Shields are better against arrows

[Bob the Insane]

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]

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]

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]

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.