Crossbow, guide for newbies and basic tactics

[John Doe]

Crossbow are part of the missile infantry, and is primary use is to kill your enemy from a distance. Only the missile function of the crossbow will be discussed here. A lot of the following MAY apply to archers with a regular bow and arrows: I don’t have much experience with those, only using them at the beginning of the game against low quality enemy.
They do have 2 ways of shooting: the good and the bad way:

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Either you have a clear path to the target or trajectory 1 will be happen (that is the most lethal, the arrow going at maximum velocity makes it highly efficient), or the path is obstructed (buildings, your own troops, walls, etc...) and then it will be 2.

A common mistake: do not position the crossbow on top of a hill; it’s a bad place to be!!!

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The steeper the hill the bigger the mistake, if it’s a mountain you might not kill a single enemy. On the other hands, you could protect your own troops by placing them properly. Always make sure the crossbow can actually see the enemy. Be careful with the battlefield’s topography, a ripple can make entire units useless, or it can provide effective shelter.

From now on, I will only consider trajectory 1, and it will approximated to be a straight line for simplicity

Shooting from the walls

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Always put your crossbow in a single line, Aim at a target that is neither too close to the wall, nor too much on the right or left did (I guess 45 ° on the drawing, do I really know...). The sections of wall either side of the gate are the best place to post them for conventional defence, but other sections will do as long as you have a clear view and fire within the angles (Keep in mind that troops move during the battle, and will in general place themselves in line behind the ram).
From a wall, a crossbow can’t shoot effectively with a small angle (close to wall), so on a big wall it will have a smaller area of maximum effectiveness. If you have ever noticed, crossbows on the outer wall of a citadel are more effective than on the inner walls, it is because the later are sur-elevated and because of buildings, the enemy has to walk close to it.
This means 2 things: defend and choose your target carefully, attack and first send you expendable unit with ladder/ram so the enemy crossbow lock on it, then get the rest of your troops against the wall for protection, in the dead angles (unless they got unit like the Spanish javelin to defend).

Shooting at the enemy on your wall

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You can do that from another portion wall (the one with a clear view are at a right angle), or from the ground

Shooting from another portion of the wall is best. Do not shoot from the right portion of this wall as the wall merlons will protect the enemy from fire.
The drawing on the right shows:
Since wall piercing arrows didn’t exist, shooting on high wall from the ground should be made from a distance.
Even from a distance (huge wall), the angle to reach the target is very small, making it far less efficient, and you may struggle to find a place without building in the way.
When the target is on smaller walls, you can put crossbow units behind each other, shooting upward prevent friendly fire on the unit in front.
Most time AI will wait for the full unit to be on the wall before they make a move, you’ll kill them as fast as they climb and cause them serious morale drops (always post some melee infantry at the base of the tower). The best strategy is to get your cavalry to force the enemy to drop all but one of their siege equipment, only leaving whichever will go at the best location for you.

The defensive V formation

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When you are short of space to deploy your crossbow, the V formation is the best way to spread 2 units of crossbow.

Every single member of the unit has a clear view of the target, without impeding the view of the one behind him, so every arrow will count. You could do it in the 2 ways shown, but I would recommend using the one on the right (just trust me on this, too long to explain).
Also in open battlefield, it may take less time to (re)position crossbow unit in V rather than in line (less distance to run, but conditions apply)

And here is what I think to be the best use of crossbow in defensive formation at bottlenecks. And yes, there are better defensive formations that do not use crossbow at all (just to pre-empt any arguments).
The underlying idea is to fix the enemy with your strongest defensive melee infantry while shooting at them from the flanks.

Defending bridge version1 (enemy have lots of artillery)

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In M2TW, most artillery lacks accuracy, more so at long range. That’s why it’s wiser to use this setup, so better put your troops as far as possible, but still keeping the end of the bridge within your crossbow range. An enemy trebuchet direct hit could unbalance version 2.

Defending the gate and defending the Bridge version2

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Very important things about those 2 formations:
The enemy will always charge all Cavalry and melee infantry at once, going straight to your crossbow, unless they start to engage your melee infantry first. That is why I draw your attention to the “gap”: too big and they will pass through, too small and the crossbow will have a too small a target. You might also have noticed that red X, it doesn’t mark a buried treasure, that’s where you would place a unit leftover (optional, about 10 men max). As the first enemy unit is the hardest to fix, it will help by spreading around it, making them start the fight with your full units on the side. Subsequent enemy units will be very likely to follow in the fight.
If you have huge units, V is not possible in city streets, just one unit spread in diagonal will do.
If you don’t have a lot of crossbow units, it’s better to shoot from different directions (gate, for bridge it allows you a smaller "gap" but you are still better off with at least 4 units).
Your melee units that will fix the enemy must not move during the fight, so put them in guard mod and in a block (not in a long line, they would be drawn into the fight and place themself between the enemy and the crossbow).
Switch off skirmish and fire at will on your crossbow. Skirmish because they must keep formation, and fire at will because it is more efficient to have a time gap between units firing. It takes about 15 seconds for a crossbow to reload, so I would give a 2.5 second gap between the 6 units in the drawings (bridge, for the gate, you can fire from different direction at the same time, just not from the same V). Just switch on some unit’s fire at will as soon as the door breaks so the loading time will allow the enemy to have entered. For bridges, set fire at will as they get into range, do not give attack commands (both case keep checking often if they are firing in the melee).
In a gate battle, get your cavalry out by the side doors, and when only enemy missile infantry are left, charge!!
For greater and more proficiant slaughter, you could also place ballista (behind crossbow) on flaming arrows and fire at will and serpentines (where two V joins). I never used the flamethrower unit, but there might be some potential here.

