archers who needs them :)

**Quillan** · 10-31-2004, 07:00

Originally Posted by Zatoichi

Another added bonus if you get the micromanagement wrong and they get accidentally mown down by enemy cavalry or shot to bits by the enemy archers (surely, that doesn't just happen to me?), they tend to be the most prolific healers after the battle, so the losses are never as bad as other infantry.

Heh, tell me about it. I made an oops in a battle earlier today. I was playing the Gauls, and was in a big battle against the Scipiones. I tried to sneak an archer unit around to the right where there was this big cornfield, and it got ridden down by a unit of Cav Auxiliae. I lost the entire unit of 80 right there. 78 of them healed after the battle...

**BDC** · 10-31-2004, 14:52

A solid wall of 6 pikemen, then 6 archers (preferably Creten), and then the rest cavalry and maybe one or two sword-armed mercs. This Macedonian army will beat anyone.

Except in MP against Onagers. But in SP it will.

**katar** · 10-31-2004, 16:51

archers in RTW are really good, the basic ones do an ok job and the Cretan archers are nice to work with.

i started off by using three archer units per army but now i`ve switched to using one archer and a couple of scorpions.

i`m playing Brutii at the moment and the long range of the scorpions can really whittle down those Macedonian phalanxs and armoured hoplites on their approach to my lines. long range fire is so cool.

i have seen them throwing bodies into the units behind and causing even more casulties, bit of an eye opener when i saw that the first time!

**Sin Qua Non** · 10-31-2004, 17:29

Every time I play a faction without archers, I end up missing them 5 turns into the game. I just attribute it to my severe case of Agincourt syndrome.

**A.Saturnus** · 11-02-2004, 00:35

I did a little test with archers. How they fare against well armoured infantry. So I gave the AI two units of bowmen (large unit size - makes 120 per unit) against one unit of Principes on my side (82 men - makes a ratio of 3 to 1). Well, the bowmen eliminated the principes, but they took rather long. Usually when the ammo was down, there were about 5 to 10 principes left, which had to be taken on in melee. Considered the ratio, I wouldn´t say that´s an overly good result but certainly also not outragously bad. It depends on what you expect from archers.
Anecdote: in one trial, I didn´t select the right map (flatland) but had one with a few hills. So the bowmen had to go around a hill. This caused the two units to overlap each other. Result: they lost half of their number. By friendly fire. One guy even managed to shoot his general in the head from just behind him

**The Hun** · 11-02-2004, 00:58

Yes archers are so good they even can kill themselves

**Sword** · 11-03-2004, 17:43

Originally Posted by Sin Qua Non

Every time I play a faction without archers, I end up missing them 5 turns into the game. I just attribute it to my severe case of Agincourt syndrome.

Yep, then after those 5 turns, I always find one of my generals on a boat heading to crete.

I've attacked an all Phalanx Macedonian army of around 15 units. They just sat there while 2 units of Cretain archers reduced each and every one of those 15 units to less than 10 men, one unit at a time.

For some reason, the Macedonians chose this moment to run to my lines, got half way, turned round and routed off.

and there was me, a bit nervouse as to wheather i'd win or not when the battle started.

**Spino** · 11-03-2004, 20:13

Archers? Sure, especially if you're controlling a faction that lacks well armored, decent infantry and/or cavalry. It's obvious CA incorporated these ridiculously overpowered elite archer units to offset the heavy infantry of Roman, Greek and Carthaginian cultural factions.

On the whole I think archer units are overpowered in RTW. In fact, they are so overpowered that I find it hard to resist using them even when I don't need them! I am getting surprising if not crazy kill ratios with basic archer units in RTW, a stark contrast to the kill ratios I got with the average archer unit in MTW. Not that you couldn't have archers wreak havoc on the enemy in MTW but the results could vary wildly between battles and depended heavily on the types of archer units involved. It also doesn't help that the tactical AI in RTW has a tendency to do nothing when being rained on by your missile troops for an extended period of time. At least in MTW the AI would try to prevent attrition losses caused by missiles by closing the distance and rushing your main line.