Archers and experience.

[CaptainSolo]

Sorry for yet another post on this but i can't edit yet.

I did a quick test regarding rate of fire.
The Retinues were by my calculation firing just over two volleys V the Genoese' 1.

By the time the Highland pikemen had reached the Genoese (5 volleys) the retinues had fired an additional 5/6 volleys inflicting 123 casualties on the highland pikemen by the time they had reached the same position.Using ammo like it was going out of fashion it has to be said.

All in all it seems pretty balanced to me on reflection.Undoubtedly the crossbows retain their longetivity bonus from MTW where as the longbows with less ammo seem to kill the quickest.

Sorry for rambling on about this i was just curious to see how it all played out.

[Kraxis]

Accuracybonus it seems...

That was there in STW and MTW (though in MTW it was highly nerfed). Honour 4 Samurai Archers were killers from afar, while honour 0 SA were not really anything to be impressed about.

[CBR]

I did some missile tests a few months back in BI and each experience upgrade seemed to increase kills by a constant of 10%. The actual missile attack rating was more like some exponential function, which meant that attack rating had to be within a rather small range or they would turn into gatling guns.


CBR

[Doug-Thompson]

Just a little adding on to the pile here. Mamaluk Archers with no experience left 51 Scottish Noble Pikemen alive. The same unit, maxed out on experience, in the same weather conditions on the same terrain left 36 alive.

[CaptainSolo]

I suppose your theory would explain quite a lot CBR as i cant see their system changing that much over the years.Now i have sat and done a few tests i could see how the archers would become overpowered,especially for the English.The fact that they were would do nothing for unit balance.

I'm not sure if it is an accuracy bonus to be honest Kraxis.I think it could simply be a matter of rate of fire.If you watch units like the longbows firing at a single unit many arrows fall short where as the crossbow bolts flying on a flat trajectory seem to have more bolts per volley that hit the actual unit.
Like i said it feels pretty balanced between those two units.

Thanks for the replies btw everyone.I feel happier now that i know experience is not wasted on the archer units.

[CaptainSolo]

Thats interesting Doug-Thompson thanks a lot.I'll check out there stats and have a play around with them and some other units

[Kraxis]

I'm not sure if it is an accuracy bonus to be honest Kraxis.I think it could simply be a matter of rate of fire.If you watch units like the longbows firing at a single unit many arrows fall short where as the crossbow bolts flying on a flat trajectory seem to have more bolts per volley that hit the actual unit.
Like i said it feels pretty balanced between those two units.

I meant an accuracybonus for valour...

The higher valour the better chances of hits.
Of course crossbows tend to get more hits due to the flatter trajectory, but that doesn't explain why both they and archers get more kills when at higher level experience, while at teh same time their ranged attack doesn't get better (more lethal individual strikes).

[Kobal2fr]

That would be it. The listed "missile attack" probably relates only to the killing power of a hit, not the probability of said hit. I do notice that my newbie longbowen often fall way short even in the best of conditions. Arcing shots from outside towns into the city square are godawful too... arrows scattering all over the place except into anything fleshy :)

[CaptainSolo]

I meant an accuracybonus for valour...
The higher valour the better chances of hits.

Ok i see what you mean now,apologies for misreading your first post.I suppose i'm just trying to get my head around the effects of the missile attack rating.It looks like the crossbows have a higher rating to compensate for their lack of rate of fire.With that in mind longbows with a considerably higher missile attack rating coupled with their rate of fire would unbalance the game.

arrows scattering all over the place except into anything fleshy :)

Yes i think you may be right Kobal2Fr.That last line just made me laugh for some reason