[PvK]

Originally posted by Pocus:
but PvK, friendly fire was and is a reality. Just remember the examples we saw in Afghanistan and Irak. Even with precise armaments, there was still casualties from friendly fire.
The problem is that most of the games gave us the bad habit to fire at will, and magically our troops would not be harmed.

Yes, but it's a matter of proportions, sane tactics, and circumstance. As you say below, real-world ancient armies (or any army which took a moment to think) would not fire full barrages right at the melee - they would restrict to firing at enemy Groups - not right at the battle line, half-hitting their own men. And if ten of their own guys had surrounded one or two enemies, they wouldn't have twenty archers pepper the whole group with arrows.

You find your archers too stupids? Aside from the fact that the AI in doms II is augmented when it comes to targeting, the problem lie perhaps because you ask too much of them. Historically, a commander would ask his archers to rain arrows upon the enemy, and stop when melee start. In dominions you could just do that, and this is not workarounds IMO : ask for firing at commanders (rear area), or ask to fire and flee (so they fire 2 rounds). I must recon though that the best order would be to fire X rounds then stop. Dont know if it will be available in doms II.

Yes. As I said originally, the given options for this are inadequate in Dom I. As you say, the best you can do is fire at commander, or fire and flee, and the latter option has the men actually retreat and leave the province you are fighting in (and get auto-eliminated if your province has no adjacent friendly provinces to flee to).

PvK