[Endoperez]

If it hasn't been mentioned yet, archers alone may suck, but archers cmoplementing infantry or infantry guarding archers work much better against most enemies.

MA Ulm, as an example, can choose between high-prot and even-higher-prot units with and without shields. They don't want to use their national archers (with crossbows or arbalests, which are even heavier than normal crossbows), but if they can get some indy shortbows to complement their infantry, you'll quickly see a vast improvement in their performance. The high-prot infantry can mostly ignore the archers, and anything that they tie up will be constantly peppered by the arrows.


Barbarians can be absolutely devastating. They deal so much damage so quickly that they can often cause severe losses to early conquering forces even when you win, and if the barbarians cause a rout their quick speed means that they will often kill many of the retreating force as well. Archers work well against barbarians if you can keep them occupied for a few turns. A small squad of any lght infantry or militia will slow the barbarians for a turn or two, and your normal archer-bodyguard squad of shielded medium-to-heavy infantries will hopefully not take too much damage before the archers cause enough damage to rout/kill the barbarians.