Fully archers Army

[InstantBlade]

Just curious - does anyone has an army of JUST archers?
Like a vaegir army or something?

I used to have an archer character back in 751 or something and  I made him recruit only archers. Against some enemies it was almost impossible, but I made them only fight certain battles, help allies, and such. Any one tried it and actually enjoyed it recently?

Cheers

 

[Haldred]

I do it with rhodok sharpshooters. mixed results. I typically run an all infantry army with maybe 5 other cavalry troops besides myself.

 

[Kraven]

Wel i got 130+ Nord Veteran Archers and little over 200 Huscarls, so yes it happens i use full archer army, Nord Archers arent that effective i know, but well i prefer to stick to my own factions troups.

 

[InstantBlade]

nah, but I mean - ONLY archers, which actually means that you cannot just pull some other troop at the last moment and save the day. You are an archer and everyone in your army is an archer (or crossbowmen).
I used to play like that but haven't done it in a long time, might give it a try again

 

[munkibowl]

Which archers are best suited for hand to hand combat? I would think the khergits would probably be the most effective, since the have the advantage of being mounted, plus they can stay away from infantry.

 

[KON_Air]

Do they still litter the whole damn map with arrows?

 

[Archonsod]

I've been doing quite well as a mounted archer with Nord archers exclusively. Only non-archer in the army is Matheld, and even she has a stack of three throwing axes.

 

[Gerg]

I started up a horse archer character and soloed my way to level 28 and about 1300 renown.  I've been rolling with an army of 90 rhodok sharpshooters and they have been brutally effective at killing guys while I distract and pick off targets myself.  I'm a factionless warlord and have taken Curaw and held it against two attacks of around 300 troops.  My troops took Nelag castle in one fell swoop killing 280 enemies while only losing about 50 myself.  It should be noted though that being an archer I kill a lot of the enemy archers myself and when I took Curaw I had to retreat after running out of ammunition and then resieging it.

 

[mentat_emre]

if you are against non mounted units full archers army is the best.

 

[bob505]

I did but i had only like 10 archers.

 

[Charonte]

Earlier on in my current game, I was running around with around 60 higher-tiered Vaegir troops (I was stocking all my other units in Maras Castle) and found them brutally effective. Anything on foot was murdered once getting into range - At one point, I managed to take on a Nordic lord with ~100 men, suffering a few losses but overall slaughtering everything else. Then again, that was on a nice little cliff.

Mounted units - in particular swadians aren't that much of an issue either. Just ram your troops up against the map border so horses can't "follow through" and either get stuck and stabbed, or peppered on the way back out.

 

[attackrat]

I don't usually like using archer-only parties, but there are some exceptions. When I find myself short on archers, I'll garrison my foot and cav units and take an all-archer/recruit force north to cut its teeth on some Sea Raiders. After destroying a few large parties, I have a large body of mid- to high-level ranged units. I'm finding this is also a great way to train up a kickass Nord force very quickly. 

 

[InstantBlade]

Vaegir archers good in close encounters? didn't thought so... would go more for the swards or something.
Right now I'm playing a only archer Northerner.

Only archers and only nords. It's great for supporting other lords in battle. You stil get to see lots of close combat, since quite often the enemy gets near you, and still play some strategy while helping your moron allies, by positioning yourself in the best possible terrain. For now it's great fun. I'll try later with the vaegirs, since they have great archers, but for now it's the nords. I love to support the infantry and to quickly have veteran archers.

Well, it's a different kind of play.

by the way, I carry

1 Bow
2 quivers (sometimes a shield on the back, useful against any archers or sometimes sieges... but, hey. There ARE shields on the ground)
1 Great Axe (I tend to prefer huge axes to huge swords... Better the greater damage, than the greater reach)

Cheers

 

[MassacrMan]

All Vaegir marksmen are an awesome force, but to tell you the truth. They didn't do too well when my 25 Rhodok Sergeants got up close. They didn't kill but two of my spearmen who didn't have shields.

 

[Shik]

Rhodok Sharpshooters have the best hand to hand ability.

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,46189.msg1204730.html#msg1204730


As for firepower, Rhodok Sharpshooters have the highest range, but Vaegir Marksmen and Khergit V. Horse Archers have the rapid fire ability, making them superior overall in ranged ability.

I am uncertain whether Khergit V. Horse Archers or Vaegir Marksmen are superior, due to what I assume to be a bug, where Khergits have 220+ archery proficiency.

Just for the record, archery proficiency increases damage, speed, and accuracy.

 

[InstantBlade]

Well, you can always make some tests ingame, as long as you unhorse the khergs.
Then you can compare to vaegirs.

But I might add that as far as i've seen, vaegirs were more powerful than khergs on sieges (the archers of both factions, i mean). But i haven't played a kherg for a loooong time, and my sis isn't so much into this comparison **** (or the discussions either, lolol).

 

[fragonard]

I had a very powerful all Vaegir marksman party in .960 including me and my heroes with the same equipment.
However, after looking at the troop table in the best archer thread, it looks like the updated Rhodock sharpshooters are better both in equipment and stats; pretty much everything except rate of fire.  I'm going to try them out in my next game.