How to beat longbows?

[Matty]

Any special tactics for defeating longbows? I'm the Viennese and the other two remaining main powers, the English and Spanish, are currently at war. Looks like the English will come out on top of that one which means they'll be coming for me soon enough. My inquisitors are busy burning any general poking his head above three stars (apart from the heirs who seem immune to my 7 star inquisitor), but I'm surely nervous about those longbows.....

[antisocialmunky]

They aren't that insane, they're just really really good as CA is UK and therefore Anglophiles. Just defeat them like you would defeat any other parabolic missile unit.

[Matty]

You mean parvaise arbalasts followed by a quick ramming from the cavalry? Righto.

[Knight Templar]

If you dont have pav arbs, just cavalry (even Mounted Sergeants) will do fine. Longbows have good attack with AP but very bad defence.

[Ludens]

Watch out! Longbows are armed with axes in vanilla M:TW, giving them an AP bonus. They can and will figth in close-combat. Otherwise, apply standard tactics and be a bit more mindfill of your armoured units.

[.:vVv:.Monkey]

You mean parvaise arbalasts followed by a quick ramming from the cavalry? Righto.

You could even direct regular archers to pepper them with arrows. Longbowmen hardly have any protection so you could waste them easily. I usually just flank and ram them with light cavalry such as Steppe or Hobilar

[Knight Templar]

Watch out! Longbows are armed with axes in vanilla M:TW, giving them an AP bonus. They can and will figth in close-combat.

In VI they have AP as well. I agree they'll give player who treats them like other arhers (in mellee) a nasty suprise, but because of their defence they can't be compared to, for example FK (cavalry) if engaged in mellee with them.

[Ludens]

In VI they have AP as well. I agree they'll give player who treats them like other arhers (in mellee) a nasty suprise, but because of their defence they can't be compared to, for example FK (cavalry) if engaged in mellee with them.

I meant unmodded M:TW, as he mentioned he was playing as the Viennese. You are right about the other thing, though.

[caravel]

Longbows aren't that great in melee, obviously, nor did CA really make them overpowered, but they're excellent long range, armour piercing bowmen as they were historically of course. To beat them you simply need to run them over with cavalry... the trick is to isolate and flank them before they do too much damage.

[Odin]

Longbows aren't that great in melee, obviously, nor did CA really make them overpowered, but they're excellent long range, armour piercing bowmen as they were historically of course.

I have personally sufferred a tragic defeat at teh hands of the English because of thier longbows. Thier range chopped up my invading Danish forces and I had no where to run for the cover. The problem I had was my force compisition, I really didnt have any speed units.

So yeah, engage them if you can thier defense isnt great at all, but you have to get to them first and that might mean a little pain. I often go to battle with superior numbers, not necessarily better quality and the AI takes up a defensive position covering thier missle units.

Consider your force structure and consider bringing in less troops. The AI will be more engaged in the battle (rather then playing defensively) and that will enable you to flank, or better yet, charge your cavalry right at the longbows. If the AI is attacking with Longbows, well the advice given by the other gentlemen is great, with the exception of marching your missle units and trading blows with them.

Longbows will have 2 salvo's off before you get into range of them, and dependant on the enemy force you might have to deal with the longbows assigned defensive divisions as well, further exposing yourself to thier range.

"one who sets the entire army in motion to chase an advantage wll not attain it" (Sun Tza).

You should worry about thier range but not make their strength's your weakness by committing your strategy to one specific unit type's elimination.

[antisocialmunky]

You can always put them in loose with a long formation to reduce casualties. Then right your units engage, pull them in tight.

[Bregil the Bowman]

They aren't that insane, they're just really really good as CA is UK and therefore Anglophiles. Just defeat them like you would defeat any other parabolic missile unit.

I don't think CA being UK-based has anything to do with the longbow stats. Longbows were devastatingly effective at Crecy, Poictiers, Agincourt and hundreds of lesser battles. Although they were drawn from the yeoman class (one up from serf), they regarded themselves as an elite fighting force, had good morale and could mix it in a hand to hand fight as well as shooting a bow that required years of training to master. It was the difficulty in learning to use the bow that meant no other country ever put large numbers of longbows on the field, and even in England and Wales the art died out long before it became obsolete on the battlefield.

The vulnerability of the English archers in the hundred years war was that the arrows they used were only made in England, and therefore on a long campaign they risked running out of ammo. You might exploit this by sending in some low-grade troops to eat up their arrows before attacking with better troops.

Softening archers up with pavise crossbowmen and then engaging with knights was the French plan at Crecy, but went wrong when the pavises were left behind. In later battles the French dismounted elements of their cavalry to engage the archers without exposing their vulnerable horses. But in most of the set piece battles where longbowmen were involved (including the Wars of the Roses) they were able to inflict heavy losses on high quality opposition, so be prepared!

[LoboSoulman]

I got a very nasty supprise when I engaed them in hand to hand.
I thought they would run but they stood and fought and beat off my attacker.
I think it was something like urban militia , crap but I thought I would use them to make the longbows flee.
Bad mistake.