Shields are better against arrows

**Kraxis** · 10-07-2005, 11:55

Well, in my tests I was sure the horsemen had used up all their arrows as they never closed on my men, but they stopped shooting. That was the reason behind choosing the weakest horse archer (so they wouldn't charge too soon).

But fair enough, I will do another test.

**Kraxis** · 10-07-2005, 12:19

This is embarassing...

I have made a mistake, I upped the defensive ability rather than the armour of Gallows. No wonder the spread was so high.

But with the correct values in place it wasn't all that different really.

Gallows: 53 losses
Limitanei: 20 losses

I know all arrows have been used because te horsemen whips out their little swords and just sits there waiting for my men. And as we all know hose archers bring out their swords when they have no more arrows. But in any case I waited a minute or so (3x time) so that any unspent arrows might be used up.

**Bob the Insane** · 10-07-2005, 13:34

For the comment on shield being effective for moving troops I believe that is only if the troops are walking. If they are running I believe they lose the shield bonus...

Also of interest Kraxis's test are obviously in BI and Puzz3D's are in RTW 1.2 (no BI) and 1.3 (BI installed). SO there could be furhter differences between the two...

It is a bit of an assumption on our part the the combat algorithims are the same for BI and for RTW 1.3...

**Puzz3D** · 10-07-2005, 13:45

I ran the archer vs hastati replay 3 times changing the hastati's armor and shield each time in RTW v1.3. I only made small changes, and the results are inconclusive. I tried making armor = 0 and shield = 10, but the foot archers then charged right away without shooting at all.

RTW v1.3: hastati (armor 5, shield 5), lost 29 with 20 volleys
RTW v1.3: hastati (armor 6, shield 4), lost 24 with 20 volleys
RTW v1.3: hastati (armor 4, shield 6), lost 21 with 19 volleys

In the last run, the archers only fired 19 volleys before advancing.

**Kraxis** · 10-07-2005, 13:55

Try horse archers against a spearunit. That should preclude them charging in. But the numbers are odd really. Especially when I see this big a difference in BI.

But it could perhaps have something to do with BI having its own exe. So in normal RTW the stats have been tweaked but in BI the shields are indeed better as it is hardcoded into the exe.

**Puzz3D** · 10-07-2005, 15:02

Originally Posted by Kraxis

But it could perhaps have something to do with BI having its own exe. So in normal RTW the stats have been tweaked but in BI the shields are indeed better as it is hardcoded into the exe.

Another poster did mention that possibility, and I'll bet that's it. The combat algorithm could be giving the the shield bonus a heavier weighting in BI.