Why are companion bowman so awful - SOLVED

[Dynamiez]

I have a companion with 140 bow skill, he has the best armor available in the game and a nobleman bow. but in a 1 on 1 duell with a bandit (a small bandit, the first enemy you ever encounter in this game) she always loose. she cant succesful hit one stupid arrow with her 30.000 denar bow even if the enemy is just 10 metres away, sometimes if the enemy stands right in front of her she decides to better aim at an enemy that is 4000 metres far away and ignore the guy in front of her, sometimes in the middle of a fight she turns around and grabs arrows from the ground although she still has 80 arrows in her quiver...
on the other hand the simple bandits are pure masters with their bow. the enemy i mentioned earlier 4000 metres far away for example hits with EVERY arrow he shoots. wow. wish he would fight on my side, i would make him vice king of my kingdom. what did i just say, i would make him king and i would be the vice king, i cant hold against this brilliant bandit with his magic skills

[Ruffio]

They only as awful as the one that command them -)

[Dynamiez]

Originally posted by Ruffio:

They only as awful as the one that command them -)

Oh okay. Pls explain why me, standing next to the companion, have influence of her skill with the bow. that would probably explain her perfomance :) thx in advance, i didnt know that game mechanic.

and it was very helpful that you didnt answer the question in any way and just came her to insult me. so you extra took the time in the forum to not answer something but just... insult? wow. your life must be very sad

[Ruffio]

You exaggerate when you state such as shooting from 4000 meters away.

I have an archer companion that is a captain of my archers formation, and in every large engagement he rack of a lot of kills compared to companions I got that is melee focused.

In bandit hideouts I put all my companions in ranged mode and tell them to engage, they will advance using ranged weapons and switch to melee when get in close. Companions with high ranged skills the ones that get the most kills.

If you claim a decked out companion with 140 blow skill can't kill a looter at range, I say bollocks at that -) I would be inclined to think you use a mod that alter damage in that case.

[Duncan]

Probably bad luck, AI overall can and will be pretty stupid most of the time, still in my experience bowman companions were pretty powerful in terms of killcount.

[Dynamiez]

Originally posted by Ruffio:

You exaggerate when you state such as shooting from 4000 meters away.

I have an archer companion that is a captain of my archers formation, and in every large engagement he rack of a lot of kills compared to companions I got that is melee focused.

In bandit hideouts I put all my companions in ranged mode and tell them to engage, they will advance using ranged weapons and switch to melee when get in close. Companions with high ranged skills the ones that get the most kills.

If you claim a decked out companion with 140 blow skill can't kill a looter at range, I say bollocks at that -) I would be inclined to think you use a mod that alter damage in that case.

I use no mods and Of course, I exaggerated with 4000 metres. I thought something like that was generally understandable, but there are always people who are a bit slower. The 10 meters which my archer does not hit are not exaggerated on the other hand. In fact, he can't do that.

And for understanding. the archer with 140 bow skill CAN kill a bandit. if he hits him, its a one hit kill. problem is, he need like 40 arrows even at 10 to 20 metres. so after that his quiver is empty as all he got is one kill. and to all of that while he shoots 40 arraows and doesnt hit, the bandits hit very good. so often i had in hideouts that my toparcher with a top bow and top armor gets one kill and then gets knockout by a simple bandit because like is said, my archer SIMPLY DOES NOT HIT the enemy

[Teralitha]

Archers need more micro management than any other troop.

[Xequilibrium]

Originally posted by Dynamiez:

Originally posted by Ruffio:

You exaggerate when you state such as shooting from 4000 meters away.

I have an archer companion that is a captain of my archers formation, and in every large engagement he rack of a lot of kills compared to companions I got that is melee focused.

In bandit hideouts I put all my companions in ranged mode and tell them to engage, they will advance using ranged weapons and switch to melee when get in close. Companions with high ranged skills the ones that get the most kills.

If you claim a decked out companion with 140 blow skill can't kill a looter at range, I say bollocks at that -) I would be inclined to think you use a mod that alter damage in that case.

I use no mods and Of course, I exaggerated with 4000 metres. I thought something like that was generally understandable, but there are always people who are a bit slower. The 10 meters which my archer does not hit are not exaggerated on the other hand. In fact, he can't do that.

And for understanding. the archer with 140 bow skill CAN kill a bandit. if he hits him, its a one hit kill. problem is, he need like 40 arrows even at 10 to 20 metres. so after that his quiver is empty as all he got is one kill. and to all of that while he shoots 40 arraows and doesnt hit, the bandits hit very good. so often i had in hideouts that my toparcher with a top bow and top armor gets one kill and then gets knockout by a simple bandit because like is said, my archer SIMPLY DOES NOT HIT the enemy

on 10 meters it should engage in melee anyway. I always use Aserai master archers in hideouts. They kill everything.

