Pila vs Arrow damage

**Philip_II** · August 14, 2009, 07:52 PM

So I was just wondering how they are going to be distanced in RS2. IMO, I would think that arrows of antiquity would be extremely nerfed on most nations minus the few that specialized in them (most Eastern troops being included in that area along with mercs like Cretans or the like). To me, it was pila that dominated war in the west, not archers in the least.

An isolated incident, but I feel it proves my point. I recruited one unit of Sarmatian Horse Archers to beef one of my Macedonian troops that only had two or three archer units to supplement my usual build of 8 Royal Pikes and four Companions and two-three generals (I do this to leave room for a specialty unit like a quality merc or artillery). In one battle in particular, I had the HA run around and shoot whomever they liked, not really microing them well because I was fighting 1700 against two full stacks. By the end of the battle, the HAs had 304 kills with 0 deaths (I should have gotten a screen for it). That's just not right. I mean, yeah they won't take any damage because I was fighting mostly infantry with some pelts and limited missile cav. But c'mon, that's like a death every other arrow that was fired. Not true for any real archer unit minus maybe the crack troops from Scythia or maybe the Cretans.

Anyway, I'm just curious how the pila will be buffed so as to be used more viably outside of the Roman legions or players simply trying to be historically accurate. Thanks for the read, y'all.

Philip II

**chaplain118** · August 14, 2009, 08:40 PM

Well you hit the nail right on the head with your merc:

Sarmatian horse archer. They were historically very good archers that had a long tradition of horse archery. But aside from that, there's the fact that if you position the HA behind an enemy unit, they tend to have greater damage, which is what I suspect happened. In my opinion, the arrow damage is fairly balanced. I had instances where an entire horse archer army couldn't decimate a macedonian phalanx because I just sat there and peppered them with arrows rather than flank them. Taking arrows to the front usually prevents damage to a certain degree, especially armoured units.

But 304 kills? Were you playing on huge? Because if that's the case, then it really isn't much for a 212 company of horse archers.

**Philip_II** · August 15, 2009, 02:05 AM

Well, actually it was on normal settings so it was about two and a half units total taken out by HAs. Once again, I'm not complaining, I did a great job IMO of swinging my lines to face the second army after phalanx rushing the first stack and hammer/anviling with companions. But to me I can't see a group of HAs doing that much damage. Part of it may have been them hawking kills on the skirmishers which makes sense now that I think about it. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be covered in RS2, can't wait!

**torzsoktamas** · August 15, 2009, 02:25 AM

Originally Posted by Philip_II

Well, actually it was on normal settings so it was about two and a half units total taken out by HAs. Once again, I'm not complaining, I did a great job IMO of swinging my lines to face the second army after phalanx rushing the first stack and hammer/anviling with companions. But to me I can't see a group of HAs doing that much damage. Part of it may have been them hawking kills on the skirmishers which makes sense now that I think about it. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be covered in RS2, can't wait!

Relax,because in RS2.0 everithyng will be fine.I tested Sarmatia, and if you make a horsearcher army with no or almost no heavy cavalry, its very hard to fight against an infantry army.

**Legionary Titus Pullo** · August 15, 2009, 05:08 AM

Just dont let them get onto your flanks Form up units facing the rear of your formation, that way you can minimze their damage

**mattfriend0** · August 17, 2009, 02:21 PM

with a full stack of HA i can defeat all infantry all you need to do is fire at them at all angles and they will die and the only way you lose men is by there archers or petlsts