Archers and decoys in MP - questions to experienced players

[Corwin]

Hi guys,

I've been away from Dom3 for a long time, so my memory of it is a bit rusty. Please help me to refresh in when it comes to using archers and decoys. I have several questions on this subject. Please only answer them if you are reasonably sure if you are right - there seem to be a lot of confusion about it, based upon my brief inquiry in dominions IRC and getting conflicting answers there. The questions are roughly ordered from the simplest to the more complicated ones.

(Note that all these situations are related to MP games when your opponent is using decoy targets against your archers)


1. When set to "fire at *target type*" (say cavalry), will your units fire at the closest available cavalry unit? What if there are no cavalry in range - will they instantly lock onto the closest one (decoy) even if it is outside their range, or will they advance forward for several turns until they will be within shooting range of *some* cavalry unit (which by that time may or may not be the original decoy unit), and only *after that* would they lock on that target? Or will they choose a random group of cavalry from among those on battlefield? Or, of there are few cavalry groups are already available withing shooting range, will your archers choose the largest/less protected one (maximizing damage, as with spells targeting), or will they always choose closest one? Or is it random as well?


2. Once group of archers chooses the target - will they always keep firing into it until either them or the target are dead/routed? (the "locking" effect)


3. If "target locking" indeed always happens - when does it take place - the moment the battle begins, or the moment *your* first turn in battle begins? (obviously when you are an attacker the later happens after the former, since defender acts/moves first). So the depending on when exactly "target locking" occurs the closest unit (to the attacker) could be different one before and after defender would move.


4. In MP, people use archer decoys of all the time. Sometimes they use decoy on "guard commander" order. This can be very nasty, since if I understand game mechanics correctly, *all* you archers (set at either (where decoy belongs to that type) ) *will* get "locked" on this decoy target. (is it indeed so?) And when the target retreats toward its commander, who stays in the back, all your archers would rush forward, usually right in the middle of the enemy melee troops, where they get promptly massacred.

Is this indeed the case? And if so, how powerful/popular is this tactic (archer decoy on "guard commander" order) in MP games?


5. Assuming number 4 is true, how do you script and position your archers when you have to fight against opponent who uses such "decoy on guard" tactic?


6. IIRC, in the past, when I've dealt with elaborate anti-archers scripting such as those above, I usually set my archers on "fire" without specifying targets. When this happens, how will your archers choose target? Will they fire at random target in range? If so, will they "lock" on it? Does the size/protection of the enemy group matters? Or is it completely random? If it is random - will your archers always chose target in range, or can they choose target outside its range, and rush toward it? Finally what do they do if you gave them this order and there is no target in range - will they advance forward until they will get in range? If so, what would prevent them from locking on target decoy once again - situation I am naturally trying to avoid.

7. If the "fire" order chooses completely random target, then such scripting makes your entire archer force *much* less efficient and very unpredictable. Are there any better counters to the archer decoys in MP, especially - archer decoys that retreat toward the back because of "guard commander" orders?


Sorry for a long post. Any tips, comments and advice is highly appreciated. Thank you!