archers

**pluhotronik** · November 02, 2012, 12:31 PM

hi. i want to make my archers all fire at the same time. to make them shoot in volleys with minimal time difference between each individual archer firing. currently they don't fire in unison. can anyone tell me if it is possible and how i can do it.

**alexsanchez508** · November 02, 2012, 02:33 PM

Play Shogun 2

**lgoodin101** · November 02, 2012, 09:01 PM

you can't really as different units will come into range at different times and will only be in range of a few archer units. and if you want max effectiveness you'll want 6 archers so their fire will be concentrated otherwise I wouldn't bother with archers. if your playing as the english you'll have a great time mucking around with longbowmen etc cos of their range but any other archers usually have alot shorter range so they are usually a waste of money. as they can only fire a few volleys before the melee happens.

**qounqer** · November 02, 2012, 09:25 PM

you're so demanding of these archers man, i mean they do all this stuff for you and you want them to do it synchronised now?

**PrestigeX** · November 03, 2012, 01:59 AM

If you micro-manage them, they are very effective.

Try taking them off "fire at will" and specifically order them to fire, you may see better results - it sort of depends on the situation, but generally if you had 4 archer units on 'fire at will' they'll shoot at the front-rank enemy, which might be loose-formation skirmishers / archers... you want your men dropping arrows into the bulk of the infantry most likely so that is why I recommend "off F.A.W.".

Secondly, you will have to move the archers around quite a bit and reform them so that they are in good position to hit the targets. From a zoomed Out view it may seem like no trouble, but if you drop in (zoom in to their level) you may see that they have some obstruction in the landscape etc...

Once heavy-mail (level 3 armor) starts to become widespread in the armies in campaign, most archers become obsolete and you'll want crossbows / guns. Many of the archer-units in the game are able to fight melee so don't overlook that ability!! (ie. norse archers, highland archers - noble highland archers, dismounted Dvor, even Nubian archers or armenian archer mercs aren't bad as light-infantry)

**pluhotronik** · November 03, 2012, 04:03 AM

thank you all for the replies, but i don't think they actually help. i am more interested if there is a way to make archers fire at the same time by editing some files in the game directory. i had played a mod where this was achieved, but it always crashed. so i want to make some changes to the main game files if possible.

**Duncan III** · November 03, 2012, 06:35 AM

I don't really understand the question, my archers do fire volleys, as do my crossbowmen.

Could be you have them in to deep a formation, I think with archers only the first three ranks can fire so I always drag my archers into a three ranks deep formation in the deployment phase.

They all load together and fire together.

**SRACon17** · November 03, 2012, 10:18 AM

i think he wants them to fire and reload at EXACTLY the same time, like clones of each other

**pluhotronik** · November 03, 2012, 11:00 AM

yes, that is what i want. i order my archers to use flaming missiles( becouse they are easier to see) and they all fire one by one and it takes forever to kill some enemies.

**Vissewalde rex de Gerzika** · November 03, 2012, 11:24 AM

Its actually better for them to fire at slightly different times, if you shoot more arrows than needed into a guy that is already dying, its overkill.

**Sitalkes** · November 04, 2012, 01:23 AM

Don't use flaming arrows, they are less accurate and lower your firing rate. You should only use flaming arrows on an enemy unit that is wavering or is well armoured as fire arrows do better against armoured targets. If you have longbowmen they have AP ability so only ever use fire arrows for them when they want to cause a rout. Your units are volley firing - they load and fire together. It's not true to say archers other than longbowmen are useless many other units have a long range and/or high attack ability. Those uints that don't can still fire fire arrows and lower enemy morale. If they fire into a melee their intervention can be critical to the success of the combat even if they are low grade archers. If you want your archers to fire more than a few times in a battle (a) turn off skirmish mode, it's useless anyway (b) put the archers on a hill or on top of a cliff and (c) put a spear unit in front of the archers

**BM309K58SMERCH** · November 06, 2012, 03:09 AM

Wow, all the comments are gone far than what he asked for. What he wants is a way to make archers fire their arrows in a Shogun 2 manner, where all the arrows are fired at once, no delays between shooters.
For that, my friend, you need to ask the Mod Workshop. (Use the Text Editing and Scripting sub-forum)
If you may have noticed, the archers do fire in 1 complete volley at times. Usually by the 6th or 7th shot out, they all fire at the same time. It is especially noticable in RTW, but it does happen (a bit rarely) in M2TW.