How to use archers?

[calmon]

Stop using archers with your non/less protected sacred works too

Playing Pythium in Dom2 i had some nice Water/Fire/Astral 9 Bless Strategy and the only real problem for my Battle Vestals was archers.

[st.patrik]

Yeah I agree - don't use archers is the solution.

Your Yavanas will tear up the enemy in melee - your main goal should be getting them into melee as soon as you can. Archers aren't going to add much except trouble.


If you still want archers then use them with a different army group: Bandars and archers in one group; Yavanas and Guhyakas in the other.

[Esben Mose Hansen]

A technique I use (but which would be silly in this case) is to have the melee people guard commanders along the front. This is most effective when the arches are the main force and the troops in front are just blockers/guards, meant to keep chargers away from the archers while they do their thing. The advantages are

1. More clear rounds of fire. Often you gain a round or 2 this way.
2. The resulting combat is closer to your archers/mages (and probably further from the enemies), increasing hit chance

Disadvantages are
1. The melee troops are less effective (no charge, e.g)
2. It can go wrong, ending up with meleers and arches in one big mess.

However, as others have mentioned, if you have strong meleers with weak protection, you job should be to avoid missile fire! Staff of storms is a great solution; 1 or 2 small flankcharging hold-and-attack rear are also nice. Avoid having the meelee group too large to maximize the number of your troops in the front, and charge immediately from the very front. Place the priest right in the groups and have them bless first thing, unless you have access to lv 3 priests.

[FAJ]

If they are so fast, start the archers in front of them. If your confident in the speed of these guys, make them start farther back to delay them getting to the enemy. Then the fight will end up closer to you, with less error in archer precision.

[NTJedi]

Sometimes I setup one decoy unit which sits dead center close to the front... and the unit usually has high protection with ugly afflictions.

Then on either bottom center or top center you place your archers. Near them setup some slow melee troops with hold and attack closest. On the other side yet closer to the front setup some strong units with attack rear.

Usually enemy units will move and kill the one solo unit... then move towards the units with attack rear. This gives your archers a less likely chance of hitting your own troops.

A second group of archers may be needed to fire at archers if the province you're attacking also has archers. Different strategies should be used against human opponents.

[PhilD]

Yeah, that works pretty well - and is a good way to get rid of the worst afflicted units. Err, I mean, give them an opportunity to die a heroic death in battle...