Archery tactics:Originally Posted by el_slapper
Height advantage helps a lot. In this battle, I was able to put my archers in the ideal position: about 3/4 of the way up a hill, firing at the enemy at the bottom of the hill (AI is really dumb sometimes - when you are defending, the enemy has to come to you or lose, but I was attacking in this battle!). If archers are right at the top of the hill, they get a penalty because they can't see the target, so I put them a bit lower down.
Arrows are limited, so use them wisely. Don't fire at maximum range - wait until the enemy is closer (archers on "fire at will" are pretty good at choosing the right distance to start shooting). Although sometimes it's useful to fire a few volleys at max range, because it can provoke the entire army into coming closer.
I changed targets a lot in this battle, always shooting at a large, unarmoured unit which was not moving.
Also, look at the units in this battle. The enemy army was very similar in size and composition to mine. That's because the year is something like 1110 and good units haven't been invented yet. Most of the 350 archer kills are spearmen and peasants. (Maybe that's why a group of archers can kill 90 men and not get any valour) Once the feudal MAA and knights start showing up, archers are not so great. But I'll have longbows in 1205
Once I was out of arrows, I just grabbed every non-archer unit and sent them charging down the hill. The enemy routed before I hit them!
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