Peasant militia-how many archers do you run?

[Edmund Greyfox]

I'm doing my first play through on the peasant militia start, and I'm wondering how many archers more experienced players usually use? Right now I'm running 3 and have one slot left to fill in the 16 slot roster, and I'm torn between adding another archer or another polearm bro to finish my back line.

I guess i should also note that my 3 archers are hybrid throwers using heavy javelins in addition to warbows. And that i'm only running 2 polearm bros currently. My front line is a mix of duelists(3), 2 tanks and 4 guys with 2 handers. (9 x 7 formation)

Anyone have any thoughts?

[comstock]

I usually only run one ranged. On a PM run I have going now i'm doing a 10x6 formation with 2 polearm, bannerman, longaxe, polehammer, crossbow. Ranged are just weak overall compared to other backliners and situational (i.e sniping a necro)

[Gilius Thunderhead]

My last big run was peasants, most of the time I just fielded two throwers with an additional two throwers and one archer in reserve

[A5G_Reaper]

2 archers and 2 gunner/thrower hybrid sounds about right to me. Maybe even 3 of each if I'm finding the right bros.

[turtle225]

You have a bench, you can sub in ranged units as needed or not.

[Edmund Greyfox]

Originally posted by A5G_Reaper:

2 archers and 2 gunner/thrower hybrid sounds about right to me. Maybe even 3 of each if I'm finding the right bros.

I hadn't really thought about a gunner. I haven't used one before, so it might be interesting to build one and see what they can do. It's not like i won't end up building another polearm bro as a spare, so i can always rotate them around to see which line up suits me the best.

[A5G_Reaper]

Originally posted by Edmund Greyfox:

I hadn't really thought about a gunner. I haven't used one before, so it might be interesting to build one and see what they can do. It's not like i won't end up building another polearm bro as a spare, so i can always rotate them around to see which line up suits me the best.

Gunners are very very perk hungry, and if you run them as a hybrid thrower they're also stats hungry. But the impact they do, whether it's massed AoE overwhelm+fearsome or simply pure firepower is stuuupid. Shreds just about any massed low-medium armored targets. Just keep them far away from necrosavants.

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

one, throwing weapons are better and later just switch to handcannons.

[YuMMz]

I've really struggled on peasant militia to find decent ranged bros. I went into this thinking I'd try a different strat using a lot more ranged, but 76 days in, I've found 1 shepherd that had 2 stars in RATK, everyone else I hired would have capped out around 75-80 which seemed quite subpar.

[A5G_Reaper]

Originally posted by YuMMz:

I've really struggled on peasant militia to find decent ranged bros. I went into this thinking I'd try a different strat using a lot more ranged, but 76 days in, I've found 1 shepherd that had 2 stars in RATK, everyone else I hired would have capped out around 75-80 which seemed quite subpar.

Most lowborn will cap at that number. Highroll base RATK (and stars as well ofc) on militia and shepherd CAN be decent, but it have a vast low-high range. A bit better on militia because they're decent melee that can surprisingly be a ranged unit at rare occasions. Poacher would be your best bet though, hire every single one you can find. One with two stars RATK will get to 87-89 at lv11.

[Edmund Greyfox]

Originally posted by A5G_Reaper:

Originally posted by YuMMz:

I've really struggled on peasant militia to find decent ranged bros. I went into this thinking I'd try a different strat using a lot more ranged, but 76 days in, I've found 1 shepherd that had 2 stars in RATK, everyone else I hired would have capped out around 75-80 which seemed quite subpar.

Most lowborn will cap at that number. Highroll base RATK (and stars as well ofc) on militia and shepherd CAN be decent, but it have a vast low-high range. A bit better on militia because they're decent melee that can surprisingly be a ranged unit at rare occasions. Poacher would be your best bet though, hire every single one you can find. One with two stars RATK will get to 87-89 at lv11.

That's about what i did. I hired a bunch before i ended up keeping the 3 i have. That's the one nice thing about lowborn recruits-they are cheap.

[Corvax Blackfeather]

On my PM run i used not a single Archer... guess i'm not playing it 'Optimal' but i like just charging down my enemys and with the amount of guys you have on PM you can overrun many enemys by number.
In case of Necromancers and Witches i use two guys with very light armor, nimble and daggers .. they flank in and usually get the job done quite well ^^

[Santo]

I usually aim at having 3 ranged bros in my bench, and field 1 or 2 armed with bows, crossbows or guns depending on the enemy. I still defend that archers are very useful and have their uses, even if they are more niche than they used to. Against unarmored opponentes, a few skilled archers wreak absolute havoc -- especially if they have Berserker and score a kill. Seeing a band of orc berserkers run before engaging you because your archers rained death on half of their squad is just beautiful.

[EUIX]

Has anyone tried a mass archer formation? Curious if you could do the "english longbowman at Agincourt" method. Seems like it would be fun.

[A5G_Reaper]

Originally posted by EUIX:

Has anyone tried a mass archer formation? Curious if you could do the "english longbowman at Agincourt" method. Seems like it would be fun.

Destroy some encounters (Goblins, nomad, brigands - among other things) but are nearly useless in others (orc warrior, chosen, necrosavant). Thing about archers is that they're highly specialized in raw non-piercing damage, so going all-in will make them stomp even harder against what they're good at but in return lose even harder against what they're bad at.

[Tephros83]

Originally posted by YuMMz:

I've really struggled on peasant militia to find decent ranged bros. I went into this thinking I'd try a different strat using a lot more ranged, but 76 days in, I've found 1 shepherd that had 2 stars in RATK, everyone else I hired would have capped out around 75-80 which seemed quite subpar.

I think poachers are generally the best option. Bad compared to hunters, but that's not an option, but better than what you're talking about. They have 47-49 ranged attack at baseline (shepherds have same ceiling but much lower floor), so with 2 stars they get into high 80s, and mid-80s with 1 star which is passable.