Archers versus Xbows

**General Tony** · December 30, 2008, 07:52 PM

So ive noticed that most of the factions I like dont have any archers other then pesant archers. Then they only have xbows. This majorly annoys me as I am a fan of archery and therefore archers too. I have also never liked xbows that much.

So can anyone recomened factions that have archers and are fun to play? Or tell me about xbows and why you like them?

**Don in the North** · December 30, 2008, 07:59 PM

england in my opinion has the best choices for archery, they have about 5 different ones as well as xbows. i myself prefer xbows because of the armor peircing attributes, but the longbows of england are quite deadly combined with their range. archers seem to have less ammunition but definatly have higher firing rates which could account for that disreptancy, so i go with xbows for the durability as i rather enjoy locking the enemy in place then flanking with ranged weapons, on the side (provided ive dealt with cavalry) a few of my front line will die to these volleys, however all but the most hardened of enemy units will rout, conceding the battle to me.
id do this with archers but often, at least for me, they are out of ammunition by the time my flanking maneuvre is safe to perform. plus, their spread seems to be more larger than xbows, and that puts my front line at greater risk of dieing.

**Owain Glyndŵr** · December 30, 2008, 08:03 PM

If you're a fan of archery in general, maybe you'd be impressed by horse archers? If I use HA's I prefer to be using them with a Western faction like Hungary.

As for foot archers, I agree; English longbows will give just about any other ranged unit a run for their money. I'll continue to use them even in the late era even after handheld weaponry has been introduced. If the enemy has longer-ranged gunners like Musketeers, you'll need to counter with fast cavalry(such as Demi Lancers) or artillery.

**General Tony** · December 30, 2008, 08:09 PM

Guess I should have added "besides england" lol...but yes I do think HA are pretty impressive. Ive always figured its gota be somewhat difficult to handle a sword or spear on a horse but useing a bow on a horse, wow thats gota take some training. Im thinkin of trying Russia, HA and a strong foot archer unit.

**StalkAndStrike** · December 30, 2008, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by General Tony

Guess I should have added "besides england" lol...but yes I do think HA are pretty impressive. Ive always figured its gota be somewhat difficult to handle a sword or spear on a horse but useing a bow on a horse, wow thats gota take some training. Im thinkin of trying Russia, HA and a strong foot archer unit.

If its soley horse archery you want to try out, Russian, Turks, or Hungary would be your best best, also I would again reccomend Turks since they have a huge array of foot-archers, such as ottoman infantry, who have the range of longbows but are very competent melee fighters as well, also they have Jannissary archers who can implant stakes, and have the same range as their english counter-parts

....

**Tricky557** · December 30, 2008, 08:28 PM

The turks would probly be your best bet, though I can't say for sure. I've never actually played them for very long.

**Double A** · December 31, 2008, 12:39 AM

Venice has good archers (Venitian Archers) as well as excellent xbows! Plus they get lots of good gunpowder units late game.

And let's not forget the Italian Spear Militias...

**Geordie-warlord** · December 31, 2008, 03:53 AM

longbows on the walls during a siege and they can loft the arrows in to the rear of the attacking army and kill there heavy cav when there sitting in a nice line for you..lol
the later yeoman and retiune are good in hand to hand so can hold there own on the wall if any pesky ladders turn up.
xbows on the other hand are not to good yeah sure they have there moments and come in handy against heavy armour but only if you can get them into a good position

**Göteborgare** · December 31, 2008, 11:04 AM

France and Scotland have Scottish Guard, i like them.
And Ireland has some with a name i cant remember, liked them too.

**Raggajam** · December 31, 2008, 11:33 AM

Scottish Noble Archers are half decent in melee. Byzantine Trebizond archers have a longer range than most archers iirc. And they got some tasty horse archers as well.

**Old_Scratch** · December 31, 2008, 11:47 AM

Crossbows are armor piercing and powerful. Also, their bolts have a flatter trajectory causing them to more easily hit smaller formations. Pavise crossbowmen are fairly cheap and are pretty much the most powerful foot missile unit until muskets.

For archery factions, my favorite would be the Byzantine Empire. Their Trebizond archers are good, long range and cheap, and the guard archers are good in melee too. They get a good selection of horse archers too.

**Tricky557** · December 31, 2008, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by Old_Scratch

Crossbows are armor piercing and powerful. Also, their bolts have a flatter trajectory causing them to more easily hit smaller formations. Pavise crossbowmen are fairly cheap and are pretty much the most powerful foot missile unit until muskets.

For archery factions, my favorite would be the Byzantine Empire. Their Trebizond archers are good, long range and cheap, and the guard archers are good in melee too. They get a good selection of horse archers too.

Yeah but with the byzantines you don't get any gunpowder units. You'll reliant on mercs.

**Surgeon** · December 31, 2008, 04:57 PM

Factions with good archers:
Byzantine Empire - good long-range foot archers and excellent HAs.
England - long-range and armor-piercing longbows.
Egypt - some long-range archer units and decent HAs, but nothing really exceptional.
France - powerful longbowmen and HAs with an armor-piercing bonus! Both are fairly late-game.
Hungary - decent HAs. Foot archers are kind of lacking.
Russia - some of the most powerful non-AP archers and awesome HAs.
Venice - pretty good long-range archers with good melee skills to boot.
Turks - good long-range archers who can set stakes (Janissaries). Also good HAs.

Um... can't think of anything else...

**Double A** · December 31, 2008, 05:01 PM

Mongols...

**Surgeon** · December 31, 2008, 05:08 PM

Yeah, but they're unplayable.

**Double A** · December 31, 2008, 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by Surgeon

Yeah, but they're unplayable.

In the Grand Campaign. In Kingdoms, in Teutonic or Crusades you can hotseat jump to them.

And there's always custom battles.

**O'Hea** · January 01, 2009, 02:04 AM

I find that I don't really use archers unless they're decent hand-to-hand, since they tend to chew threw their ammo pretty quickly and their area-effect fire ups the odds of friendly fire once the lines hit. Crossbows are more precise and have a little more staying power, so I usually have them focus their fire on one particular enemy (the general's unit is a favorite).

**Pfundner** · January 01, 2009, 09:21 AM

crossbows get on my nerves, they need a lot more micro management than archers and are not half as effective once the front lines have engaged, because of their flat trajectory you cant put them behind your own troops unlike archers who can fire over them

**Captain Crimson** · January 01, 2009, 09:57 AM

Right, crossbows are better in the field, like muskets, as 60 crossbow bolts is really, really effective against everything really... but you need them really stretched out to be effective, so their use requires a lot of battlefield control. but archers are better in a siege as the crenelations don't get in the way. Plus flaming arrows are great if you set the foe's only ram on fire.

BTW, I play darthmod, so I'm not sure in normal ME2.

**Yojimbo** · January 01, 2009, 12:12 PM

Xbows are very good because they pierce armor and they are common as mercs and easily trained in both cities and castles. they also come in the pavise version to protect them further from misses unlike archers.Crossbows can kill anything including knights and heavily armored troops, archers mostly waste arrows on heavy troops, making Xbows more versatile. And lets not forget Genoese Crossbow Millita one of the most annoying early game units.