Mounted Yeoman Archers, skirmishers in general...

[San-Kyu]

As Bretonnia, are these any good? I'm running Steel Faith but they seem identical to the non-modded version in terms of relative stats to other units.

Melee mounted Yeoman I know for sure what I can use them for - their much higher speed compared to noble knights (130 vs 100 of Knights Errant) see me using them as anti-skirmishers or artillery flankers if I'm missing Pegasus Knights. They also have anti-infantry, so there's that. Their stats are only slightly worse than Knights Errant, with upkeep also slighty lower. But both Yeomen take up a Peasant slot, so I have the idea that I'm better off using them for another anvil unit (Shielded Spearmen/Battle Pilgrim) or another Trebuchet.

Skirmishers I know are annoying as F- to deal with, but since most of Bretonnian cavalry are sporting high armor AND a silver shield (60% chance to nullify ranged) and I almost always take shielded infantry they rarely kill any more than 30-60 men they target. Foot Archers also destroy them handily.

In an army list consisting of getting your infantry in contact with your enemy, so that your cav can hammer then into submission do skirmishers have a good place?

[Aenarion]

I find they serve a crucial role in an all-cav army. Basically just kite the enemy melee units, which splits their army up, leaving them vulnerable to charges from your shock cavalry.

As far as missile infantry goes, mounted yeomen archers are very average. There is a kind of hierarchy like this:

1. glade riders with hagbane (excellent ranged DPS, fastest, best melee, most expensive)
2. marauder horsemen with axes (outclassed by glade riders but can charge outriders and outshoot everything else for a decent price)
3. outriders (best ranged DPS but expensive and needs support to protect against charges)
4. mounted yeoman archers (decent range, decent damage, decent speed, decent melee)
=5. spider rider archers (cheap and disposable)
=5. wolf riders (even cheaper and more disposible)
6. pistoliers (awful range, and low DPS even within it=overpriced trash)

[San-Kyu]

I see, thanks for the input. So a kind of no-go against dwarfs (like their arrows could pierce that armor) but workable for the other races. I find that the beastmen are horribly hard for me to fight, since my usual tactics of cycle charging the enemy flanks end up badly as their units are annoyingly fast themselves. My infantry lines also falter against them. Their units don't seem to carry alot of armor so maybe the yeoman archers could shine against them.

Well I could see using my Knights of the Realm (they have anti-large now) or Pegasus Knights to scare off other skirmishers while my own does harrassment. At around 40-ish non-armor piercing missile damage unbuffed it kinda limits what I can really get them firing on.

[Aenarion]

Dwarfs are so slow you can actually kite even with foot peasant bowmen. The principle is the same as with missile cav: just put them in skirmish mode, shoot the dwarfs, run away as the dwarf melee line approaches, then get them shooting again when the dwarfs are a safe distance behind. While this is happening a big gap will have formed between the enemy melee line and missile troops so the missile troops are easy pickings for cav charges from both flanks. You're then fighting half their army versus your whole army. I would either bring no melee infantry at all or hold them back far away from the dwarfs, roughly where you want your bowmen to flee to, so they engage the dwarfs as they're getting cav charged in the rear. You DO NOT want to be going into melee with dwarf melee troops on anything like even terms.

Most enemies are faster than dwarves so you really need the mounted archers to kite effectively, preferably lots of them in an all-cav army. It's particularly easy against melee armies like VC, Chaos or Norsca, as they can't even fight back once you've taken down any cav, missile cav, or other fast units like hounds they have. With a melee beastmen army you can do the same, or if they bring a lot of archers just kite their melee line with the missile cav, making space for your shock cav to crash into their archers.

[Hypnosis]

Mounted Yeoman Archers are great. Just like any mounted skirmishers - use them to get behind enemy lines, and attack from behind. They are also ranged units who are not easy prey for enemy cav. Make sure to turn skirmish mode on for them to reduce the micromanagement.

[San-Kyu]

Even with Bretonnia I've never tried an all-cav army. So I could feasibly replace my infantry line with the yeomen archers? Given some of my fights I've completely forgotten to coordinate my infantry so that my cavalry force (roughly 1/2-1/3 of my forces usually) fights the entire battle by themselves. In hindsight I usually tended to use knights errant or another knight of the realm as the 'anvil' anyway.

How bad do you observe your own skirmishers doing friendly fire? I see it regularly with Blessed Trebuchet shots (poor green knight) and shot weapons (poor demigryph knights) but I seem to have very little in the way of friendly fire with arrows. The only real evidence I for me to know that its happening is with my pox archers - I see the poison debuff applied to my own infantry lines targetted by the archers.

[Aenarion]

I find optimal is something like 8 mounted archers, 10 heavy cav. It's actually pretty straightforward (at least on very hard) as the mounted archers more or less look after themselves if they're set on skirmish, letting you focus on your cav charges. It's also great for your peasant economy.

I avoid firing into melee and have never noticed friendly fire being a significant issue. In fact you spend very little time in melee anyway with a cav army.

[San-Kyu]

Hmm, I'll have to try this out. I've just recently screwed myself on a Bretonnia campaign anyway.

Chaos forces are overrunning Kislev, and my Kislev/Dwarf friends are being decimated by Norsca/Greenskins respectively. I managed a heroic victory against Sarthrael and that blond pretty boy LL (forgot his name, the best insult I guess.) but it poor Alberic alone and with a damaged army against two more full stacks of beastmen. I've got several 10-15 stacks waiting in Bretonnia but it seems that I won't be keeping them off for long at this point (do these chaos dudes replenish infinitely? The beastmen just keep coming). I focused on an infantry army since the Fay Enchantress was my starting LL.

[Aenarion]

Kislev always dies, in fact Chaos usually cuts through all the way down to Averland. Personally I'd stack my forces in the Marienburg area and let them have the rest of the map (they burn out eventually).

If you do go for a cav army i'd recommend building a cav bonus building as soon as you can. There's one in Lyonnese, another one in Parravon (I think?), and also the province with iron deposits north of there can build upgraded knights.