Crossbows and sieges

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Is there any reason why crossbowmen are so unwilling to fire over the more higher walls in sieges? It makes my crossbowmen near useless as only 1/3rd of the unit fires, and that is the best scenario, often it is only 10 men of the whole unit firing.

[Steward Denethor II]

I have noticed this too, and its quite frustrating. It also makes my siege defenses very costly, I can probably do better in a field battle.

[Sanderlicious]

It has to do with the angle that the crossbows need to fire at, I believe. The game doesn't seem to know how to handle crossbows that need to fire down from a wall.

Alas, just one of many major flaws in the M2TW siege engine!

[k/t]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=447025

[Steward Denethor II]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=447025

Super helpful, thank you!

[DeliCiousTZM]

Crossbows period are very unreliable in the MW2 engine.

[RollingWave]

it's more or less an engine thing, to fix it would either require making crossbows being able to be fired at a very unrealistic arc or redoing all the siege battle maps (and there's proably only a couple dozen folks around on TWC that even KNOWS how to do that. let alone do it well.)

[k/t]

This thread will tell you the best way to use crossbowmen in sieges.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=414982

[Stario]

On wall you should always place crossbow units in a single line. It's also worth noting that the higher the wall the greater the 'dead angle', and this decreases the effectiveness of crossbow units. So the whole tactic here is to keep enemy units out of the 'dead angles' (I usually harras AI with cavalry and HA's to keep them outside dead angles). See pic's below for example of crossbow effective range take from John Doe's crossbow guide:



Crossbow units also work well; placed in \/ formations, defending gate and square:






John Doe's crossbow guide here->http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...crossbow+guide

[Chazz1225]

good damn ján0šík, that hard work clearly deserves a +rep

[Stario]

good damn ján0šík, that hard work clearly deserves a +rep

I do not accept rep . As I said not my work, those pics were taken from John Doe's guide.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Really informative answers here! Thanks everyone!

[Strengelicher]

Also this. Plus the formula for establishing the ratio of crossbow units per stack for achieving heroic victory.

[Paragon]

Also this. Plus the formula for establishing the ratio of crossbow units per stack for achieving heroic victory.

HELP

HE'S THROWING MATH AT US

[╬Ritterbruder╬]

HELP

HE'S THROWING MATH AT US

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Alexanderos]

Meh , I don' really care about crossbows , they die too easily when engaged by heavy knights. I only use them in open field Heavy Infantry FTW !

[Gogolometro]

Alexanderos I have a different opinion. Crossbows are excelent like defensive unit. In fact they shine on walls versus knights. If dismounted feudal knights climb on my walls i prefer to have one unit of pavise crossbow militia than a unit of DFK. With 2 units in far places of a wall I can kill easy 3 heavy armored units.
On open field I preffer spears, horse archers, and heavy cavalry, not crossbows. They are efective only in mountain places easy to be defended on a elevated place. Better than crossbows are javelin units who can run fast, kill from close combat and react faster.

[Chazz1225]

HAHAHAHA

[Macunaíma]

I usually place them on lateral walls, so when the enemy breaks through the gate they can fire directly at him. If you want to use this tactic to kill units on top of walls, you can place a unit of infantry next to a tower, blocking the way to the section of the wall which has your crossbowmen (it needs to be a wall corner), and while the enemy engages your infantry, you slaughter them with arrows. Works pretty well and I've defended settlements when outnumbered with this tactic.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Stario]

This is my bridge tactics.



You can see how effective crossbow are in defensive situations such as when defending a river crossing. In this case I did not even need to activate my cavalry and shock units. The battle was won with x4 spear units (to hold enemy), and x4 crossbow units alone.

edit:

*Note: when using "V" formations the crossbow units don't need to be in long lines as individuals in the same unit don't block each other (I tend to go 4 line deep). Also IMPORTANT to note that the crossbow reloading animation takes about 15seconds. Therefore (with x4 crossbow units), it is important to leave 3.5 seconds gap between each individual crossbow unit- they are much more effective this way & it also allows the dead to fall down before the next crossbow unit fires the next volley; this way you wont be wasting multiple bolts on one enemy soldier, and finally it allows for continuous volley fire as one unit is always firing as the other three are reloading (assuming x4 crossbow units are used here). Mastering this firing system is fundamental to reap maximum benefits from crossbow units.
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