MTW Missile Combat
Missile troops play an important part in MTW battles. Artillery can break down walls or rain destruction upon the enemy lines. Bows and other man-portable missile weapons are useful for thinning out the enemy troops before the general melee starts, and high value enemy units can be neutralized under a withering long range attack. Missiles can also be used to lure a defensive enemy off of advantageous terrain.
Contents
Ranks
Bows v. crossbows v. guns
Guns should be used in ranks of 3 or more. This allows them to ripple fire, having the front rank fire and then move back so the next rank can shoot. When in 2 ranks or less, all of the guns will be fired at once, and the unit will not fire for ages while they all reload.
Terrain and Weather
Elevation.
Trees will deflect or absorb missiles, so units in trees are essentially protected from missile attacks. Some casualties may occur, but firing into trees is a waste of rounds. The inverse is also true, a missile unit firing out of trees will not be very effective at all.
Rain can be problematic to some missile weapons. Guns and naptha bombs are useless in the rain. Bows and crossbows lose some effectiveness in the rain. Arbalests use steel strings, so they are not affected by the rain like crossbows are.
Reloading and Firing
Missile weapons have a set amount of time needed for reloading. When and how this time can be spent is important when placing and manoveuring a missile unit, maximizing the time firing will allow extra volleys to be fired into the enemy.
Bows (short, long, or mounted) must spend their reload time immediately before firing, and cannot move during the reload cycle without interrupting the reload/shot cycle. So an archer unit must wait for a few seconds after moving before their first volley is fired.
Crossbows, arbalests, and guns, being triggered weapons, can be fired immediately after moving, provided they have spent the requisite reload time standing still at some point before. Any movement during the reload period resets it back to the start, but once loaded, the unit can move and shoot as soon as they come to a halt. A smart general can exploit this to limit the exposure of the missile unit.
Thrown weapons like javelins and naptha bombs can be fired as soon as the unit stops, and unlike other missile weapons, can spend the reload time moving. This is a good thing, since the short ranges on these weapons require lots of moving to keep their users safe and in position.
Missile Cavalry
The art of dissection.
Skirmish
managing skirmishing missiles.
The range of javelins and other thrown weapons is close to the skirmish move range. Leaving these types of missile troops on skirmish will render them useless as they will always be moving and will not get off a volley. They must be micro-managed to be used effectively.
Armour and Missiles
A unit's defense value does not come into play when targeted by missiles, only armour and shield factor into determining a hit. The target's armour value is always factored in, the shield only applies to missile attacks from the front or left side. (units in melee with shields and two-handed weapons, shield applies to missiles from the back?)
The game uses a different formula for adjusting armour-piercing capability for missiles than it does with melee weapons. Each projectile type has an armour modifier between 0 and 1, which is multiplied against the target's armour value. A modifier of 1 has no armour-piercing capability, while a value of 0 ignores armour completely (0 is used for artillery missiles). Values in between therefore reduce the target's armour value to a greater or lesser extant, allowing for flexibility between different missile types.
Missiles and Morale
Units under fire suffer a morale penalty, beyond that given for taking loses. Units under conventional fire suffer -2 morale, while units under fire from guns or artillery suffer an additional -4 morale. (is this penalty applied only when the "under fire" icon appears on the unit card? i.e. taking hits? )
Valour and Missiles
The higher the unit's valour, the higher the accuracy of their fire (need the numbers, if someone has them). If possible, a missile unit should be trained in a province with a valour boost to give them a head start. New missile units should look for easy kills in battle (unarmoured infantry) to level up faster. Artillery crews will show a great improvement in accuracy as their valour goes up, but they can only gain valour by kills, knocking down walls does not count. Rookie artillery units should target large clumps of enemy troops if possible to increase their chance of a kill.
The valour bonus given by the general does not apply to ranged accuracy improvements.
Weapon Upgrades
The weapon upgrades given by the Metalsmith line of weapons does not apply to missile combat. There is no way to improve missile weapons during a campaign, only unit experience does this.
Properties of projectiles
Missile units use a set projectile weapon, the properties for these weapons can be found in the PROJECTILE_STATS.TXT file at the top of the Medieval - Total War installation directory tree. The unit is assigned a weapon in the unit_prod.txt file for the campaign, designated in the column PROJECTILE_TYPE(). The unit's ammunition allotment is also defined in the unit_prod.txt file, in the column AMMO().
TBD - currently a placeholder, need to add more detail.
