Crossbow or bow?

[WooD]

Curious what others prefer.
i always went with bow, but recent game i had 2 guys with 80+ range skill and a crossbow and they really tore ♥♥♥♥ up.

[gnorf73]

They're pretty amazing mid-early late game. I don't often go pure crossbow though, I like melee hybrids with either a pole hammer or axe. Quick hands, bags and belts, and nets. Before the nerf to bags I'd even carry a pole axe and a great axe or a shield. The fatigue cost is a bit much now though. Very late game they tend to get phased out for another archer or two hander unless they are a superstar.

[WooD]

Ya. My crossbow crew got high meele skill also for nightfighting. Then using 2 handed poles or axes.

[hudd]

I have a mix of both. Xb better vs armour, bows better for range.
I have a 102 rated hunter with warbow and berzerk who is so much fun against spiders...

[juanval]

I usually have 2 crossbows and 2 bows. I love goblin overseer's crosbows because they can push back an enemy when hit and 2 bows for the most talented archers because of their faboulous range.

[ChemicalBacon]

Bows are great vs. unarmoured and can be paired with overwhelm to really mess with the stats of leaders, unholds and other scary stuff but they require a skilled brother to hit consistently with,
crossbows hit super hard against armour and are much easier to use but really drain your fatigue and AP and have a little less range than bows.

If you have a very skilled ranged brother get a bow, if not use a crossbow. bare in mind enemies with high armour won't feel the bow's damage much at all. So for situations like the war crisis a crossbow is better overall

As a minor point you can't use bows if an enemy is in your zone of control but you can use the crossbow, however you can't reload the crossbow while in that zone of control. Just food for thought if you want to make a lone wolf ranged brother

[0 SH00B3RT 0]

I personally have a fondness for Crossbows. It's just the fire, reload, fire sequence that crossbows have. Sadly, I got screwed on my Northern Raider's Campaign by not having a single town in the southern realms providing archers. But it's made me consider what can I do if I start building Crossbowmen. I've thought about equipping shields and throwing weapons on Xbow brothers, so that way I can have multi-role units ready my disposal.

[Tephros83]

Originally posted by WooD:

Curious what others prefer.
i always went with bow, but recent game i had 2 guys with 80+ range skill and a crossbow and they really tore ♥♥♥♥ up.

Both. Depends on the enemy. Trying to decide what I would do for lone wolf as I think would do only 1 ranged there. Though in either case I would have them use throwing weapons as well so they can be useful in any battle, like ancient undead.

Crossbows are a lot better against goblins, barbarians, and billmen. Bows are a lot better against orc berserkers/young, necromancers, enemy archers, hexxen and beasts with high hp.

[Tephros83]

Originally posted by 0 SH00B3RT 0:

I personally have a fondness for Crossbows. It's just the fire, reload, fire sequence that crossbows have. Sadly, I got screwed on my Northern Raider's Campaign by not having a single town in the southern realms providing archers. But it's made me consider what can I do if I start building Crossbowmen. I've thought about equipping shields and throwing weapons on Xbow brothers, so that way I can have multi-role units ready my disposal.

Shields are kind of awkward now given no quick hands for them. But thrower duelist and crossbow work well together. Perk hungry though

[alation13]

I find bows better just for the range reason. My archers are always hybrids with reach weapons, as I find without any bows the enemy will hang back and force you to advance.

If you have the "potential" to shoot them, the AI will instead waste AP attacking your line (except for enemies like necromancers/alps). By potential I mean have the bow as the secondary weapon and let the enemies charge your shieldwall. Then rip them apart in melee. Having bros with shields in the front and reach weapons behind pretty much makes you immune to enemy archers.

[ridenation]

Originally posted by alation13:

I find bows better just for the range reason. My archers are always hybrids with reach weapons, as I find without any bows the enemy will hang back and force you to advance.

If you have the "potential" to shoot them, the AI will instead waste AP attacking your line (except for enemies like necromancers/alps). By potential I mean have the bow as the secondary weapon and let the enemies charge your shieldwall. Then rip them apart in melee. Having bros with shields in the front and reach weapons behind pretty much makes you immune to enemy archers.

