Why would my archers ignore "Fire Closest" orders?

[SillyRobot]

(If this post is a duplicate, my apologies -- I posted the original a few minutes ago and nothing appeared on the forum).

I'm playing a SP game as Ulm. I was attacking an Independent with around 50 Barbarians. The bulk of my force was Warrior Maidens and a screen of melee mercenaries and Axe Maidens.

The Warrior Maidens were placed toward the back. They had "Fire Closest" scripted -- (confirmed on the survivors). The screen of meleers were placed in front with "Hold and Attack" orders.

The battle was won, but my losses were much higher than expected.

Watching the battle, the Warrior Maidens starting running towards the Barbarians as soon as battle was joined. They passed the melee screen and reached the Barbarians first. Losses were heavy, but the Barbarians' morale broke. As the Barbarians broke and ran, the surviving Maidens remembered their bows and shot at their backs.

What would cause "Fire" orders to be ignored? I checked the FAQ, but the closest I could come is Mages ignoring nonsensical/uncastable spells.

[K]

If archers aren't in range, they will run up until they are in range and then fire.

But, if a particular unit it in melee, it usually won't fire.

If sounds like your fast maiden ran into melee with the fast barbs just trying to get into range.

Shortbows generally want to be in the middle of your battle setup, or a little back from the middle depending on the firing orders. Only longbows can fire from the far back.

[Zylithan]

if they were out of firing range, they might run into firing range before firing closet. your screen didnt run forward because it could hold where it was.

[SillyRobot]

OK, so I took the remnants of the force and threw it against a small force of militia/archers next door.

I repositioned the Warrior Madens in the front half of the battle planning screen and verified the orders were set to "Fire Closest".

The Warrior Maidens again ran forward to the enemy taking a couple of rounds of arrow fire before entering melee.

I guess these particular Maidens decided to give on on archery for some reason. Luckily, I need not worry about much more -- few survived this assault.

[K]

Mmm, weird. Were they beserk or something?

The shortbow range is like half a battle screen. Was the enemy all the way in the back?

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Try hold and attack for the archers. I _think_ they'll fire their weapons.

Oh, is it at all possible that you scripted the _commander_ to fire archers, and not the squad? The orders for the Warrior Maidens should be on the right side.

[SillyRobot]

I thought I may have screwed up the Maidens' orders initally, but the survivors did have "Fire Closest" orders.

"Hold and Attack" will fire bows twice before attacking -- I expected the combat to go more rounds than that and didn't want the Maidens giong toe-to-toe with the Barbarians.