Horse Archers

[Sassaswid]

Is it just me, or are the horse archers completley useless when the player controls them? Catanbrian circle has been removed and they can't fire unless they're standing still. The odd thing here is that I've noticed that the enemy AI horse archers do what they're supposed to; fire while riding, fire over their shoulders as they're being pursued and so on.

I've tested them as both the attacker and defender. The AI will get a good 1-2 barrages down as attackers before my archers react, EVEN if they're standing still. When I'm the attacker my archers usually rout before the first.

Any other Parthia players that also notice this?

[cpb]

yep. I gathered a huge swarm of horse-archers to bring the chaos, as one would in EB. Big mistake Disappointing. Powerful composite bows and agility should be a winning combo on flat terrain.

[PlPs]

Horse archers literally sucks, they must be far better. 9.000 Parthian Horse Archers kicked 44.000 legionaries' arses in Battle of Carrhae. Horse archers and also foot archers must be more effective. nuff said...

[Gelston]

Well, and 1000 cataphracts. It wasn't just archers, or the Romans would have just chilled in testudos all day. We still aren't even completely certain if the arrows could penetrate Roman armor.

[PlPs]

so you're saying that 1000 cataphracts kicked 44.000 romans' arses? don't think so.

[Gelston]

so you're saying that 1000 cataphracts kicked 44.000 romans' arses? don't think so.

No. The Romans weren't head to toe in armor, the arrows just wouldn't have been as effective as you think. Instead of 100 arrows killing 70 Romans, it probably killed more like 5 or 6 and wounded about 30 or 40. They were actually content on just waiting for the Parthians to run out of ammo, to be honest, Parthia had a good supply system, however. The Archers and the Cataphracts acted in tandem, though. The Romans would get read t protect themselves from arrow fire, say, by forming a testudo, and then be charged by the cataphracts. I was more pointing out that it was more than just 9,000 cavalry archers that defeated the Romans. They probably couldn't have done it purely on their own merits.

[Slaists]

Horse archers were supported by pack animal (camel) caravans that supplied extra ammo. Also, supposedly, Parthians had innovated their arrow tips allowing better armor penetration.

[Sint]

so you're saying that 1000 cataphracts kicked 44.000 romans' arses? don't think so.

No but they used tactics.
They attacked and fled.
Some if the roman troops were ordered to attack the fleeing Parthians.

The pursuing romans got isolated and killed (ca. 8 cohorts).
The Pathians did constantly shot arrows at the roman main army(the whole day).
The romans lost roughly 10000 man and retreated during the Night .

The Parthian killed 4 cohorts during the retreat .

The surviving romans got led into an ambush and surrendered.
Ca. 20000 of them got killed and ca. 10000 were captured.

[Gelston]

I think what can be said about the entire thing is that Crassus wasn't a very good General in this battle. The 9,000 horse archers were very important to the victory, but it was multiple things, and it is a bit "unfair" to give the victory completely to them.

[Delyon]

It sounds like you just don't know how to use horse archers to be honest. In my current Parthia playthrough i've been using armies consisting of 10 horse archers, 4 median cavalry and 5 eastern infantry and I've been winning engagements easily. Try splitting up your army into tiny groups and surrounding your enemy. Use your horse archers to pepper the enemy and if anything chases you use your median cavalry and infantry to flank them. Don't attack their army, attack their cohesion. Once the battle has become a broken mess you can easilly use your speed to out-pace your enemy and pick apart the enemy unit by unit. Hope this helps!

[ariyan]

cataphract is useless too... we need balance patch.

[Honorable Poncho]

Yea basically all ranged units suck besides siege equipment. I don't necessarily mind though that ranged cav sucks, they were a total pain in the ass in Shogun 2.

[Sassaswid]

It sounds like you just don't know how to use horse archers to be honest. In my current Parthia playthrough i've been using armies consisting of 10 horse archers, 4 median cavalry and 5 eastern infantry and I've been winning engagements easily. Try splitting up your army into tiny groups and surrounding your enemy. Use your horse archers to pepper the enemy and if anything chases you use your median cavalry and infantry to flank them. Don't attack their army, attack their cohesion. Once the battle has become a broken mess you can easilly use your speed to out-pace your enemy and pick apart the enemy unit by unit. Hope this helps!

I do attack the flanks most of the time, and I have won several times when I outnumber the enemy. The problem is that the horse archers won't fire unless they're standing still, a problem that wasn't there in Shogun 2 or the original Rome. Parthian shot doesn't seem to work either, or erratically so at best.

[Nihahs]

Cataphracts useless? Nope. I used a fs cata and NO army has a change again their charge. They flee after 30 seconds.