Best Archers?

[Exarch]

which faction has the best archers?
not mounted archers, i meant, ordinary foot soldierly type dismounted archers.
i'd pick my favourites to be:

1) Norman muslim archers
2) janissary archers
3) byzantine archers
4) Dvor archers

[Pontifex Maximus]

crossbowmen are vastly superior

[big_feef]

Retinue Longbowmen, Scots Guard and Dismounted French Archers (maybe even Sherwood Archers) are in a league by themselves. Their devastating ap attacks, decent to good melee, good armour and excellent range separates them from other archers. Below them, I'd rank Janissary Archers and the Dvors...

[Queen Annes Revenge]

I'd say it's easily Sherwood Archers. Their 2 hitpoints make them not good, but great at melee combat; and as archers they have outstanding range and damage.

[Sher Khan]

Among the AP bowmen, the Scots Guard are the best.

Among non-AP bowmen, Janissaries have the best quality arrows, while the Dvors are probably the best combination of armor and quality arrows.

[N3rull]

Sherwoods are hard to get and mind that their unit is only 80 men, while normal archers dance in 120's.
Well, I must admit I can't give an answer to this particular question, about archers particularly. Bows are simply far weaker than crossbows.
When we stick to infantry missile troopes, Genoese Crossbowmen, french Aventuros simply pown anything else that shoots. After them are Pavise Crossbowmen, which Portugal and Spain and sth else has as well I think.

[Pyrebound]

Arent sherwoods 60man unit on huge scale? Normal scale regular archers have 60 men while sherwoods 30, 90 - 45 on large.

Ehh, arent retinues quite the best archers you can get? They have very high missile attack, ap attribute, faster shooting than crossbows, well armoured, equipped with a large AP hammer..... Ofc sherwoods have high melee too and 2hp but theres 2x more men in retinue unit.

[Kratos]

Retinue longbowmen are awsome.

[HochmeisterAkechi]

I've always had good luck with Prussian Archers... but I have yet to really delve into playing the other factions extensively. I've only gotten into about 80 turns or so on my Teutonic Campaign. I've played a bit as the French, English, and Byzantines on custom battles though. Byzantine Archers seem to be pretty good, but so far my best experience has been with Prussian Archers.

[big_feef]

Retinue Longbowmen are the best archer/crossbow-killing archers you can find. Their shields and good armour (when upgraded of course) means that they can and will kill any other foot archer out there in a ranged duel. In melee, their shields also help them out a lot, and they are better than Scots Guards in melee even with their lower armour and melee attack because they will last longer.

The only other ranged unit that can touch Retinue Longbowmen in effectiveness are Genoese Crossbowmen... but then they lack stake laying. If you play with mods that lower the arc of crossbows (which is actually more realistic), then the crossbowmen on a whole become less effective overall and just own in specific situations (which is also realistic).

[Leonidas The Lion]

I would have to say Sherwood Archers are in close competition with the retinue longbowmen but the janissary arechers are good too.

[Evolution]

Peasant Archers

[Ivo6ata]

The All types Longbowmen depend of the period you play and Dvor Archers (Especially the Horsed )

[NobleNick]

The following are the 19 ROUGHLY top ranked ranged footmen (archers/crossbow) arranged in ROUGHLY decreasing order of effectiveness per unit. Note that 3 of the picks are from non-playable factions. All listings have a range of 160, except as noted. (I included Norse archers only because they were previously mentioned in this thread.) All units have a unit size of 48, except Sherwood archers, which have a unit size of 24.

I ranked the crossbows low for 2 reasons: Their rate of fire is low compared to the archers; and the game maker reflects this lower effectiveness in a lower acquisition cost. The numbers after the unit names are: unit size; cost; upkeep; ranged attack (ap = armor piercing); defense (L = armor upgrade levels, 2HP = 2 hitpoints); and morale.

(Numbers are taken from brandybarrel's 1.2 M2TW FAUST.)

(France) Scots Guard        48  800 175   9(ap) 17(L4)   11
(Russia) Dismounted Dvor    48  770 225  11     15(L23)   9
(English)Retinue Longbows   48  710 150   8(ap) 14(L234)  5  stakes
Dismounted French Archers   48  750 150   8(ap) 14(L34)   9
(Turks) Ottoman Infantry    48  670 150   9     17(L23)   5
Byzantium Guard Archers     48  710 175   9     16(L23)   9
(Timurid) Sabadar Militia   48  780 -0-   9     15(L23)   9
(Turks) Janissary Archers   48  670 150  10     13(L23)   5  stakes
(Mongols) Mongol Infantry   48  580 -0-   9     16(L12)   5
(Milan) Genoese Crossbows   48  610 125  14(ap) 16(L34)   5
(Mercen.) Pavise Crossbow   48  570 180  12(ap) 15(L3)    3
(Milan) Genoese Xbow Mil.   48  570 100  12(ap) 15(L34)   3
(multiple)Pavise Crossbow   48  490 125  12(ap) 14(L23)   3
(mult.) Pavise xbow Militia 48  490 100  12(ap) 14(L23)   3
(Mon/Tim) Dism. Hvy Arch.   48  710 150   9     12(L23)   9
(English) Sherwood Archers  24  510 250  13(ap)  9(2HP)  11
(Venice) Venitian Archers   48  610 150   9     13(L34)   5
(Sicily) Muslim Archers     48  550 125   9     10(L12)   5
(Denmark) Norse Archers     48  480 125   7     16(L12)   5 (range 120)

EDIT: Added Muslim archers, since they were mentioned in thread. Added Venetian archers, since I happened to see them and noticed that they are superior to Muslim archers

[Ambiorix_thijs]

nice work DVORs rule. Go russia

[Razbojnik]

I think Retinue longbows or Janissaries because of their stakes...Byzantine archers are also good.

[cynikai]

scots guard rule, go France. I would rather take the 9 attack + the ap over 11 attack. Archers being able to devastate heavy cav = win. +rep for NobleNick. Thanks for the stats.

[COMIS -3- ΠΑΝΙΩΝΑΡΑ]

I love guard archers becuse of the Byzantine Empire
and i also like the dismounted Dvors

[loquar]

I know they arent the best but I realy do love scotts guards. Weird that they come with france but hey...

[Ambiorix_thijs]

Flame removed, socts have always been allies of the French, they have a mutual hate against England, many of their nobles have family or are familiy of the French nobles and in many wars of Birtisch Royal Succesion the Scots supported the catholique Kings.

Please try not to insult others when making a point. This is a warning.
~Sher Khan