Leveraging Magic Bows

[Jarkko]

Originally Posted by PyroStock

What script, without additional forged items, can keep a non-mage commander with a bow from attempting to melee when they run out of ammo? Even if I script "Firex5 + Stay Behind Troops" they still attempt to melee (and don't stay behind troops) when ammo=0. I would rather not add in a "Retreat" to the script either. I thought I found a solution/script awhile back, but I believe I forgot it.

Give him a personal guard (with the order Guard), and the commander will dance with him without marching forwards. Of course, squads with one member can rout just like that, so make the bodyguard five men strong, and the commander will stay back with them

[Fantomen]

With CBM EA agartha you can effectively use the Ancient lords with 2 fire bolas and boots of giant strenght. The bolas dont just have range=strenght but also do strenght based damage.

My tactic is to put like 4 Ancient lords on the front line set to fire closest. The other sacreds are divided in 4 groups set to guard each commander. Placed so they all form a single front line.

Each lord will fire 4 bolas each turn (4X4=16) with a range and damage of 24 and 10 precicion(bolas are +3 prec). First rounds this will break up the enemy formations when the imprisoned units fall behind and when melee starts the fire bonds will allow your sacreds to hit even with their low attack score. (since it lowers defence to 2) At this point your lords are firing straight into the fray at point blank range and will rarely miss.

In practice it will be more like 28 damage and range since you will have an oracle casting strenght of giants. And those lords rack up experience fast so you´ll be looking at 12+ prec.

Add darkness and fire ward + magma children to that and you have something interesting.

[chrispedersen]

But the same thing can be accomplished a great deal easier with prison of fire.

[vfb]

It sounds like a cool plan to me. I'm not sure if the boots and the spell stack though.

[Fantomen]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

But the same thing can be accomplished a great deal easier with prison of fire.

Thats not comparable, the lord fire indefinitely and don´t get fatigeued. Prison of fire is thau 3 and requires a f2 oracle casting phoenix pyre. How many capital turns do you want to spend 350 gold just for that role instead of getting a death mage? How many oracles can you spare for each army? Plus the spell dont do 24 damage either. And the oracle will tire quickly and cast something else after your script runs out.

The lords cost 60 gold each, practically nothing. And then 9 gems(you´ll have lots of hammers with Agartha) You can easily mass them into a VERY capable artillery line before the end of year two.

I found out it´s better to put the troops on hold attack orders since the lord stops firing when bodyguars are in melee for some stupid reason, other than that it works great.

@vfb: No it seems they don´t stack unfortunately, but that´s no biggie. They DO stack with girdles of might though bringing range and damage up to 27.

Another thing is that these lords are still badass in melee if they get flanked since they keep their battle axe (now hitting for (31 or 35 damage) and probably have a earth/nature bless.

[sum1lost]

I have successfully used bows and had bows used against me in a few games. One handful of piercer-wielding commanders killed a SC surprisingly quickly, and I've used black bows and vision's foes to cripple opposing SCs myself in the same game.

[AreaOfEffect]

Awaken Sleeper is your best bet for a summoned archer. They have 15 precision right out of the box and are very survivable. The only thing a bane has over them is that they do better while under the effects of darkness.

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by AreaOfEffect

Awaken Sleeper is your best bet for a summoned archer. They have 15 precision right out of the box and are very survivable. The only thing a bane has over them is that they do better while under the effects of darkness.

...and, of course, ya know, well, they cost less...

Sleepers also have a large standard effect, which can be helpful if standing in a block of normal archers of puny morale. Though that's semi-OT for the present purpose.

Assassins, w/precision 13, can also make decent snipers (inside or outside of assassination attempts.)

[AreaOfEffect]

Your talking about a cost difference of 2 gems (4 in CBM). Yet I like the sleeper cause it saves me more on death gems, which are used to make many of the better bows (Vision's Foe, Banefire Crossbow, and Black Bow of Botulf). Not to mention that death gems are also used towards some of the best summons, remote spells, and construction items in the game.

[Executor]

Don't know if this was mentioned at all, but the bows are best used on scouts from my experience.
Especially if you get several of them with bows of war, you get a really big archer army that is completely unexpected.