my missiles killing men behind my battle line

[ezekiel2517]

this has happened since i began the wide use of missile units back in RTW vanilla, but now it is more annoying than before.

I set up a classic phalanx formation: a wide phalanx line, mobile infantry on the sides, missile units right behind the phalanx and cavalry behind the missiles. When the missiles start firing, some stray arrows or stones hit my men from the back. Putting the line on top of a hill did the trick the best, but not all hills are so tall and instead of helping, sometimes they make it easier for my men to kill each other... putting them even further behind of what i already do would make it impossible for me to target their missiles firing at my phalanx line.

Seeing one my expensive tarentine leukaspides (spelling?) dying from a rock thrown by my rhodians was really painful i conquered Italy, Sicily and Northern-Africa with those men, i can't allow it to happen!

anybody has some way of avoiding this?

[Jamey]

I have a couple of pieces of advice on this:

1. Leave a gap between your missile troops and all other units.
2. Use archers over slingers because they have a higher trajectory. They also tend to have less range and have less ammo, so there's a trade off.
3. Turn off 'fire at will' when needed. For example, if the enemy gets dangerously close to your line. Also, be aware that routing units don't count as engaged in combat with your forces, so 'fire at will' ranged units will shoot into a mixed crowd of your troops and routing enemies.

In general, I find that #1 is sufficient for most cases. I also tend to favor long range archers (Cretans and those described as having 'powerful' or 'recurve' bows) over slingers, even though their range is slightly less (130 rather than 140 yards/meters, I believe). That doesn't mean that I'll reject a good sling unit, though. The extra ammo and range are both very nice at times.

[ezekiel2517]

i'm missing those bactrian archers about now. i'm going to either get rid of the rhodians or put them further behind my archers

[AqD]

this has happened since i began the wide use of missile units back in RTW vanilla, but now it is more annoying than before.

I set up a classic phalanx formation: a wide phalanx line, mobile infantry on the sides, missile units right behind the phalanx and cavalry behind the missiles. When the missiles start firing, some stray arrows or stones hit my men from the back. Putting the line on top of a hill did the trick the best, but not all hills are so tall and instead of helping, sometimes they make it easier for my men to kill each other... putting them even further behind of what i already do would make it impossible for me to target their missiles firing at my phalanx line.

Seeing one my expensive tarentine leukaspides (spelling?) dying from a rock thrown by my rhodians was really painful i conquered Italy, Sicily and Northern-Africa with those men, i can't allow it to happen!

anybody has some way of avoiding this?

That's what I use:

    [Enemy] 


 CC

   AAAAAAAAA
   SSSSSSSSS

A = Archers, fire at will / guard mode / no skirmish
S = Spearmen/Swordsmen/Hoplites, guard mode
C = Heavy Cavalry

- Cavalry is used to block enemy cavalry charge, or drive off skirmishers, or trick enemy units to turn their back to my archers
- Archers retreat behind spearmen if enemy infantry try to pursue them
- If most enemy infantry are engaged, archers would be moved to flanks or enemy rear and shoot them to death.

I always take offensive, so AI wouldn't send all troops to attack at once. If they do, my archers wouldn't be effective at all. Also my archers are heavy ones


To Jamey: the long-range bows in RTR are not very useful. Because RTR has lowered missile speed, arrows at 130 distance would be nearly harmless and it's a waste of ammo to fire them. Also short-range bows and long-range bows in RTR use the same arrow. For long-range bows to be effective and realistic, you'd need to edit descr_projectile_new.txt to create 2nd type of arrows, with higher velocity.
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[ezekiel2517]

That's what I use:

    [Enemy] 


 CC

   AAAAAAAAA
   SSSSSSSSS

A = Archers, fire at will / guard mode / no skirmish
S = Spearmen/Swordsmen/Hoplites, guard mode
C = Heavy Cavalry

- Cavalry is used to block enemy cavalry charge, or drive off skirmishers, or trick enemy units to turn their back to my archers
- Archers retreat behind spearmen if enemy infantry try to pursue them
- If most enemy infantry are engaged, archers would be moved to flanks or enemy rear and shoot them to death.

I always take offensive, so AI wouldn't send all troops to attack at once. If they do, my archers wouldn't be effective at all. Also my archers are heavy ones


To Jamey: the long-range bows in RTR are not very useful. Because RTR has lowered missile speed, arrows at 130 distance would be nearly harmless and it's a waste of ammo to fire them. Also short-range bows and long-range bows in RTR use the same arrow. For long-range bows to be effective and realistic, you'd need to edit descr_projectile_new.txt to create 2nd type of arrows, with higher velocity.

i did the same when i was playing Bactria in PE 1.9. But currently as Epiros, i do not have such good archers so i only have 2 units of cretans and 1 of rhodians, which run out of missiles faster than the Bactrians.

i don't know about the arrows speed but the recurved bow was very powerful to my eyes, 6 units of them would wipe out light infantry in 2 volleys and heavy infantry with 3 (from the back only).

[Jamey]

i did the same when i was playing Bactria in PE 1.9. But currently as Epiros, i do not have such good archers so i only have 2 units of cretans and 1 of rhodians, which run out of missiles faster than the Bactrians.

i don't know about the arrows speed but the recurved bow was very powerful to my eyes, 6 units of them would wipe out light infantry in 2 volleys and heavy infantry with 3 (from the back only).

You're also facing much more armor as Epirus. Rome, Greece, and Macedon all have more armor than average on their troops. Armor and shield (on the front and left sides only) are the only defense against missiles.

[Mikail Mengsk]

As Jamey said, let you archers slightly distant from your main line, and use them to shoot only to non-engaged enemy units.

[ketch]

I have used scorpions and slingers with a fair bit of succses on the flanks of my army sometimes guarding with a light infantry unit right behind them but i agree dont turn on fire at will or you could have a fair bit of friendly fire incidents.

[Jamey]

I have used scorpions and slingers with a fair bit of succses on the flanks of my army sometimes guarding with a light infantry unit right behind them but i agree dont turn on fire at will or you could have a fair bit of friendly fire incidents.

I use Fire at Will often. It's my default setting for ranged units. I just turn it off when most forces are engaged (to prevent shots at routers in crowds). Since I'm playing ExRM, I'm also seeing a lot more enemy missile troops. When that happens, I turn off Fire at Will and target my units individually to wipe out ranged units which my cavalry hasn't gotten to yet.

[Mikail Mengsk]

I use Fire at Will often. It's my default setting for ranged units. I just turn it off when most forces are engaged (to prevent shots at routers in crowds). Since I'm playing ExRM, I'm also seeing a lot more enemy missile troops. When that happens, I turn off Fire at Will and target my units individually to wipe out ranged units which my cavalry hasn't gotten to yet.

i do that too, turning fire at will off when the enemy engages my first line