I got 11 2 handers 1 crossbow guy and the enemy always come to me maybe it's cause they all got adrenaline.

[SaurianDruid]

I generally prefer bows.

The range makes them excellent at taking out hexen and necromancers. The double attack also makes for great damage against low armor enemies and can still be useful against big, hard hitting armored enemies by applying the Overwhelm debuff if you take that perk. The bow also makes for a better poison delivery system, in my experience, than the crossbow due to being able to hit two targets a turn.

My only complaint is how ineffective it is against ancient dead. I really wish we had some special ammo types to alleviate how big of a weakness this is. I don't think there's any other weapon that becomes quite as near useless against a type of enemy. Certainly not against an entire end game crisis.

In my current poachers game my starting hunter is easily one of the best bros I've ever had. Day 115 and he has 114 kills in 84 battles and is responsible for most of the decisive kills against high value targets in most missions. He's really been my MVP, but I rolled the undead crisis and now I find it hard to justify bringing him in against the harder fights.

[alation13]

Originally posted by ridenation:

Originally posted by alation13:

I find bows better just for the range reason. My archers are always hybrids with reach weapons, as I find without any bows the enemy will hang back and force you to advance.

If you have the "potential" to shoot them, the AI will instead waste AP attacking your line (except for enemies like necromancers/alps). By potential I mean have the bow as the secondary weapon and let the enemies charge your shieldwall. Then rip them apart in melee. Having bros with shields in the front and reach weapons behind pretty much makes you immune to enemy archers.

I got 11 2 handers 1 crossbow guy and the enemy always come to me maybe it's cause they all got adrenaline.

I just found that if I tried a "no bow/xbow group" the enemy would always grab the high ground and just sit there inflicting damage on me while I advanced. I usually just release my warhounds to take out enemy archers, you just have to be careful not to get them killed by the enemy melee units.
Also doesn't a full 2-hander squad get ripped apart by enemy archers? Or maybe I am just not using 2-handers properly (except for polearms behind my shieldwall).

Originally posted by 0 SH00B3RT 0:

I personally have a fondness for Crossbows. It's just the fire, reload, fire sequence that crossbows have. Sadly, I got screwed on my Northern Raider's Campaign by not having a single town in the southern realms providing archers. But it's made me consider what can I do if I start building Crossbowmen. I've thought about equipping shields and throwing weapons on Xbow brothers, so that way I can have multi-role units ready my disposal.

I am no pro player but to me it makes sense to have a 2-handed reach weapon for your squishies at the back, that way when your front line is engaged you can still hit their front line without risk of hitting your own. It also it means that you need one less feat to be proficient in it as you don't have to worry about a shield for them, not to mention you can carry more ammo into battle for those longer fights.

[mckeen42]

I used to be all bows, but with the DLC changes to bows, crossbows and throwing weapons, I decided to try a crossbow/throwing hybrid a try. I was really impressed with how they perform - there are a lot more synergies for attribute stats than a ranged/melee hybrid, and the heavy barb throwing weapons can be devastating. I ended up going for 2x bows for sniping backliners and 2x crossbow/throw for more flexibility and punch when they get close. And then mix and match depending on the enemy, usually bringing 3 ranged in total, except for ancient dead where you just bring the hybrids, and gobbos, when you bring all 4. This is what I ended up with:

Bow:
http://tumult.cc/bb-calc.html?1-9&1-8&2-8&3-2&4-11&6-1&7-3&6-3&1-3&5-5&2-2

Crossbow/Throwing
http://tumult.cc/bb-calc.html?1-9&1-8&2-8&4-10&2-7&1-5&4-12&6-1&7-2&7-3&6-4

You could easily add an overwhelm to the archer or swap forge for nimble into the hybrid depending on taste or playstyle. This is just what I settled on, but the core perks are all there...

[Trappist]

I am using Xbow, Billhook, Whip, Longaxe & net hybrid. Very effective on backline, also uses 3 weapon specialisations which is something i never thought i'd do.

[nightworg]

I have made some xbow/throw hybids. They work fine. I usual have two of each xbow and bow user.