Next time you pepper an enemy unit with arrows take a look at the spread of missed arrows on the ground... Unlike MTW units now fire in a very wide spread of arrows and a lot of them miss.
In MTW Archers almost had laser sights as they would either hit the unit or the arrows would sail past behind it. Now that doesn't happen, and arrows can be undershot as well as overshot (which is always possible in reality), and that explains why shooting so dangerous now.
Also I though it was real funny when I had two roman units in front of my archers (further in front so they didn't get hit), I panned the camera down to give me an archers-eye-view and I noticed all they could see was the backs of my men!!
So in that situation my archers shouldn't have been able to shoot in my opinion and it was very unrealistic that they launched volley after volley over the heads of my Romans at targets with no line of sight to the enemy.
Do you think you'd be able to see past the heads of 80 or so Romans standing in close formation in front of you? I think not.
In reality archers would be the ones out in front shooting and then withdrawing back, they would only behind a line of men if they could adequately see the enemy that would most probably be in one of the following situations...
1) either the enemy were on higher ground in front and could be seen from further back.
2) your archers were on higher ground behind your linesand could see clearly ofer the heads of your men.
3) your men in front kneeled down in front of the archers to give them a clear view.
As I see it the Friendly Fire Issue encourages you to use the archers the way they were most often used that is. To stand in front and shoot the enemy as they advance and then retire back behind the main line when the enemy get close.
Seems reasonable to me.
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