MTWs crossbows blew. I'm sorry, but they did. They couldn't fire through a screening unit of infantry, their rate of fire was atrocious... You'd generally get off ONE volley before they were having to skirmish back behind your lines and after that they were useless, because you could never have them fire once they'd skirmished back.

It really didn't matter how powerful their one volley was, because they were useless after that.

Crossbows are much more fun in this game.