Odd yet interesting find regarding missile units

[Foz]

So can you have your unit of archers target a particular man in the enemy unit?

Not as far as I've seen. Every time I click the enemy unit to attack it, the red arrow appears right where I clicked, but the archers seem to always fire at the enemy unit's center, which I previously explained is correct behavior if they're trying to maximize their chance to kill enemies. So, can't really fault them for that, though I can see the appeal for instance of wanting to target the enemy general to try for a cheap swing in momentum. It's probably for the best that we can't do so, though.

[Whacker]

A shallow formation helps most when the unit is moving.

Only forward and backward, yes, I found that also. Turning, absolutely not. The unit rotation in v1.1 seems to take a note from the old STW/MTW unit movement dynamics, in that the units while "wheel" and somewhat rotate in place to face in the new direction, then start running again. This is much much quicker in block formation than in long thin lines, as there's less rotation time.

With muskets and arquebusiers, the front rank is all that fires, yes. But, they pretty much fire as soon as the back rank finishes reloading. Because of the larger number of men moving in the wide formation, and the resulting hangups as men get stuck on obstacles and other men, the narrow formation is probably finishing first and getting a higher rate of fire as a result. Rate of fire seems higher to me in a 4 rank formation than in a 2 rank line, from using my Spanish musketeers.

Oddly enough, I noticed the same thing except that they didn't rotate when on the walls. Only the men in the gaps between crenelations fire, and they do NOT rotate with the units behind them. The guys in front will stay in front, and they are the only ones who shoot. /shrug If you ask me there's a LOT that could be improved there in terms game code and mechanics.

[Doug-Thompson]

@whacker

Sorry for the confusion. A shallow formation helps most in avoiding missile fire while moving. Most shots will fly over a two-man line that is moving toward the firing unit.

[Aelwyn]

Second, I'm beginning to suspect that the "box" is more resistant to melee units. It appears to have a "herd" effect.

Yes this was always so since STW. Having more ranks not only 'protects' the men on the inside, but there is a rank bonus on morale. So if a unit is waivering, and you have them 2 deep, increasing that to about 4/5 deep should stop them from routing.

[Whacker]

@whacker

Sorry for the confusion. A shallow formation helps most in avoiding missile fire while moving. Most shots will fly over a two-man line that is moving toward the firing unit.

Ah, now I get you, sorry I misunderstood. I also agree here, BUT with the caveat that this "hidden bonus" decreases in a linear manner as proximity to the attacking missile units decreases. The simple reason being that the trajectory decreases and the chance of an arrow arcing over or under the target along with it. I must say though, it is interesting that in the numerous tests I did in our previous thread using the Islamic HA's vs NP's, that the kill rate seemed to be pretty constant from maximum range all the way down to melee range. I inferred this mainly by the uniform trail of bodies from the attacking unit leading up to mine, the only time it thinned out was when I was retreating to gain some firing distance again... The exception to the "hidden bonus avoidance" rule seems to be archers shooting from walls, which seems to have it's own problems right now...