What are throwing weapons' niche in Warband?

[Winters]

Obviously throwing weapons are for killing enemy units, but in what situation(s), what distance(s), and when?

[Tuidjy]

For the player and the companions, they are of little use in Native, due to low ammo, significant stat and power throw requirements, unimpressive damage, etc. But some melee troops get the skills for them, and they can use them for a couple of salvos at close range, to soften the enemy before engaging them in melee.

In Viking Conquest, where skill points are abundant, stats can be very high at character creation, bows are nerfed, and thrown weapons can have 14 javelins per stack, thrown weapons are devastating. Also, with formations offering finer control, the enemy can be lured in killing zones more easily. With an infamous character, you can win 90% of your battles with two spear salvos and a hammer and anvil shock resulting in an enemy rout.

In other mods, where there is magic, or poisoned weapons, or just legendary quality thrown weapons, thrown weapons can also be very good.

But in general, in Native, thrown weapons are only good as a situational weapon for specialized troops. The player CAN make them work, but they are sub-optimal - nowhere as effective as bows (with a high skill investment) or crossbows (with no skill investment)

To get the best of thrown weapons, hold position, hold fire, loose at short range, and charge immediately afterwards.

[[1CR.I] Onorath-Celestial-Jade]

Throwing weapons are great, especially throwing axes on horseback or javilins and throwing spears against cavalry. They can be used with a shield, and do excellent damage. Damage is boosted if you hit some one on horseback, warband phsyics are great. Throwing weapons shoot faster then crossbows or bows, and do more damage, plus you can hide behind your shield. Its a skirmishing weapon meant to be used right before formations impact. Having a Huscarl Shield Wall, can even tear apart Swadian Knights and Marmalukes due to the volleys of axes prior to the calvary hitting the shield wall, when they get stuck on the first two rows of the shield wall, the rows in the back will snipe the enemy cav with a bunch of throwing spears and axes. Its beautiful. Its also great when facing horse archers, if they get too close, a dozen axes from your troops will tear into them. Its all good for attackers, during sieges. Though not really good for defence. In the end throwing weapons will also let your infantry close in on archers. A vollew of axes or spears from behind a shield wall will decimate a formation of archers grouped up as the native AI is so prone to do.

[Winters]

Originally posted by Onorath-Celestial-Jade:

Aye, but throwing weapons as I have discovered are so inaccurate it is insane... cannot hit the broadside of a barn from 15 meters away whilst standing still. A weapon that never strikes the foe is somewhat useless. I have gotten headshots on cavalary units doing 155-175 damage.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

Throwing weapons take a lot of practice to use well.

I spammed Khergit Tournements over and over till I got good with them. But that only applies for basic javs which tournment javs have the same flight properties as.

Jarids have a completely different throwing profile, as do throwing axes or heavy javilins.


Throwing weapons would be a bit more balanced if you could recover weapons that hit enemies at least some of the time (maybe a 40-60% chance of the weapon being retrievable) and the ones that miss didn't despawn so quickly.

in small battles where clutter doesn't get removed so quickly, you can usually get a decent supply of throwing weapons by collecting missed shots as you move forward. But in large battles, so much clutter is getting generated so fast they despawn before you can recover them.

[OwlRaider]

For single player their main use is if you want a ranged option for a Sword+Shield and Lance character, as both the Bow and Crossbow require 2 slots(weapon+ammo) whereas throwing weapons just the ammo. So basically just a way to pick off a few opponents at range with a non ranged specialist(bow/crossbow).