Horse Archery/Weapon mastery skills?

[Hado]

Do AI horse archers get any better with high horse archery? Right now I have Borsha as an archer but no points in horse archery (levels are taking too long for him because he keeps getting knocked out all the time on horse), and I'm wondering if I should restart my game and put all his points into horse archery to make him better (loves to ignore my commands to tell him to dismount, too). Right now all he does is get stuck running away all the time or maybe fire one or two arrows before dying trying to run up a hill or something. Is horse archery on AI worth it?


Does weapon mastery actually do anything? It says it increases the limit to which a skill can raise, but even if I don't have the required points into it I can still naturally train a skill by using a particular weapon a lot and go past the cap. For example on one character I only have 2 weapon mastery and 185 crossbows. Seems like it only increases the limit to which you can raise a skill by clicking the + button in the character screen?

 

[DaLagga]

Yes, i believe AI with higher horse archer skill are more accurate. However, when it comes to Borcha and Marnid, you're really better off putting their points into party skills so you can have more points to put into combat skills. You could have Borcha put those 4 points into pathfinding so you have 4 extra points to put into horse archery. See what i mean? Plus, even with high horse archery, he's going to die fast anyway. And as for weapon master, you are correct. It only affects the max points you can assign, but you can still progress through battle. I also read that it becomes easier to level proficiencies with higher weapon master skill, but i haven't noticed a difference. I never put more than 2 points into that skill, as trying to assign points to a proficiency beyong 100 is a pretty big waste, as it will take 3 or more points to raise it a single level, and only gets worse. I tend to spread them out, so that i can use any weapon i'm given in the arena reasonably well.

 

[Hado]

So weapon mastery is basically useless then.

It's a pity.. archer / horse archer AI seems so good in the arena, but as soon as you get into real battles they either can't keep up with you or die quickly (eg archers rushing into melee).

 

[v42below]

Weapon mastery makes it easier to gain WP through combat. The difference is not huge, but noticable and, in my view, well worth it. I normally go to 4 or 5 in weapon mastery.

For Borcha and Marnid - I usually give them cross bows and doublehanded weapons. That way the obey your commands to dismount and, with a bit of practice, they are quite lethal when given a good cross bow.

 

[Hado]

Yea, I have Marnid with a sniper crossbow and around 200 skill. He rocks, when he can get shots off. Problem is if you're playing with foot troops, they either get in his way and he never gets a shot off, or he charges in with them to melee. If you are using mounted units, then he never has a chance to catch up, and you can't tell him to dismount at a specific location because the dismount command tells ALL your troops to dismount.

 

[katank]

For the arena archery, they don't have a secondary weapon and thus keeps shooting.

This way, they have point balnk shots instead of stupidly whipping out a puny melee weapon too early and getting smacked down.

 

[JohnathanStrange]

I agree with DaLagga in that it would be much more efficient in general to spend experience points for NPCs like Marnid/Borcha on Party Skills that affect everyone rather than your restarting your game in order to give Borcha more points in Horse Archery. You or DaLagga have already pointed out the AI isn't strong enough to let them really operate effectively as archers throughout the battle.

Now, that's a red flag for someone to remember an awesome shot by Marnid/Borcha and argue differently, but having given the twosome the best in bows and high skill levels, I've experimented with them over and over and they're nowhere near as efficient, effective with the bow as even someone with modest hopes would expect. Even taking away secondary weapons so they can't switch, they're just not able to do what you can do: persistently target a wounded enemy, quickly move off when the enemy infantry has switched to bows, etc. They're not useless but for level 45 troopers they're disappointing.

Weapon Mastery isn't useless, but it definitely isn't crucial since successfully using a weapon in battle can help you to gain additional points in that weapon anyway, so I generally save my points for more pressing concerns.

 

[mfberg]

Horse archery affects throwns also, so if Marnid or Borcha has a point I just load them down with 2 large bags of throwing axes and they will usually kill 1 or 2 knights before getting into melee. I will often see my enemies with one or 2 hatchets in their heads when they get up to the main position.
Marnid and Borcha will remain with the mass of my army if they don't have a missile weapon. If they do have a missile weapon they will move out and engage the enemy as skirmishers, and then charge in when their missiles are gone.
As to assigning points I will make myself, Marnid and Borcha share the burden on party points (Marnid gets trade, and first aid, Borcha gets spotting, pathfinding, and surgery, I get wound management and leadership). I will keep their weapon mastery points at the maximum because it helps increase their weapon skills faster during battle.

 

[dorni]

By the way, what is the maximum archery proficiency score? Back in January, armagan said

By the way, a weapon proficiency of 1000 is practically impossible . The maximum is 300 which can be only be reached with a weapon-mastery skill of 6. It is possible to go beyond 300 but progress will be terribly slow... Generally, the number can be interpreted like this:
100: competent
200: pro
300: master

My character's archery proficiency just increased to 398 but I have this great sense of deja-vu because I thought I already was 398 . Have I maxed out?
edit to add I was wrong The archery has progressed up to 400 now. So I haven't reached the limit yet (or perhaps there is no limit).

 

[katank]

Why bother? Haven't your targeting reticule long shrinked to a dot anyhow?

As for Marnid and Borcha with thrown weapons. Provide them with a secondary or the ammo runs out real fast and they just stand there afterwards, not even evading attacks.

 

[Ingolifs]

Weapon mastery also affects speed and damage.

 

[dorni]

Why bother? Haven't your targeting reticule long shrinked to a dot anyhow?

Yes, it's a dot. The higher your level, the longer it stays a dot. This dot keeps being a dot for a while.

 

[katank]

Oh, so that's why. Now you can use your bow as a xbow and still be perfectly accurate.