Crossbow tactics

[homefry]

What are some good crossbow tactics for a defending enemy?

I find that they only get 3 good volleys before the enemy is upon them. Once that happens, your infantry has to engage.

What do you do with your crossbows at this point?

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And what do you do as the attacker? (assume the enemy has more missile units)

An exchange will decimate your crossbows, but cause big casualties on the enemy.

Do you engage with infantry and then have crossbows fire overhead?

[Lord Gothmog]

Each situation must be evaluated, but my main tactics are as follows.

Attacking:

When I have missile supiriority: I move up my crossbow men first and have them all target a single unit, or if I have many crossbow men I may have several of my units target one enemy unit and others target another enemy unit at the same time. With two or more of my units targeting one of theirs I will quickly decimate it and move onto another enemy unit. I generally target their archers first and then their heavy infantry or elite units of calvary. If their missile troops are dumb enough to move forward away from their supporting infantry I may charge them with my calvary, and then withdraw the calvary quickly.

When I the enemy have missile superiority: I charge my infantry into their front lines as quickly as possible to engage and then move my crossbow men up within range to shoot over their heads. This is when I use my calvary to sweep around and take out their crossbows. This type of fighting is hard to explain because you have to remain very flexible with your troops and move your troops in quickly to exploit any opening.

Note: If the enemy has few calvary I will try and wear down their crossbow men with my calvary, but be careful because if they have enough crossbows you can lose your calvary during a charge. It is still worth losing a few horsemen with a charge that hits the missile troops solidly as the enemy unit will take heavy casualties and may instantly route. If you quickly charge in and out with your calvary you can normally get in a good charge and get out again with just a few losses.

[Old_Scratch]

Well, there's a few things you can do with crossbowmen after the melee starts. Shooting from behind is obviously not very effective, but you could run them to the flanks where they could find some targets, but this is dangerous if they have a lot of cav running around. Usually for me it comes down to two things. If I'm using peasant crossbowmen I'll set them to skirmish and put them far behind my line. Far back there they can shoot directly at some targets, but really they're bait. If the enemy cavalry decides to try to run off my cheap crossbows I let him. Let him chase them all over the map while my cavalry are actively engaged in the battle.

If I have pavise crossbowmen, I'll keep them close to my main formation (not in skirmish) and use them as reserve melee troops. They are ok at hand to hand and have almost the same stats as armored sergeants, so they are perfect for filling gaps or strengthening the flanks. It's too bad that they can't take their shield off and use it in the front though.

[masterbaker]

I line up crossbows in front of the infantry line, and when the enemy gets near and they've just finished a volley I draw them back and charge my infantry forward. Then they can engage any units behind the front line, or at least do their crappy loop shots because the sound is cool.

[Strom]

Try to stand at the top of a large hill far away from the enemy spawn points (works best if the enemy attacks with multiple stacks from the same direction so most of the units have to walk an extra long way) so the enemy is exhausted by the time that they reach the top. With a large crossbow/infantry army (Sicilian if it matters) I've seen enemy armies become disordered and repeatedly rout as they reach the crossbow line (not in skirmish mode.) The lead units rout down the hill, reform and charge up only to rout again and again until finally the whole lot routs. The only disadvantage to this is that when the enemy finally breaks some of the units will be quite far away and difficult to capture with cavalry before they escape.

The mountain pass north of Milan is a good place for this, but make sure that you're higher in the pass than your enemy, and one of the pass squares is bugged so you can't fight there.