Fire Arrows set them alight and let them burn!

a really cool idea that i was thinking of was if archers and bandits could shoot fire arrows this could be used to set alight trees and enemys and scare horses imagine enemy cavely charging at your archers just to be hit by a wave of burning arrows with trails of smoke and ash as they fly through the air

So you're asking for arrows that travel slower, take longer to reload, do less damage and have weaker armor penetration? Why?

now thats not ture burning arrows are lightnig fast much faster then plain arrows, but yes they would take longer to load but so do crossbows, and you wouldn't say that if you was wearing a fur coat and a fire arrow hit you in the back, plus who has the heavy armour knights do and what do they ride... horses which are terrified of fire so yes i am asking for them.

Flaming arrows would not be faster (where would you get that idea?) and would not really be feasible for general combat.
They've been suggested before a few times, this being the latest:
http://forums.taleworlds.com/viewtopic.php?t=5978

bowersda said:

now thats not ture burning arrows are lightnig fast much faster then plain arrows, but yes they would take longer to load but so do crossbows, and you wouldn't say that if you was wearing a fur coat and a fire arrow hit you in the back, plus who has the heavy armour knights do and what do they ride... horses which are terrified of fire so yes i am asking for them.

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WTF man, i'll assume that you mean flying, but that could mean, umm.... lighting, eg setting alight I'm not particually concerned about bad grammar, because our mind automaticly completes the word for us, for example noone probably stopped at the ture wondering what it meaned, but lightnig, I couldn't understand that.

You've got a point that they'll scare animals, but, because they man scare your average horse in the paddok, battle trained horses wouldn't be as scared, because battle are really noisy places. Ehey might even be trained against being scared of fire![/b]

Ohh..... you mean lightning fast

Lightning fast? It's an arrow with a cloth around it. That increases weight and air resistance, which slows it down. Slowing it down also reduces the force it can hit with, and people aren't particularly flammable unless they get covered in petrol or there is a very big fire. They would only be any use if you were attacked by a rampaging horde of thatched roof cottages. I guess in the year 3000 they'll make games based on the 21st century and all guns will exclusively fire tracers because they look cool .

The Pope said:

Lightning fast? It's an arrow with a cloth around it. That increases weight and air resistance, which slows it down. Slowing it down also reduces the force it can hit with, and people aren't particularly flammable unless they get covered in petrol or there is a very big fire. They would only be any use if you were attacked by a rampaging horde of thatched roof cottages. I guess in the year 3000 they'll make games based on the 21st century and all guns will exclusively fire tracers because they look cool .

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They all do don't they...... don't they?????????

Yeah, and there'll be health kits to reatach your dismembered arm.
And american and the Iraqie forces will be even matched and america will only win through the pure determination of it's men (no offence guy's, you did good in there), instead of a week long, high altitude areal bombing campain, and overwhelming amour support, and heaps of surrendoring enemy troops.

ok hold on people i think we are missin the point fire arrows would be a good addition to the game there were heavily used in medevil warfare, now concerning the point about them being slow, THEY ARE NOT!!! while i disagree about them being lightning fast they are fast even with the extra weight just that they are less accurate and travel less futher. a warhorse may not be frightened by 1 fire arrow but multiply fire arrows will scary or at least couse them to rear up. about the cloth there where several methods in which archers used to get maxium penatration, and one was that they put most the cloth behind the arrow head so that it could pentrate the armour and flesh

No no no! If you set something on fire, it would be faster because it would act like a rocket! Thats why fire comes out of the behind of the rockets / jet engines.. But wait, that would be behind, so you will have to set the fletching on fire instead of the tip!!!11 Otherwise the arrow would jet back at you because the fire is in front! Woot (I know I'm smart :)

Anyway jokes aside, think this topic was discussed quite a lot before, and it was concluded that fire arrows are useful for hitting something which can catch fire. This can include but is not limited to:
1) Straw on roofs of houses in villages.
2) Flamanble (staw once more / hay / wood) behind castle walls in sieges.
3) Intentionally placed dried grass / oil on the battlefield.
4) Any other easily ignitable object.

