Your Favorite Archer Unit

[Blood Claw]

Hey everyone,

I was just curious as to what everyone's favorite archer unit is. Why do you like it; for its looks, stats, or cost?

I will add my pick later on since I am undecided now.

[CMcMahon]

For SP, Jannissary Archers. For MP, the Timurid ones that look like the Immortals from 300.

[Kobal2fr]

Norse Archers. Shoot as well as normal Longbowmen (though not as far, nor AP), hit as hard as a DFK. What's not to love ?

[Flavius Merobaudes]

Dismounted Dvor or Ottoman Infantry.

I like units that shower the enemy with arrows first and can put up good fight in melee. Gives you some advantage against anyone.

[Shahed]

MOUNTED MONGOL HEAVY ARCHERS
Awesome looks, specially in Timurid uniform.

Sherwood Archers: Fun factor, difficulty of use, but JOY to see them with gold chevrons.
Sabadar: Cool looks.

[Ars Moriendi]

Pavise Crossbow Militia : for cost and effectiveness.
They're cheap and easy to get; free upkeep in cities, long range, AP and big shields making them almost immune to arrows - will win a straight shootout with almost anyone. They're decent in melee too, and will hold walls well enough - the unit of choice for garrisons ; invaluable in bridge defense.

(I remember doing some tests a while ago : you can quite easily beat 2 units of yeoman longbows with one PCM, costing much less than half and losing only 30% of your men)

[Kobal2fr]

Pavise Crossbow Militia : for cost and effectiveness.
They're cheap and easy to get; free upkeep in cities, long range, AP and big shields making them almost immune to arrows - will win a straight shootout with almost anyone. They're decent in melee too, and will hold walls well enough - the unit of choice for garrisons ; invaluable in bridge defense.

(I remember doing some tests a while ago : you can quite easily beat 2 units of yeoman longbows with one PCM, costing much less than half and losing only 30% of your men)

AFAIK they also get that shield bonus in melee (no matter what the animations look like) which obviously gives them an edge over other archers, in case your guys understand the idiom "archer duel" somewhat litterally :).

[Guru]

Norse Archers - Cheap, almost decent missile attack, very good in melee fight.
Dismounted Dvor - Excellent missile attack, very good melee, well armoured and great outlook although not so cheap.

- Guru out

[zaher]

Scotts guards - exellent longbow use ( 9 ap bow missile is best ), very good melee, exellent armor without shield ( half-plate + very high defence skill ) - makes them best settlements defenders and territory patrols at high/late period, i give them 10/10 as archers and 9/10 as medium infantry ( only cause they useing sword and not mace or hammer ). And for sure , they are better than any english longbowmen.

[supadodo]

Crossbow Militia/Peasant Crossbowmen

In the case of archers, quantity always beats quality, They are so damn cheap and have such low upkeep and not to mention AP making them a extremely effective solution to knights. Of course any general with common sense will guard these guys from melee enemies.

[Furious Mental]

Well if you can only so have archers in your army quality does matter. I'd have to say retinue longbowmen or janissary archers simply because I love to watch cavalry impale themselves. Somewhat disappointed the English didn't get a proper bodyguard longbowman in plate as well.

[ninjahboy]

byzantine guard archers - as joshwa said, purple ninjas + very very very very nice attack
retinue longbowmen, look cool when all upgraded with their armour and stuff + they can deploy stakes, can rape most other archer units + decent melee attack (killed enemy faction heir in melee, that was embarressing :D)

[Magraev]

As egypt I love the desert archers. Cheap and long range and capable of shredding anything not wearing heavy armor. They even get bonuses in the desert making them even better at killing crusaders.

[Frederick_I_Barbarossa]

Pavise Crossbows...the Lords of northern Italy

[Zajuts149]

Well if you can only so have archers in your army quality does matter. I'd have to say retinue longbowmen or janissary archers simply because I love to watch cavalry impale themselves. Somewhat disappointed the English didn't get a proper bodyguard longbowman in plate as well.

Though the common man often used the longbow in war, the nobles would rather hire crossbowmen into their retinue. Perhaps the English should have that instead. Or they could just hire mercs

My Fav is the Sicilian Muslim Archers,but I love the plain Longbowmen with light mail armour for looks

[Furious Mental]

The English didn't have much need for crossbows after they started using the longbow- the longbow fired quite far and very fast, even if it was less powerful than an arbalest. Gascon or Norman crossbowmen were common auxiliaries, but the English nobility didn't seem to use them as bodyguards. For instance, even though he was Duke of Gascony, the Black Prince had English longbowmen in his military household, not crossbowmen.

[phonicsmonkey]

Venetian archers are a favourite of mine

"Lookin' great in plate since 1208"

[Zajuts149]

The English didn't have much need for crossbows after they started using the longbow- the longbow fired quite far and very fast, even if it was less powerful than an arbalest. Gascon or Norman crossbowmen were common auxiliaries, but the English nobility didn't seem to use them as bodyguards. For instance, even though he was Duke of Gascony, the Black Prince had English longbowmen in his military household, not crossbowmen.

True, but I'm not talking about bodyguards, which would have been knights or Men at Arms. I mean the professional soldiers which they would retain out of campaign. The early archers where often just hired for specific campaigns, or called out in emergencies. It was only later that you get retinue longbowmen as modelled in the game

[Caliburn]

I like Dismounted Dvor. Aventurier are cool as well - long reange, great look and they are fast and strong in melee.

If it rides a horse... Wink wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.

France still has maybe too many different unit composition options, ueber missiles like scots guard and aventurier, great HA's, great heavy cavalry, great dismounted knights... Pikes galore, decent halberds and arquebuses, and my favourite artillery, serpentines. But I digress.

[Matty]

I've got these Ventian archer chaps at the moment and they're not half as hard in hand to hand as their stats would make them appear - and damned expensive at 610 a pop. They do look good in their shiny arnour though, so I'm persevering.

[samiosumo]

Mamluk Archers: awesome at going in and coming out but not needed to do that as they are very good at hand to hand (blame the mace/axe thingy, I forget)

[Magraev]

eh?? A filter of some kind???

[Budwise]

Peasant Archers

I know I know, THERE - I SAID IT.

Its fun to watch them wet themselves and run when confronted by a mob of rednecked hicks running at them with pitchforks.

[Subedei]

The Moorish Dessert Archers...they are real killers.

[diotavelli]

The Moorish Dessert Archers...they are real killers.

Death by meringue? Armour-piercing apfelstrudel?

"Watch out, chaps! They've brought cheesecake and they're upwind of us...!"

[rebelscum]

Peasant Archers

I know I know, THERE - I SAID IT.

Its fun to watch them wet themselves and run when confronted by a mob of rednecked hicks running at them with pitchforks.

There is a handy skirmish button that stops this. try putting these guys in front of your valuble skirmishers just to give you that extra few seconds to get the good ones out of the way when charged.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Yes, I am aware they are not the best archer by far... but...

Yeoman archers (England) are my favorite. They are the only way to win the Battle of Agincourt, and they saved my butt. They shot plenty of armored foes to death, and I'll be gosh-danged if they didn't leap into action armed with little swords when the time came.

Good, obedient, brave little things. I'm sentimental when it comes to only marginally effective troops that fight like real men. Anyone can build a massive army of full plate mounted archers... it takes guts to win a battle with little or no armor, sh*tty weapons, and a little thing called bravery.