I know people disagree, that is why I prefaced my response like I did. By all means, do not listen to me.
But, I'm not saying not to recruit indy shortbows. It's just that they are sort of a throw-away add-on unit whereas your arbelests are your core, heavy-damage-dealing unit.
I only care about doing damage to high-protection targets because the indy shortbows do great against the low-protection ones. They have that covered already. We are talking the targets they don't have covered, those are the only ones that matter.
I think this "synergy" argument is a little misplaced. I don't think it's very relevant here. Lack of synergy is a minor side-effect of having a missile unit that is so astoundingly effective that it can actually harm your own extremely tough units. That is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Attempting to paint that as a bad thing strikes me as a little odd, honestly. I mean, you'd rather they do less damage?
Or you'd rather Ulm have indy-shortbow style units to recruit rather than arbelests? That's a joke. You can recruit indy shortbows anywhere, arbelests are unique to Ulm. Revel in Ulm's unique POWER!!!
edit: I can't remember about the shield, in all likelihood that pretender was not carrying one. It was a while ago.