They can also inflict constantly prolongued pain when they hit a live being, BUT because they are on fire they are easier to see, especially in the dark, compared with normal arrows. We have also discussed that you will need people with torches or a fire source to actually light the arrows, which would make the overall shooting a lot slower, THEREFORE making fire arrows pretty much useless in the current state of M&B. In my oppinion, currently there would be not much benefit to this, BUT I will support the idea if:
1) Battleground can be set up / soaked with oil BEFORE the fight commences. Your army has to stand in that spot however, since moving away would mean that its already a different battleground.
2) Reaction to pain implimented from horses / humans.
3) Villages, towns, castles implimented, so you can actually use the fire arrows with an advantage.

Personally I don't see the need for them without the above mentioned (other than pretty graphics) sorry to say. Just my oppinion ::\

The lack of punctuation makes me weep.

Mounted horsemen have a huge advantage over footmen (if the AI doesn't do something stupid of course), just look at the polearms.

I think it wouldn't be a bad idea if there would be some not to easy method of scaring a charging horse, for example shooting it or the ground in front of it with a burning arrow.

What would be the point in shooting a flaming arrow in front of a horse when you can shoot a regular arrow in it?

The horses reaction to fire usually is jumping over it, so they wouldn't be stopped by a patch of burning grass. However, if there was long dry grass, you could light it on fire when the enemy is in it. The problem with fire arrows is mainly dragging the bowls (what's the acurate term?) of burning cinders around.

The Pope said:

So you're asking for arrows that travel slower, take longer to reload, do less damage and have weaker armor penetration? Why?

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Thank you. Under no circumstances can I see fire arrows being more useful than normal arrows, barring seiges. They will not burn your enemies, but would instead gutter out on impact. Wonderful, you have a crappy arrow that lights up.

Remember the opening sequence of Gladiator? Those fire arrows did nothing besides look impressive and let the artillery crews use them as ranging shots. Also, the ground was soaked with oil by then, thanks to the onager barrage. Even then, they were entirely a morale effect, and so useless for damage. In a battle without hundreds of germans, such a minor hit to morale would mean nothing. Better to just kill them.

alright about damage in the game when you go and buy your arrows it adds 1 or -1 depending on the arrows, the same with fire arrows. the bow is what delievers the power and force and through that is how much damage it does, its not based on the arrow

This thread needs to be added to the sticky as it clearly expalins the use of fire arrows.

Said and done. Altought my personal opinnion would be no, I still can't see any use for them without A)Sieges or B)Preparing the battlefield(ambush)

Worbah said:

The horses reaction to fire usually is jumping over it, so they wouldn't be stopped by a patch of burning grass. However, if there was long dry grass, you could light it on fire when the enemy is in it. The problem with fire arrows is mainly dragging the bowls (what's the acurate term?) of burning cinders around.

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Horses natural reaction to fire is actually to run from it, not jump over it. However they can be trained to do that without too much difficulty, so not much difference there, but I thought of making it clear hehe.

And 100% agree with Lost Sheep : (thats what I said in my earlier post myself anyway :)

Worbah said:

The horses reaction to fire usually is jumping over it, so they wouldn't be stopped by a patch of burning grass. However, if there was long dry grass, you could light it on fire when the enemy is in it. The problem with fire arrows is mainly dragging the bowls (what's the acurate term?) of burning cinders around.

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Just use your Zippo, oh wait, 1300's right, well, drag it around if you want.

Wouldnt that scare the crap out of other river pirates that saw one of them who had a fur coat running around on fire and screaming!

When they have morale that is!

They have it in Rome:Total War, pretty much all archers in that game have a choice for fire arrows.

Or what about fire pigs covered with oil?
AND what about greek fire that burnt with most of the things it makes contact with? Except dirt or bricks!

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Killer Rat