Defending the square

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It’s the twin brother of defending the bridge (version2)
The difference with the bridge is the way the enemy will come: cavalry will be first, then their infantry arrives, but with huge gap between each units, so it’s real easy to concentrate all missiles on one at a time (just be carefull what they are shooting at and to maintain formation). So after defeating the cavalry, shelter your infantry from enemy missile, but keep them ready to intervene.
When the enemy do have a spy and opens your door, defending the square does make a lot of sense, it's hard to defend three separate front line (for cities, I may use different startegies with fortress and citadel). Then crossbow should be located as to cover the streets coming from the right and left door as well.

The special Mongol formation for defending the square

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Mongols are different than other factions, they will attack you from 3 directions: the main one from the open gate with all their missiles and some cavalry, and from both side with cavalry only. Put all of your units inside the flagged square to prevent any routing. Notice how each crossbow can shoot towards the main attack, they still provide effective cover to the sides. I prefer them to focus on the side first, reduce the enemy in the “weaker” side of the battlefield, then switching fire to the main assault direction, leaving melee infantry to finish the last remnant. I know it looks like a lot of upkeep on troops, but you have to be ready for the Mongols. It might not win you the battle, but that's causes them huge losses.

Open Battlefield

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There’s so much to say here, and it all depends on the ground topography, the other unit you have and what the enemy comes with and from what direction, I let you discover it by yourself. Cavalry and infantry win those battles, but crossbow provide a huge support.

One last thing

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You do not take prisoner by sticking an arrow through your opponent’s chest. So if you play by keeping a good reputation, there will be fewer prisoners to free for higher chivalry. The same advice goes if you lose the battles; I just hate to give back a full star enemy generals.

[SoulBlade]

Wow, great guide, I very much liked the V tactics.
+Rep =]

[fimiki]

Wow! I'll echo SouldBlade here - the V tactics are innovative and clearly explained. Can't wait to try them out.

Missile infantry is a lot of fun to use, but outside of a few special cases I've always found it challenging to use them as my main killing force. Their use after the enemy closes to melle was always somewhat limited. I've tried leaving gaps between the main line for my archers/crossbowmen to retreat and shoot through but the gaps are either to small for the archers to do any damage or too large to prevent enemy from engaging my missile troops. The V formation will hopefully allow for small gaps to be effective.

While you will find that these tactics are useful for bow-wielding missile units as well, such archers seem to be less sensitive to the line-of-site issues that crossbows experience. Since crossbows derive much of their potency from their accuracy, it makes sense to maximize that aspect through good positioning. Gunpowder infantry are the most vulnerable to line-of-site problems, so I would be interested to see if you have any advice regarding their use.

Thank you for the great guide Zyxos (reducing the sentence separation size would make it even better!).

[John Doe]

Since crossbows derive much of their potency from their accuracy, it makes sense to maximize that aspect through good positioning. Gunpowder infantry are the most vulnerable to line-of-site problems, so I would be interested to see if you have any advice regarding their use.

I don't use gun powder infantry at all, but they share the direct shoot/clear line of fire property: if you don't have it there is no point shooting. What I observed about xbow (on fire at will at least) is each member of the xbow unit will choose to shoot an individual that is in a direct line of fire (in brown). The xbow man on the utter right will not shoot at his counterpart on the utter right (blue). If no direct line is available, he will not shoot unless ordered to. So if the gunpowder unit share that quality, it's ok to use them.


Also you need to consider the loading time between shoots. And what's making them so great in bridge/gate/square defence is that the xbow almost shoots at point blank so high accuracy. But then the gunpowder has a greater impact on morale. Personally I'd rather have something that shoots more often. So in those defencive situations, they are a mean killing machine, just remember to leave a 2/3 secondes gap between units to fire (the deads fall on ground, so the next arrow is not wasted.

Thanks to you both, I'll try to write something about how to use them in open battlefield some day,

[Theseus1234]

Nice guide! +rep!

Now I might use Milan or Venice more

[k/t]

How do you +rep people? All I see is a Report button, and I doubt that's it.

This guide was great.

[death2u4519]

How do you +rep people? All I see is a Report button, and I doubt that's it.

