Yes, that´s an issue. But it moves a problem from archers in general to a specific arrow-type. How about them beeing armourpiercing but with a conciderable lower damage, making them more or less wasted on unprotected troops?
Yeah, as they have only tip as piercing, they may deal less damage overall, with the advantage of penetration. From the other hand, there is the problem of current troop trees. There is no practical division between squishy-target-archers and armor-piercing-archers, most of factions have one or max two lines with ranged units, even then, they aren't segregated in any specialised way.
If we would leave those as it is, we either get one faction that is unbeatable against armor and other that have no chance against armor.
If we would consider high tiers being armor-piercing-archers, then there is issue, that they would fight against low tier units less effectively than their predecessors, because of different arrow type. That would discourage players from advancing in troop tree.
The solution would be splitting them into types in the troop trees AND in the battle, but then we still tackle the issue of enemy attacking in a big mixed mob, with no particular armor type defined per unit. It would end up in random shooting at enemies, sometimes with good type of arrow, but mostly with incorrect type, making armor-piercing-archers run out of arrows shooting at low tier and not dealing much damage, and squishy-target-archers will do nothing against armor. So I guess, that there would have to be also a division depending on the armor type of cav/inf. Then we have too many combinations, taking into consideration the type of damage they deal, and that we should also have control over what type of damage we deal...
And now it turns into strategy game, because we have to be able to specify exactly which type/formation of the enemy we want our heavy-armored-pikemen to attack.
So I guess that is too much changes for a basic BL.
Armor-piercing should work with certain armor styles and not with others. I still wonder, why we have different damage types, if only blunt matters (capturing prisoners). Mail is very good at preventing a cut but a tipped weapon like an arrow can get through the metal mesh. Solid plate should matter and deflect stuff, padded armor should decrease blunt etc.
True piercing is stuff for crossbows and weapons with high impulse like thrown javelins (because of the mass behind the iron tip)
Archers are a danger for any unarmored troop because:
- range advantage
- usually cadence of shots
- a hail of arrows will inflict damage even by chance
Their bane?
- things that can close in fast -> Cavalry, ambushing troops
- other/better archers as archers themselves are squishy and cannot face the music they are playing themselves
- things with a large shield since it will block most projectiles and not be destroyed, even if looking like a pincushion
This is, why they are good at skrimishing and prevent troops from moving or enter certain terrain or forcing them to leave. Their efficieny versus unarmored should never be questioned. Battle archers? Consider their counter.
I guess that disabling accuracy of shots would help, but also would harm low-level fights, because archers would be useless, and in 1v1 fights on the arena enemies would miss too much to be a threat, so that is not the best idea.