Units under fire?

[fester]

Does a unit under fire from a ranged unit have different levels of morale penalty to match the ranged unit it's up againstor is it set? It seems sensible to me that a unit under fire from longbows should suffer a higher morale penalty than say arbs because of the faster killing power.

[DukeofSerbia]

Arbalesters are more deadly and accurate than Longbowmen. They have slower reload time, but arbalest as weapon was the most advanced hand ranged weapon which doesn't use gunpowder.

[fester]

I hear wat your saying and I know especialy against armoured targets shot for shot arbs are more deadly, But an unarmoured unit under fire from longbows will be dyeing at a far more alarming rate than one under attack from arbs. Just put a unit of arbs up against some LB's on level ground and you'll see what I mean. The arbs are dead before they get to use there ammo!

[DukeofSerbia]

That's true. Longbowmen have the same reload time as ordinary archers. But arbalesters are better when you are defender, especially if you are on mountain or hill. I use longbowmen when I attacking.

[Mithrandir]

To answer your question :

No there's no difference in morale penalty. However, LB's are more offence and reload quicker than arbs, so they kill quicker,->bigger loss of troops ->bigger morale penalty.

The arbs do longer with their ammo so their role is essentially different, they're nice to put against horse archers&other archers.

[Mithrandir]

(edit : fixed thread title)

[Alexios]

In my current campaign, I've been using longbowmen quite a bit in my battles and have been quite impressed with the results - they have tremendous range! However, my campaign is now leading me to a big showdown with the Byzantines. I'm wondering how effective my LBs will be against units such as kataphraktoi and Byz infantry. I'm thinking it would be suicidal to use them against such heavily armoured units. Am I correct? And if so, what other missile units can I use against the Byz playing as the English? I thought about xbows, but I'm not too impressed with their range of fire.

[tigger_on_vrb]

The longbows will do reasonable damage to armoured troops - much better than normal archers, but less then arbalests. I think a great combination is to use both longbows (just behind your battle line) and xbows/arbs (just in front). Normally I would go for 2x xbows/arbs and 4 longbows. This works especially well in defence as you can bring in longbow reserves when they are out of arrows.
Longbows and arbs also have that great range, so against the AI you can sometimes lure units out of a defencive position as you can hit them and they cant hit you.

[Mithrandir]

Brind a mix of billmen,longbows and feudal/chiv sergs.

Put the sergs on hld pos.the billmen to take out the kats and the longbows to shoot up the byz inf. before they reach your lines, they do quite well, once they're depleted of ammo, theyér pretty decent flankers, something which can't be said for many other archers.

[naut]

I agree with Mithrandir, But bring some Chiv Knights Once dismounted and part of your battle line !

[Ghost of Rom]

If I remember correctly the game uses a parameter of "isgun". Either yes or no to determine under fire morale penalty. Guns have -6 morale deficit and all others -2.

[Mithrandir]

If I remember correctly the game uses a parameter of "isgun". Either yes or no to determine under fire morale penalty. Guns have -6 morale deficit and all others -2.

signed

Ah that's right, I had forgot that there are also gunpowder units.

They indeed inflict an extra morale penalty.

[LadyAnn]

Does a unit under fire from a ranged unit have different levels of morale penalty to match the ranged unit it's up againstor is it set? It seems sensible to me that a unit under fire from longbows should suffer a higher morale penalty than say arbs because of the faster killing power.

You said it right there :) There is a morale penalty for units that see their men die at fast rate, be it from longbow or from darts.

If it is implemented as you suggest, a unit of tired longbowmen decimated down to half size will always inflict "facing longbowmen penalties" even they don't kill as much as a fresh unit of arbalest at full strength. Implemented as it is right now, if the unit kills fast, then the victim will have morale penalty.

What you wished for is implemented.

Annie