How to use archers?

[Gandalf Parker]

Put the archers off to the sides. They get a clearer shot that way than trying to shoot ovre the head of your troops. (on the placement window that means putting the at the top or bottom of the screen)

Having them target enemy archers can help with really low-precision archers.

If you have many archers, and you are counting on their effect, then have your foot troops "hold and attack". Especially if the enemy is heavily armored.

[Hullu]

I always do hold and attack if I use archers, it hardly helps in this particular case.

Maybe I'm just trying to fit archers into an army that has no place for them. The problem is the sacred Kailasa EA melees are so damn brittle against projectiles. They're virtually indestructible in melee but they sure know how to die to arrows - friendly or hostile

[dirtywick]

An Air bless will give your sacreds air shield which will reduce how often they get hit, maybe you could try to switch that Nature with Air (access to Air 4 with Kailasa isn't bad either, your pretender could cast Wind Guide and Flame Arrows too so it'd be pretty sweet to bring your pretender along)

Next, take a look at what kind of archers you're using. Markata archers have like no range, so they'll shoot at the closest thing they can. Atavi archers are better, they can reach the rear of the enemy army if you don't set up too far back and they don't set up too far back. Bandar archers have the furthest range, but are pretty expensive.

Take a look at your orders. What are the archers set to? Depending on what that is might be causing your casualties, if they're set to fire closest they'll shoot at whatever it is, even if there's only 1 guy and 100 of your guys. Setting them on just "Fire" with no specific orders tends to make them a little smarter, most of the time they'll switch targets, if there's something in their range, when your forces are in the way.

Also, the Bandar Warriors can soak up arrows pretty well. What you could do is put your sacreds on the flanks set to attack rear and the Bandar Warriors to attack nearest in the center so they'll take most of the arrow fire. Hold and attack on all of them though.

[Hullu]

I can't really use Bandar Warriors in my game tho. Reason being I have something like -50% resources from scales Tailored my pretender for the sacred melees which are easy on resources. As archers I use the atavi ones, 'default' precision and ok range. I usually use 'fire at archers', sometimes it works and I get no casualties, but sometimes enemies don't have archers and them I'm hosed

Anyways, that flanking thing might work pretty well, got to try it. Especially if I need huge armies. Bandars _mixed_ with sacreds in the center (mixed to get the extra damage punch in from sacreds, and less arrow-targets since 2/3 of targets are still bandars), and the main bulk of sacreds on the flanks attacking rear - got to try that... using them like cavalry might work after all

[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.