Which AP ranged unit?

[katar]

You know, there's a nifty little option called 'limited ammo' which, if off, makes hte Longbow the best archer in the game.

i always leave that option on, unlimited ammo has never appealed to me, it means i have to think about how i expend their ammo in a battle.

[Third spearman from the left]

In a duel between ranged units do the pavise units with there large shields really have better protection against say normal archers?

[Ludens]

In a duel between ranged units do the pavise units with there large shields really have better protection against say normal archers?

Yes, frontally at least. But pavises slow them down and don't help in melee. It just adds two points of armour to the unit against frontal missiles.

[Nikpalj]

Just found one of the old posts on this, here it is:

Ok, I never could stand the concept of using arbalest or even crossbows since I play the brits always.. the longbows always just seemed so much better cus of the speed. Anyway, for fun I made 6 crossbow units in one of my outpost towns I knew was gonna be attacked, but didn't care if fell.. I gave 2 units of feudal men at arms to guard em (was making more, but germans attacked).

So there I was.. crossbows up front against 800 someodd enemies (around 400 for me) and MAA in rear ready to charge when they got close.. enemy royal knights (20) start charging to the xbows... I cursed and ordered them to fire... waited a few sec, screaming in my mind "LOAD THE DAMN WEAPON AND FIRE!!! ARRGG!" (i'm used to longbow rapid shot).. eventually they kneeled, took aim syncronously, and then ---TWANG! Thwup thwup thwup..

"Aieiee!! Arrgg! Aahhh!" ... all 20 royal knights dead in 1 volley! AND it was a prince, their general.. it devastated their morale, although they still charged, but not after my xbows let loose a second volley, that chased 'em right off the map.. lol.

The thing is, that wouldn't have worked with my longbows cus they always miss charging cavalry (the angle is high and it lands behind them).. but since the xbows and arbalests seem to fire more or less straight, you nail 'em every time!

[Procrustes]

I'm currently in the midst of a long campaign as the Spanish. After I hit the high era, I started building xbows and arbs. But since I still have a lot of archers and a few merc longbows laying around I tend to bring a mix of both to my battles. I'm playing slow, and I've fought off a number of big attacks and rebellions. When I look at the summaries at the end of the battles, I find that the xbows/arbs kill a good number more men than the lbows/archers, despite the fact that the lbows/archers expend far more ammo.