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)

[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.

[HoreTore]

Ottomans, no question. My favorite unit of all time. I actually quit playing MTW after they made them only available in the late period...

Btw zaher, janissary archers have a missile attack of 10...

[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 :).

[Abokasee]

North archers

Very good balance, almost a "all purpose infantry" very nice, good range (not much as long bows) and good damage like klobal said

[Skott]

Pavise Crossbow men. Regulars or militia. Easy to get and get them early. Good defense and good offensive power. Not overly expensive. I dont play the Muslim nations much so I use Pavise more than anything else really. So these guys get my vote.

[Joshwa]

Byzantine Guard Archers. They're like purple ninjas.

[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

[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.

[zaher]

Ottomans, no question. My favorite unit of all time. I actually quit playing MTW after they made them only available in the late period...

Btw zaher, janissary archers have a missile attack of 10...

Yes, but they are not useing longbows and then they dont have AP.

[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...!"

[Shahed]

dio: LOL!

zaher longbows are the top bow in game ?
Sorry to go OT, I know this thread is about YOUR favorite archer, not "best" archer.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Any archer that can put stakes before him. I like a good BBQ

[Furious Mental]

Well the range is the same as alot of other archers but the longbow units' missile attacks have an armour piercing attribute, so it depends on what you are up against.

[andrewt]

Dismounted Dvor - No AP on their bows but 11 is one of the highest in the game. Their melee has AP and they have good stats for melee as well.

I liked Ottoman infantry as well but the downside is they don't have good stamina. After emptying even just half their quiver, they're already tired and pretty crappy in melee even with their decent stats.