The Fabled Parthian Shot

[Vectis]

I recently statrted playing a campaign as the Parthian Faction, as I am a fan of horse archers and from reading history books of the time knew that the Parthian horse archers decimated the Roman army by using their fabled Parthain Shot, which they could fire while riding away. It was fabled for it could easily pierce the armour of the Roman soldiers.

Is there any reason, therefore, that the Parthian horse archer has not been given armour piercing capabilities, as this was surely their greatest strength?

[Jamey]

I recently statrted playing a campaign as the Parthian Faction, as I am a fan of horse archers and from reading history books of the time knew that the Parthian horse archers decimated the Roman army by using their fabled Parthain Shot, which they could fire while riding away. It was fabled for it could easily pierce the armour of the Roman soldiers.

Is there any reason, therefore, that the Parthian horse archer has not been given armour piercing capabilities, as this was surely their greatest strength?

My expectation is that the reason is game balance. Armor and shield are literally the only defense against ranged attacks. If you give the Parthians AP arrows, they become dramatically more effective, especially with left flank and rear shots (where the shield doesn't matter). Then you have to balance armor values based on both AP and non-AP missile attacks across the whole game. Doing so adds a whole new level of complexity to what is already a non-trivial problem.

This has been discussed before, and people have tried the change. Someone who remembers where the thread is can probably point you to it; it will let you know how they liked the change. Basically, you just need to add the "ap" attribute to the "stat_pri_attr" line in the EDU file (no quotes should be used in the EDU file) for the units you want to have armor piercing (I'm guessing "parthian horse archer" and maybe also your cataphracts - "east heavy cataphract", a unit also used by Armenia).

[fourganger]

I gave my Parthian Horse Archers ap. Made the Carrhae battle a hell of a lot hard. I won, but with about 5 men remaining.

[AqD]

I recently statrted playing a campaign as the Parthian Faction, as I am a fan of horse archers and from reading history books of the time knew that the Parthian horse archers decimated the Roman army by using their fabled Parthain Shot, which they could fire while riding away. It was fabled for it could easily pierce the armour of the Roman soldiers.

Is there any reason, therefore, that the Parthian horse archer has not been given armour piercing capabilities, as this was surely their greatest strength?

It's fabled so the legionaries probably didn't have time to raise their shields in order to block arrow. But there is no shield-piercing ability in RTW, and it solely depends on how enemy reacts.

Armour-piercing is okay against mail but not bronze breastplate or scale armour I believe. It should be better if you just lower the armour value of mails (move to defense skills).

PS: all nomadic horse archers are trained to do parthian shot and other complex maneuvers since their childhood - it's not really "parthian"
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Laguna Bay II Condominium

[Jamey]

Armour-piercing is okay against mail but not bronze breastplate or scale armour I believe. It should be better if you just lower the armour value of mails (move to defense skills).

That's going to effect rear attacks on units, which only take into account armor. It's also going to effect balance on melee AP units, which will lose ground (especially against the Roman units). I wouldn't make major changes to armor values to help missile attacks without evaluating the other ramifications.