Bow Cavalry overpowered?

[aeoleron9]

Has anyone noticed their insanely high accuracy(60)?

In comparison, the bow hero is only 80 while the regular bow samurai are 40. Even the elite monk archers are only at 50. How the hell do bow cavalry shoot more accurately while mounted than professional archers that are standing firmly on the ground? Not to mention they already have enough of a bonus being cavalry, capable of excellent skirmish and able to flank and charge when they need to.

As an example, one of my bow cavalry killed 400 men in a single battle, that's higher than all other archers combined...

[Slanderbot]

Even though a standing archer will usually have higher accuracy the Japanese Samurai were noted for having extremely accurate bow cavalry, and for a long while (mostly the earlier periods) the pride of a samurai was the skill of their bow on horseback. In some cases they were more accurate while riding than if they were standing. Having had said that, the values in game may have some imbalances but I think it represents the historical aspect, if that counts for anything :p .

From a gaming perspective (multiplayer mind you) every bow cav army I have come across always ends up running out of room to run or ammo to shoot and always get run down in the end.

[Death_Sheep]

See that?

They are hitting a target that, at its smallest, is about the size of a small tea saucer, and at largest a dinner plate, at near a full gallop.

I'm pretty sure they can hit a man sized target accurately at range.

[rob-a-dogg]

Yeah and as you actually play the game you will notice they dont really do that much damage. It is pretty spot on. My bow cav gripes are they are too fast (nothign new, ALL units are too fast) and they are piss weak in melee. Samurai with almost fresh ashugaru melee stats? A professional warrior? Spends his life training for war? They even get minced by light cavalry, they should be ~on par. Bow cav has numbers advantage, light cav has spear advantage.

[uanime5]

Maybe that's why the samurai were also associated with the spear and bow, and only became associated with the sword after the Warring States period ended (17th century).

Also bushido is "the Way of the horse and bow", not "the Way of the sword."

[Lysimachos]

I have to take sides with the OP here. It's not about "they shouldn't be that good with the bow" it's about "why are they better than the Samurai foot archers"? There is no reason why a Samurai would suddenly be a better shot because he mounts a horse or a worse shot because he dismounts.

[Deathstar]

Balance. There are less archers in a unit of bow cav than on foot.