BTW this has happened with regular archers and Longbowmen.

[katank]

did you use fire at will, if so, they will not shoot if it might cause friendly fire. Also, if on really steep hill, it's actually difficult to hit them.

can you elaborate more, did you select the archer and then left click on the target unit? this is an explicit order to fire and would work.

BTW, what kind of formations do you have, what version of the game, etc. Give more details plz.

[son of spam]

Agree with Katank, give more details.

However, are your archers in more than 2 rows? If so, you may get this problem because the men in the first few rows might be in range but the men in the next few might not be. It's a bad idea to put archers in more than 2 rows anyway because of the accuracy penalty for more than 2 rows.

Also, maybe your men are reloading in the back. give them more time

There is of course, also the possibility that they are just plain drunk from yesterday's romp around town. In that case, give them a good smack by charging your generals unit into their back

[John86]

Just dont put them on fire at will. put them at hold. and tell them when to fire when there done. Think of any war movie youve ever seen. When fire at will is anounced, a couple will fire while the reat reload, this si the same case.

[Magic Window]

Another problem with Fire At Will is that if the opposing missile troop have a longer range, they're going to start hailing down whilst your lot sit there like dummies.

Question: Is there any disadvantage with having archers in a loose formation?

[katank]

cons: loose formation gives -2 morale penalty and may cause your troops to be further apart and hence more to be out of range.

pros: lessens casualties from missile duels, can let spearmen or other units through easily to protect them.

I would usually pick close for more fire power. Wedge is particularly good for the concentrated battery effect.

if missile dueling or skirmishing, use loose.

[Sociopsychoactive]

Ok,

Formations, if your archers are in one large block (as it tends to put them in automatically) then they suffer penalties.

They have a distinct field of vision, anything getting in the way of this reduces accuracy, so anything further back than two, maybe three rows will barely be able to see the enemy thanks to their mates infront of them, and often won't fire.

Also, they may well be out of range of the enemy, because blocky formations take the range as the unit leader, the one carrying the flag and that means half the squad can still be out of range.

If the enemy is near, or charging at your archers (assuming archers or longbows, not flat-firing weapons like crossbows or arbalesters) then lots of your men don't have the proper arc of fire, they can't shoot arrows to land on the enemies heads, so only the first one or two ranks fire stright at the enemy, and even then they don;t hit very well, archers work alot better to rain fire down upon the enemy, rather than shoot at them as the enemy charges at the archers (thats what crossbows and arbalests do best, killing charging cavalry and such)

If your at the top of a steep hill, then it's best to target an enemy at the base of the hill or slightly further away, whatever range will allow, rather than someone climbing the hill as the angle will deny your archers the arc of fire, meaning not many of them fire.

If you have fire at will selected rather than target your archers, then quite often they will ignore a nearby target and go for one further away, and if in square formations the new target might be out of range for the back few rows, I suggest you group your archers into two sqauds or so and target them yourself, re-targetting them as necessary.

I think thats all of the possibilities.

[nightcrawlerblue]

I tried putting them into rows of 2 or less and it seems to have worked much better. Before I was just using the default arangement or something with 8-10 ranks so that must've made it too hard to fire. Thank you all for helping

[katank]

this is kinda unrelated but if you use gunpowder units like handgunners, you should use 3 ranks to get rotation reloading in to speed up rate of fire compare to 1 or 2 ranks.

otherwise, use 2 ranks or at most 3 is preferable with just about any missile unit that is non siege with certain exceptions, of course.

[Seven.the.Hun]

yes indeed, 3 ranks, fire at will, after that, should be no problem, if in doubt just order them to attack something...sterile archers? tis no good at all