Struggling to make proper use of crossbows? Read this!

Ah, the crossbow. It is as effective as it is hard to use - at least for a newbie like myself. There's nothing quite like it for reaping the lives of enemy soldiers before they even manage to touch your frontline, at least not until the discovery of gunpowder. However, they are hardly as beginner-friendly as the good 'ol bow.

However, it doesn't need to be that way! Let me show you how to use crossbows in a way that is both intuitive and effective.

Introduction

First off, please note that this guide is meant for single player only. I have little to no experience with multiplayer battles, so do not use this guide for that purpose.

The firing-arc problem

As you may have noticed, one of the biggest factors that make crossbows so hard to use when compared to normal bows is their lowered arc of fire. While normal bows can easily be plonked down behind your infantry and perform with reasonable effectiveness, crossbows can't.

In their attempt to avoid shooting into the backs of their own soldiers, they will instead adopt what I like to call the 'rain of arrows' method.

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about - the tendency of missile units to fire up into the sky when their line of sight is obstructed. Unfortunately, this method of fire completely screws up their accuracy. Frankly, they can't be trusted to reliably hit anything aside from maybe their own troops by accident.

So, if crossbows can't be trusted to deliver steady, accurate and damaging volleys from behind infantry, then what should we do?

What if I want to put my crossbows behind my infantry?

It is possible to put your crossbows behind your front line. However, you will have to make sure there's a sizeable gap between the two.

For archers, it's fine if you leave a gap about four or five unit ranks thick. For crossbows, you'll want to double that.

After messing around with it for a bit, you'll soon get a feeling for the 'right' distance.

In my opinion, the checkerboard formation, which will be discussed in the next section, is still superior. The reason for this is because crossbows in that formation will be able to fire into the enemy through the gaps while they are engaged in battle with your soldiers.

The checkerboard formation

The solution to the problem mentioned in the previous section is adopting a checkerboard formation.

Simply put, your formation will alternate between one unit of infantry and one unit of crossbows.

It should look something like this:













As you can see, the crossbows now have a gap through which they can fire, giving them a perfect line of sight to the enemy.

However, it can be a little bit hard to set this kind of thing up when you have no knowledge of how formations work.

Let's fix that!

How to get your units in the checkerboard formation

First things first, notice how the unit cards on the user interface correspond exactly to how the units are arranged in real time? It will be necessary to arrange your unit cards in your army on the campaign map exactly like that if you don't want to manually draw up the formation unit-by-unit every single battle.

Take a look at how my venitian army has been arranged on the campaign map:













As you can see, the units are not in the proper order. It is necessary for us to shuffle them around until they are in alternating order, otherwise we won't be able to use the game's built in formation tool to suit our needs.

First, we'll remove the three units from the army that are out of order:

















Move them next to our general:
















Then re-add them to our army in the correct order (this will cost some movement points, so be careful):
















And voila! The order has been corrected!

How to use the formation tool

Now that we have our unit cards in the correct order, we can simply use the formation tool in-battle to arrange our units in the correct checkerboard formation within three clicks!

First, we draw our units into the appropriate thickness (I like squares, as it provides enough of a gap to shoot through but not so much as to give our enemy easy access to our bows...).

It doesn't matter where you place them, as we will arrange them how we want using the formation tool:













Next, you simply need to group the units by clicking on the 'group units' icon at the bottom right of the user interface (it looks like a flag).

After that, simply click the 'show unit formations' button right above it, then click 'straight line formation'. The units will immediately be grouped according to the order of their original unit cards while maintaining the rank-thickness you drew initially (squares in my case).

Next, select all your missile units individually by control-clicking them, then click in the middle, behind your line of infantry.

You should now have a checker board formation that looks exactly like the original picture!

Sally-forth battles

The exception to this is when the enemy sally forth to attack your units when you're besieging them.

In that situation, the battle will start immediately and you won't have the opportunity to draw up your units. If you want to maintain the formation, you'll first have to draw up your units into squares (make them run).

Then, once they've drawn up into squares, group them and make them assume the line formation (again, making them sprint).

I recommend you only group infantry and bows, though. If you include cavalry, things will start getting disorderly.

Alternatively, you'll just have to draw them up into checkerboard one-by-one. It helps if you hold space, as it will show where you've dragged your previous units.

It'll take some time, but you'll be able to get into proper formation very quickly once you've practiced it a few times.

Conclusion

As long as you maintain the right order for your unit cards by adding new recruits to your army individually, you should be able to easily create a checkerboard formation every battle.

I hope this guide was at least a little bit helpful!

[Whackytabaky]

Front line in front of infantry works in most cases if you can have your infantry swoop in right before their charge.
You then bring up your missile units around to flank from a distance with one backup infantry to protect them again if needed.

skrrt

[ChronoGhost145]

in a field battle as long as their not majority using cavalry simply put xbows in front in a line and infantry equal length or longer "longer makes flanking less likely from the ai and take longer for infantry" you have them swap at the right moment infantry are now in front take the enemy charge and the xbows focus on flanks to shred anyone smart enough to go around or if your lucky they didn't then you move xbows around the flank and ai will run shortly after you start shooting or just die when you have them completely surrounded no need for a fancy formation against the ai most of the time as TW AI is really bad at commanding battles

[Gooseman]

You can edit the game files to give bow arcs to crossbows. This also allows them to shoot from walls which they are unable to do in either Vanilla or mods. Best solution I've found so far and I think important because crossbows really should be able to fire from walls during sieges (Very common scenario in the period).

The edit is listed here.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?682961-Problem-with-Crossbowmen-shooting-from-walls-when-defending-or-is-it

[DoritoBurrito]

The issue is also one of terrain. If you can get the crossbows to an elevated position like on a wall, or hill behind the infantry line, they can reek havoc on the enemy. On a defensive siege I often keep them behind the main infantry, and actually put them behind, with a clear view of the walls. When the enemy tries to take the walls and has to face sideways to fight, the crossbows tend to rip them apart. It's stuff like that which can mean the difference between winning or losing a fight.

[Wulf]

2 - I've tried using the checker board in a way, though not as static, what I do is have Sherwood's up front and when they're attacked they form column, infantry then only have to part a small gap for a thin column to pass through, I tried square for square but the reforming time under pressure was too long. Archer's shot late, infantry were up but not braced, so got knocked flat.

In conclusion, both yours and Matthew2504's methods work depending on the foe faced, and I'm just giving food for thought and waffle.

[Wulf]

1 - I've found for the defensive battles that putting ranged troops behind the main line has worked, kept me longbows out of return fire as the sergeants caught the arrows with their shield instead, the ranged lads dont get too many kills as when they're up front aye.

If it's an offensive battle or fight against a weak or ranged foe, then always up front, moving them to the flanks and outwards rather than back behind the line. If enemy pursue then turn the line into a dagger shape and push into the enemy splitting em, turn back on one side with the whole line and tie the other side up with cavalry.

If you have your ranged troops up front then they get more kills but are more vulnerable, if you put them on the flanks then they can envelop the foe or draw them off to the left or right away from the battle. Trade 1 set of Longbowmen for distracting a unit of enemy foot knights, mop em up later.

[Matt]

I wouldn't ever put archers or crossbowmen behind infantry, they do nothing, you want to keep them in front of the infantry then move them back last second or they will get no kills. Then move them round to flank.

[D4rKing]

you can also mid battle, ctrl click the units in the order you want them too, press g to group them, and g again to ungroup. This makes them into the order you want, but it will place them in the last position of your unit card panel.

[gneeble]

huh, this very interesting. nice