Medieval Missile Troops

[Oleander Ardens]

Also, does anyone know if earlier archers (pre-longbowmen) actually fired en masse as they do in the game, or if the fire was less coordinated?

12 seems to have been the magic number for western archers equipped with warbows of yew since Oetzi walked over the Similaun glacier some 5000 years ago. At least he worked on 8-10 arrowshafts and carried two functional arrows before he was shot in the back by an archer and finished off.

During the bronze age 10-12 arrowheads are the most common number in alpine and middle-european tombs. Frankish archers/infantry were required to carry 12 arrows with them.

Thinking about it the sheer number of "scythian" arrows per capita, or at least scythian arrowheads par capita found all over the steppes of Eurasia is amazing. Shorter, thinner and thus lighter this arrows were clearly employed in massive barrages or in almost neverending and nervewhacking ranged attacks. Quite a novel tactical choice for most of their western and middle eastern enemies back then...

The triangular and bodkinlike design of a good deal of them might have been the natural consequence of their poor momentum and even worse penetration power, and their desire to increase the probabilty of a small wound against armored targets by giving up lethality against unarmored foes. Or the wish to increase velocity, an important factor of accuracy in a moving battle even at the cost of lethality. Hard to say what motivated them to adopt this arrowhead design...

Back to the topic: I increased the differences in armor and decreased the armorpiercing abilty of all missile weapons greatly in the old MTW, but increased the shooting speed and reaction of the missle troops. Archers and javelineers can fire on the move, which seems odd but makes everything more fluid and proper. I also reduced the arrows of the some archers, but increased also the melee stats of many, making them more hybridm as they were in history. I also increase partially the lethality and accuracy to make them deadlier against unarmored units.