Crossbow Ammo and Range

[Oafe101]

I always noticed that whenever I play with crossbowmen (be it with Rhun, Dwarves, or Isengaurd) they always seem to run out of bolts to shoot rather quickly. They also don't seem to have the range of regular bows. So looking at the stats in Royal Military Academy, I saw that they only have 15 shots compared to 30 or 35 for other bowmen, and their range is only 150 compared to 150 for the basic milita-grade bowmen. I was of the opinion that crossbows had great range, even outranging some regular bows. Gets frusterating when they take so long to shoot (for one), are outranged by almost everyone else (for two) and then they run out of ammo while elves or whatnot are still raining down arrows upon me. Should it maybe be changed? Or is this just the auto for the game engine and no one else gives a hoot but me?
Thanks, and thanks for a great mod.
-Oafe

[FriendoftheDork]

I always noticed that whenever I play with crossbowmen (be it with Rhun, Dwarves, or Isengaurd) they always seem to run out of bolts to shoot rather quickly. They also don't seem to have the range of regular bows. So looking at the stats in Royal Military Academy, I saw that they only have 15 shots compared to 30 or 35 for other bowmen, and their range is only 150 compared to 150 for the basic milita-grade bowmen. I was of the opinion that crossbows had great range, even outranging some regular bows. Gets frusterating when they take so long to shoot (for one), are outranged by almost everyone else (for two) and then they run out of ammo while elves or whatnot are still raining down arrows upon me. Should it maybe be changed? Or is this just the auto for the game engine and no one else gives a hoot but me?
Thanks, and thanks for a great mod.
-Oafe

Hmm well if you're right about the details, I'm inclined to agree with you. At least dwarven crossbows should have decent range and at more ammo than half of normal archers.

Of course you can change that yourself. Make sure to make a copy of the correct file before tampering with it (descr_units or something like that). Find the correct crossbowmen, increase range a bit, and ammo and test that it works. If it doesen't, delete the new file and rename the copy to the original name.

[Ivan Bajlo]

Dwarves definitely need better crossbows and more of them especially at the start, as Rhun I was able to wipe them out form eastern half of the map with minimal losses, in auto-resolve they can easily wipe out cavalry archers but human player which retreats after they run out of arrows can wipe out entire stacks without losing single soldier, maybe there should be some Dale archer mercenaries?

[Plumo]

Facts about a crossbow:

POSITIVE:
Very powerful shot
Requires no training to be fired

NEGATIVE:
takes longer to reload than a bow
Smaller range

[Oafe101]

I'm not so sure about the range. I understand about the reload time (English longbowmen could easily fire 3-5 times for every crossbow shot). Early crossbows definitely had shorter range, but as time progressed, they could even outdistance the longbow, though their accuracy left something to be desired at very long distance. In the Third Age, I would assume that the crossbows used were pretty high-end stuff. I'm not saying they could outdistance, say, the bows of the Galadhrim, but they would probably outdistance many (again, not all) of the bows used in middle earth.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Hmmm... some actually run out of bolts?? I wish I was one of those. I never have any time for the bowman, The opposition always closes to mêlée too quickly to effectively
use them...

[Plumo]

You could argue that the dwarves are a 'melee' civilization and have no access or need for advanced archery.

[carth]

still they need the better crossbows. because else they would really ... you know. i really like the dwarves but i just cant stand the fact they dont have caverly..

[Muffer Nl]

Crossbows have a shorter range then archers have due to the shape of the bolt they use. It is very heavy at the tip which gives it great penetration strength but also makes the bolt fall a lot sooner then an arrow did over the same range. I do believe however that it would be easier to carry a lot of bolts then arrows as they are smaller.