Help with archers and artillery.

[Lamprey]

archers behind your lines are only effective if they have clearance, like if your set up on a hill, where they have LoS behind your infantry ranks.

This is wrong. You are thinking of gunpowder troops. Archers have no problem whatsoever firing over the heads of infantry in front of them, hill or no hill. Play a battle like this, with archers behind infantry and then look at how many kills they got to convince yourself.

Xbows are more effective with a clear line of sight, but they too can fire up in an arc. They're less accurate but when you have 5 units of xbows firing into a mass of attacking infantry, believe me, they'll get kills.

[Slug For A Butt]

Well, I mostly play England and have 6-8 LB types in my armies, a couple of spears (one for each flank), a couple of heavy cavalry (including generals) and the rest AS. I sometimes think it is worth dropping a few AS and having some empty slots as the AI will attack you even when it is defending if it thinks it can overpower you. I will do anything to let my LB's sit behind the stakes and fire directly at oncoming infantry, I concentrate on the heavy infantry and watch as my LB's decimate them. I don't really mind if the light infantry make it to my lines as even the LB's hack them to pieces while my AS join the party.
I love missile but I really do want to know how to use artillery effectively. For instance, how can you make your artillery drive a cannonball through enemy forces at a bridge? Surely you'll only get one shot at it before they reach and overpower your artillery? Or else your artillery is useless as you have to send infantry in front of your artillery to join battle.

[imnothere]

meatshields blocking the bridge, cannon at the side.

you wont get more than few shots if you placed the cannon on the front of the bridge. unless you want to risk some casualties with the crew. but you can try (i must do that tonight jsut for curiosity's sake) to put cannon, fire a shot or two, the pull back and let the meatshields take over the position.

IMO is that continous rate of fire on the enemy position is better than 1-2 big-damage shots then abandoning the gun to the enemy. but if what you said can be pull off, it will be great, if not amusing.

pity that horse-balista unit are only in RTW barbarian invasion were gone. and that no-one thought of harnessing serpentine to horses to give "mobility" to "artillery".

and oh, 'ware of long range missiles onto your artillery crews of course.

[Ars Moriendi]

This thread got me into a playful mood, so I ran several battles with artillery on bridge defense, just to see how much fun I can have rolling cannonballs along a bridge like on a bowling alley...

Here's an account with screenshots from the last one :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Initial setup - my army (french) is made of 2 pikemen ("meatshield") and 2 serpentines (4xp) stationed along the bridge axis some 50m away ; the enemy (scots) - 19 units of highland pikemen, in long column entering the bridge.



The Jaws of Death (tm):



Serpentines start shooting, scots start flying :




Scottish general, sniped at the far end of the bridge while running away :



The scots are in a constant rout cycle - they get to my side, eat a couple fast balls, flee to their side, regroup and come again just to be routed once more :




Some scotsmen routed towards my side, then rallied and smashed my pikemen from behind, thus ending the Jaws of Death (tm). Therefore, my gunners must end the battle with their machettes :



Final results : clear victory, serpentines scored 583 kills.

Conclusion : artillery can be very effective in bridge battles if you use anti personnel pieces (ie. serpentines, not bombards ; ballistas instead of trebuchets) and they have some experience. All you need to do is place them right and give them time to do their work

[Shahed]

LOL Moriendi, that was a great AAR (as usual).

[Askthepizzaguy]

This thread got me into a playful mood, so I ran several battles with artillery on bridge defense, just to see how much fun I can have rolling cannonballs along a bridge like on a bowling alley...

Here's an account with screenshots from the last one :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Initial setup - my army (french) is made of 2 pikemen ("meatshield") and 2 serpentines (4xp) stationed along the bridge axis some 50m away ; the enemy (scots) - 19 units of highland pikemen, in long column entering the bridge.



The Jaws of Death (tm):



Serpentines start shooting, scots start flying :




Scottish general, sniped at the far end of the bridge while running away :



The scots are in a constant rout cycle - they get to my side, eat a couple fast balls, flee to their side, regroup and come again just to be routed once more :




Some scotsmen routed towards my side, then rallied and smashed my pikemen from behind, thus ending the Jaws of Death (tm). Therefore, my gunners must end the battle with their machettes :



Final results : clear victory, serpentines scored 583 kills.

Conclusion : artillery can be very effective in bridge battles if you use anti personnel pieces (ie. serpentines, not bombards ; ballistas instead of trebuchets) and they have some experience. All you need to do is place them right and give them time to do their work

You do an excellent job posting images. I'm taking notes for my next visual thread.