Crossbows op?

[Hadrian Jenkins]

I'm thinking the crossbows are a little overpowered, good accuracy and great damage. The bandits are seeming to take advantage of this, the armour piercing just kills men on the spot.

[Sarissofoi]

Pretty much. Goblin xbows are even more dangerous.

[Drewsko]

I agree I proritize enemy xbows men over archers but your own men can use xbow too.

[EatExcreteRepeat]

I think it's actually the short bows and hunting bows that are UP.

[holy-death]

I would say it depends on whom you target with what.

Crossbow is a certain choice overall, because of its accuracy, damage and penetration rolled into one.

However, a bow can be used twice per turn, meaning that if enemies are softened up - or don't have decent armor to begin with - they'll take two hits per bow. Furthermore, if you hit the head you'll deal 100% more damage and that can be really strong.

[Sarissofoi]

Enemies with no armor are pretty much dead anyway or easy to deal it.
Xbows are great because they dont lose accuracy overdistance.
Ranged attack grow by 3 when Melee by 2 points.
Also you can shoot Xbow when enemy is close to you and then switch to melee.
If you have hero with quick hands you can shoot xbow then switch for next one in inventory and then shoot.
Most high cost merecenaries have also high starting Ranged Attack so you dont even need level them up.
Xbow bolts pierce trough armour with easy when bows arrows not. If you get Battle Hardened perk effectivnes of bows drop even further.
Overall xbows are pretty great. Only downside is that reolading cost much and they have less range than bows.

[WithinTheFire]

It holds true to common knowledge , in medieval times when everyone was in thick steel armour crossbows were meant and made to punch through that armour .

[WadeStar]

Crossbows definitely the way to go early game. I think some of these weapons are definitely op in the hands of enemies. Depending on the RNG they either slaughter you with them and it doesn't feel fair since you can't even afford a crossbow, or you kill them and get this awesome range weapon that significantly impacts the rest of the early game. IMO

I have never purchased a crossbow. But I equip them as soon as I pick them up until I have a hunting bow and a leveled-up archer.

Might be nice if they introduced heavy and light crossbows. The light crossbow would have the same armor penetrating capacity but do less damage. Maybe it would require 1 less ap to reload. Then scale the early game mobs to have those instead of these death machines.

[Sarissofoi]

Heavy xbow should get like 9 AP to reload and 4 AP to shoot.

[WithinTheFire]

Originally posted by jpwrunyan:

Crossbows definitely the way to go early game. I think some of these weapons are definitely op in the hands of enemies. Depending on the RNG they either slaughter you with them and it doesn't feel fair since you can't even afford a crossbow, or you kill them and get this awesome range weapon that significantly impacts the rest of the early game. IMO

I have never purchased a crossbow. But I equip them as soon as I pick them up until I have a hunting bow and a leveled-up archer.

Might be nice if they introduced heavy and light crossbows. The light crossbow would have the same armor penetrating capacity but do less damage. Maybe it would require 1 less ap to reload. Then scale the early game mobs to have those instead of these death machines.

in many ways im the reverse , i dont use short or hunting bows , mainly because the guys i have at the back are not dedictaed to archery so i use the less needed skill item the crossbow to get a few shots in before i switch to my billhooks and wreck everything that crashes into my shield wall , i am trying to find a decent halfway ground of archer , but honestly id rather have the billhooks than spend points in ranged to make a hunting bow worth while .

[Wiley]

my ranged guys are both perfect focus spec'd with the utiliy line maxed at either weaponmaster or battle flow. they are armed with both x-bow and hunting bows depending on the situation.
i usually have 1 hunting bow, 2 sets of arrows, 1 xbow 1 bolt and 1 extra bow for the bigger battles (they break more than i like)

[Arch]

They are MUCH MUCH MUCH more powerful than close combat weapons, that's for sure.
So much so that I've exchanged all of my pikes/bills for xbows, which just hit much harder and seem overall better given their ability to move freely all turn and then fire with 2AP from the best position

[Hadrian Jenkins]

Originally posted by Huggles `:

They are MUCH MUCH MUCH more powerful than close combat weapons, that's for sure.
So much so that I've exchanged all of my pikes/bills for xbows, which just hit much harder and seem overall better given their ability to move freely all turn and then fire with 2AP from the best position

Yeah, they do way more damage then something up close, which I think may not be fair at some points.

[WadeStar]

Originally posted by WithinTheFire:

in many ways im the reverse , i dont use short or hunting bows , mainly because the guys i have at the back are not dedictaed to archery so i use the less needed skill item the crossbow to get a few shots in before i switch to my billhooks and wreck everything that crashes into my shield wall , i am trying to find a decent halfway ground of archer , but honestly id rather have the billhooks than spend points in ranged to make a hunting bow worth while .

I do this, too, but I still need bowmen for some situations.

I'm afraid I still have trouble with goblin and bandit archers who can snipe my front line if I use shield wall or spear wall--I mean, I think goblins where designed specifically to counter that tactic. I much prefer being able to take them out at a distance to minimize casualties on the front line from poison and armor piercing damage.

Bowmen with headhunter + the brute attribute (+15% damage to the head) + perfect focus, plus shoot at the guys who have low/little head armor and it's good stuff. Same as pulling out your sword and slicing up werewolves and ghouls or anything else whose armor has been reduced.

I'm still playing with it, though.

Crossbows are boss. Don't get me wrong.

Originally posted by Wiley:

my ranged guys are both perfect focus spec'd with the utiliy line maxed at either weaponmaster or battle flow. they are armed with both x-bow and hunting bows depending on the situation.
i usually have 1 hunting bow, 2 sets of arrows, 1 xbow 1 bolt and 1 extra bow for the bigger battles (they break more than i like)

I just started toying with this also.

[WithinTheFire]

interesting thing i discovered , if you stick your archers in light but reasonable armour , take brawny and perfect focus you can get off 4 to 5 crossbow shots in one round , let me say i wrecked a young orc party without them ever getting close to me .

[Brah]

Brute only applies to melee attacks.