Archery... pointless?

[catuk1181]

I've just started playing this again, because without a doubt, it has the best strategic gameplay of the Total Wars

Yet my archers seem to be firing blades of grass - are archers meant to do zero damage?

Rome Total War seemed to get it right - if someone has an arrow in their back they, generally, fall down. Even Warhammer - with hit points - still saw models fall when arrows were hitting them, but this just doesn't seem to have anything.

[gn_fighter]

it depends a lot on the target. archery militia in general is not very good... especially if you fight armored or shielded targets, lightly armored targets like most of the yellow turban peasants


depending on the situation i use either crossbows ( the normal crossbows not the repetier-crossbows ) or when fighting nanman, medium archers with flame-arrows.

Its sad to say but after the AP-nerf for archers, i only deem them good against YT, Nanman ( only with flame arrows ) or some of the bandits.

[EmotionallyBroken]

I would have thought they would be considered overpowered

[nullpo]

Idk if they nerf it when i took a break but yeah archer especially archer militia deal almost no damage now, even to units without shield, probably because they deal little AP damage (archer militia only have 4 AP for example) and the fact that major AI faction use mid game unit even in early game that have decent armor. They still lower morale tho especially with fire arrow.

If you want to deal more damage use crossbow. If you still want to use archery well for normal faction rush the dragon unit while liu bei and sun clan can use their unique archer.

[temperate06]

i feel the same way too,btw shogun 2 archer are pretty awesome

[AkimboWasabiMenthol]

idk i use tacticians with all my archers and fire arrows shrek most things

[Darklordnj]

As others have said, Archers are better against units with low armor, which typically makes them good against other archers, and feature a higher range and rate of fire (making them a somewhat effective counter to crossbows), additionally generals can give them the ability shoot fire arrows (which is critical to dealing morale damage, can be used to safely burn towers, or start forest fires for additional morale damage and actual damage), finally there is the fact that ranged units deal bonus damage to red cavalry units.

While they (and crossbows) did get nerfed from their OP-ness that they were prior to the rebalance, the utility of archers makes them worth including in almost any army composition. If there is an issue, it probably lies in the fact low tier units are not as effective as they are in other Total War games (as in there's a better incentive to use mid-tier units instead of the usual inverted bell curve, where you'd almost exclusively use either cheap, low-tier or high tier units)

[_docodemo]

i tend to use archers in many situations because usually they have superior range compared to crossbows. my suggestion is that you should rush to have archers to replace your archer militias. they are more resilient and much more effective. then you can research your way up to have onyx dragons.

[Too Much Salt]

Archers with fire (talent for strategists) will make more sense. It will save you a lot of men and time by burning towers in sieges. In addition, they nerfed morale. So, fire arrows will be extremely helpful for routing low tier enemy units.

Not to mentioned, shock cavalry takes more damage from arrows. Therefore, archers are not useless. They were too OP. Hence, why CA nerfed them but still useful in many ways.

1. Always spend the talent that give fire arrows. Morale and tower destroyers.
2. Priority is against shock cav.
3. Never aim directly against shielded infantry or with high ranged block chance. Shoot them from the rear.

Archers are cheap to upkeep but extremely versatile if you know how to use them. Those who play 3K long enough will know archers are not useless/pointless.

[Pumis]

Umm what? Archers are considered as OP by many people in this game. Very cost effective units. Just don't think that Archer militia can handle late game units, that's more for crossbow and onyx dragons.