This guide was great.

oh you need to have posted 25 posts, for you it's 10 more buddy

[k/t]

I thought so. I see a green circle with a white cross only for me, haha. The rest of you get Reported .

[eisenkopf]

While this is certainly a good guide, I still find crossbows useless in open battle, whether it's defensive or offensive. I've tried to position them in various ways, but they require too much micromanagement, since the AI is so dumb. Either they retreat too late, and the enemy cavalry slays them, or they are positioned more securely, but start shooting my own troops sooner or later. In either case, they usually get one or two good salvos aimed at the enemy before they are almost useless for the remaining battle. And these two salvos usually are aimed at the most worthless enemy unit, instead of the knights charging them, who they could really hurt with their AP bolts. I rather stick with a few supporting archers, who I don't have to worry about, and concentrate on micromanaging my cavalry ...

[John Doe]

Try them in bridges, gates, or mountain battles. A unit of crossbow can inflict a 30% damage on a DFK unit before it reach the line, and 4 units will decimate a charging heavy cavalry before it reach the line. It's true they have their flaws, and require to hit the "P" key a lot, but I would not do without them. But as I said in the guide, cavalry and melee win the open field battles.

They are really useful against the enemy missile cavalry, and even heavy cavalry (no more than 4 enemy units).

I will edit the guide and add to the open battlefield section. I'll PM you when ready.

[MooseUpNorth]

While I try to preserve _all_ of my troops when I can, I have absolutely no problem with letting the crossbowmen soak up a charge just before my infantry line counter-charges. Pavise Crossbow Militia are easy and cheap to retrain, they don't get chevrons all that quickly, and can only do so much once the lines are in contact. My DFKs and Venetian Infantry perform far better as predator than prey.

[Goofy]

A good basic guide from which I didn't find any factual errors. Great, solid work.

[a4phantom]

Thanks!

[John Doe]

You're welcome. I'm working on the open battlefield formation ATM, I'll PM you when ready.

[hogiewan]

Awesome guide. The V formation is astounding. Iv always used archers as i just though Xbows sucked, the problem being that in open battle, once the enemy engage, they have to retreat, and once they do, the arcing shots do no damage, while archers dont seem to suffer as badly in this regard.

Anywho, the V formation got me to thinking about its usefulness in open battle, and I had a brainwave! Iv been using the V in a custom formation for about a week now and its utterly devastating! I have a couple of replays i think u should see of me using it in action.

1st is of me using it against a typical mixed inf/cav/ranged French army on VH. They manage to flank me twice because a unit of mounted sergeants i routed kept rallying and i didnt see them in the mist! But that was MY fault, and u could safely knock 100 casualties off my total sustained as a result if id just chased them teh forst time!

2nd I thought that as the formation is somewhat immobile, it would suffer badly against Cavalry based armies using flank. I decided then to try it out against a Timurid army on VH with tonnes of Cavalry and also Rocket launcher, Elephant Art and non Art Elephants. I used a slight variation this time to prevent the flank but its the same concept! You have to forgive the Jinnets here, I forgot to give them any morale! imagine I hadn't tho and had managed to rout the Elephants at the offset as i tried to do!

I dunno how to post em but i can mail em or u can tell me how to attach them here!

[John Doe]

I dunno how to post em but i can mail em or u can tell me how to attach them here!

Just click the "add reply button", then you'll see a small paper clip button in the tool bar. Alternatively put them on a file sharing web and post the address. I'd like to see them, coz I'm preparing the open battlefield formation and like to see if you came up with stuff I haven't thought of. Should be ready soon.

Thx for the feedback.

[hogiewan]

Here! (i think)

[John Doe]

Thx for the replays, but some weird stuff happened: a lot of enemy melee infantry and heavy cavalry just stood under fire, then your own xbow don't seems to shoot either. Are you fully patched?
Anyway you are not far from the update of the guide (open battlefield part).
Nice touch those crossbow + pike lines. Also I liked that Vauban star-like formation against the tims.

[hogiewan]

I think the Cav stood still on account of they didnt want to charge the X-bow/pikes and the flanking Cav was being routed so they were a little redundant. That PLUS i think there wasnt enough space for them to engage the pikemen at the front so they waited their turn. The real benefit of this formation is that my x-bows can fire at a decent trajectory while melee is engaged.
X-bows all have auto turned off so theyre being fired manually for best effect, so the not firing is down to me!

[John Doe]

X-bows all have auto turned off so theyre being fired manually for best effect, so the not firing is down to me!

What I do is I turn off the fire at will at the start so that I can pick the best target (cavalry most likely), and after they shoot for the second time (most of the time), I push the stop command directly followed by turning fire at will on. Unlike the AI crossbow, they will automatically switch to the best target after each volley (they don't lock on a specific target). If you order them to shoot at one enemy unit, if it moves behind another of your unit, your xbow won't shoot unless reordered, so you loose valuable firing time.
Another small point on your replay is that you seems to have several unit fire at the same time on the same target, try give them a 2/3 seconds lag, it's slightly more effective.