Are you using sturgian archers?

[Dynamiez]

No sturgian archer, like the title of this thread says, i am using a companion. and although they engage in melee closer then 10 metres, the question is then why this damn companion at 10,1 metres cant hit a ♥♥♥♥.

so if i bound a bow with a rope on one of the hoofs of my horse, with poor luck the horse would manage to shoot an enemy at 10 metres. but not so my companion. he just refuses to aim right

[LostScout]

There is a flinch mechanic in game. If an archer gets hit before they release an arrow they have to repeat the drawing and aiming process. This means a faster firing enemy can effectively stun-lock a better but slower archer. It will help your companion if you serve as a distraction to the enemies so your buddy can fire without being interrupted. When you have more troops, your infantry and other archers will provide alternate targets and your companion should perform better.

[Dynamiez]

Originally posted by LostScout:

There is a flinch mechanic in game. If an archer gets hit before they release an arrow they have to repeat the drawing and aiming process. This means a faster firing enemy can effectively stun-lock a better but slower archer. It will help your companion if you serve as a distraction to the enemies so your buddy can fire without being interrupted. When you have more troops, your infantry and other archers will provide alternate targets and your companion should perform better.

You would think this should work well... but that is exacrly what i tried.

I attack a hideout, take this archer companion with me and the rest leginarys with shields. they form a shield wall to take the arrows from the enemy archers. now there are two options what happens in my game:

1. The enemy has no interest in the shieldwall and shoots at my own archer companion. it doesnt matter if he stands to the side of the shieldwall or even behind the shieldwall. the enemy bandit is so freaking good that he shoots trough small gaps in the shieldwall and manages to hit with every arrow my archer.

2. The enemy actually shoots at the shieldwall infantry. this works great because he only hits the shields and my archer can shoot back without worries. in this case i have the problem that i stated when i made this thread: my archer, now he has all the time he wants, start to shoot o e arrow after another. i gave him 3 big quivers of bodkin bolts, so he has 96 arrows. with this nearly 100 arrows he manages, with luck, to perhaps kill 2 or 3 enemy because he freaking not hits them, doenst matter the distance to the enemy.

[ShepherdOfCats]

Set the archers to 'advance' (f4) and they will try to pull back if they're in danger of getting into melee. Admittedly this is harder to do in hideout attacks because of the limited open terrain, but in field battles it will give them space to take extra shots.

The AI does tend to focus on a specific enemy and will ignore targets that are closer. This is most-noticeable in tournaments where you have an archer and a melee unit on a team, you will sometimes see the archer get whacked in the head repeatedly by someone with a sword, while trying to continue firing at another unit. It probably does need some tweaking in AI behavior.

[LostScout]

After ordering your infantry to do shield wall order them to charge (F1 F3). They will advanced on enemy with shields up and kill the enemy archers. This also distracts those archers so your companion can fire. A static defense is not a big threat so enemy archers will tend to go after your archers unless your infantry is attacking. You should charge too and try to keep archers from targeting your infantry from the side. Worth a try anyway.

[Ruffio]

Originally posted by LostScout:

After ordering your infantry to do shield wall order them to charge (F1 F3). They will advanced on enemy with shields up and kill the enemy archers. This also distracts those archers so your companion can fire. A static defense is not a big threat so enemy archers will tend to go after your archers unless your infantry is attacking. You should charge too and try to keep archers from targeting your infantry from the side. Worth a try anyway.

Units with shields will advance with raised shields. Using shield wall make your units slow asf. Just have them charge or advance as it is. Also why would an enemy archer focus on a unit in shield wall rather than shoot at a soft target? The AI got target priorities too.

[LostScout]

Originally posted by Ruffio:

Originally posted by LostScout:

Units with shields will advance with raised shields. Using shield wall make your units slow asf. Just have them charge or advance as it is. Also why would an enemy archer focus on a unit in shield wall rather than shoot at a soft target? The AI got target priorities too.

Wrong. When you put infantry in shield wall then charge in a bandit hideout they don't maintain formation. They will break up and attack individual enemies at a reasonable pace while keeping their shields up. They don't throw javelins and so don't expose themselves to ranged fire. Seven infantry and 3 archers clan easily clear a forest bandit hideout this way, usually without loss.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by LostScout:

Wrong. When you put infantry in shield wall then charge in a bandit hideout they don't maintain formation.

Charge and Advance are two different commands, though.