[thejeff]

Arbalests fire every 3 rds. They get one shot at jags or Eagles, at extreme range, when they've reloaded they'll be in melee or firing into it. The great thing about Arbalests is that they're one of the few things that can easily hurt your own heavies. Regular Xbows hurt jags badly enough, but you'd probably be better off with indy shortbows. Arbalests are good for heavy sacreds or some thugs.

F9W9 jags or eagles will slaughter your heavies with multiple armor piercing attacks. And you won't massively outnumber them because you're resource limited.