How to switch to secondary weapons?

[TevashSzat]

Hmm...I always used alt clicking, but that might just be due to habits from RTW.

[Daykeras]

Heh... Woops. I meant I was alt-clicking and this happened. I think ctrl click is forced fire... anywho I _am_ alt clicking but they won't switch until they begin to charge.

[Foz]

I'm not aware of any other way to make them switch weapons earlier. If the trouble is that they sometimes run into other troops before they charge the first target (and thus have primary weapon out still), then the best solution may be just to watch them carefully and be sure they're trying to attack the closest target you think they'll end up in melee with, which should mean they'll have their swords out in time. If I misunderstood why you felt their behavior is disadvantageous, though, then just let me know and I'll see if I have any other useful advice

[Daykeras]

ok... I guess the best way to explain it is this. You have two units walking towards each other. One is the Archers. The other is Knights.

You purposely alt-clicked the Archers so you can melee the Knights. However, the Archers still have their bows out the entire time they're walking. It's not until both the Knights and the Archers are at charging distance that the Archers think "Hey, we were ordered to melee and we're still carrying bows. Let's pull out our melee weapons!"

By the time the Archers DO get it out, the Knights have either just smashed into their line with their charge (not hindered by switching weapons) or the Archer counter charge is so disorganized that it's probably worse than not charging at all.

On top of all this, if the Archers happen to be the general for this battle, the actual General himself will not hesitate to charge on time... running FAR away from his support troops who are trying to figure out which weapon to use.

[Daykeras]

Anyone have any ideas? Maybe something I can mod to make it work properly?

[Whacker]

Anyone have any ideas? Maybe something I can mod to make it work properly?

What the heck are you doing charging archers headlong into knights anyway??

I'd suggest waiting for the patch and seeing if this type of behavior you noticed changes for you. In the mean time keep trying different tactics in custom battles and see if you can't get the hang of it. There were some... er... "changes" to the tactical battle controls in M2TW that it took me awhile to get used to as well. Good luck!

[Foz]

Have you tried alt-double-clicking? I've noticed that a great many units will typically halt to gather themselves up for the charge when you issue a single-click attack command. When you issue a double-click attack command, though, they simply continue running and move weapons to charge position, without the long stop in the middle to regroup. The AI even seems to issue explicit run commands to troops at some distance farther away than charge distance, seemingly to avoid this exact thing. I would speculate, then, that if you alt-double-click with your archers (or start them running when they get somewhat close), they will switch weapons while running and not incur the long pause to switch weapons that you have described. More than likely they'll just draw secondary weapon and immediately brandish it for the charge when at the correct distance, continuing to run the whole time.

So while this method applies generally to melee foot troops, I suspect it will also include archers sent into melee combat.