Strong Yew or Ivory Bow for companions?

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

I am wondering if it is better to give my companions a Strong Yew Bow or even a Masterwork Yew Bow or to give them an Ivory bow?

The Yew bows have more power but less accuracy but I've seen how the AI shoots and I don't know that more accuracy is going to help them much.

Anyone have an opinion or experience about this?

Right now all my companions have either a Strong Yew or Masterwork Yew bow save for Baheshtor and Deshavi which have Ivory Bows.  They do really well against massed infantry and cavalry and can mow down 500 Hungry Bandits with ease (just 15 of us).

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

I've been doing some testing on this one. With only Deshavi using an Ivory Bow and 13 other companions equipped with a strong or masterwork Yew Bow, she is killing fewer enemies.  I've done two tests so far and while she starts shooting sooner she's either not hitting or when she does she isn't killing.

I'll give the Ivory Bow to Achilles who seems to have the highest skill and see if he does with it. 

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

I tested it again. Achilles did only slightly better with the Ivory bow but most of his kills actually turned out to be almost point blank range with the Ivory Bow.

Deshavi-- against 91 bandits with 15 companions had a kill rate of 5.49%
Deshavi against 132 bandits with  15 companions had a kill rate of 5.3%
Achilles against 151 bandits with 15 companions had a kill rate of 5.59%

I haven't done an ANOVA but I'd say that even if there is a statistically significant difference it is still meaningless.

On average I should have expected each companion to kill about 6.66 percent of enemies in each battle.  This is an average and does not take into account that some companions have a lot more skill and better bows.  This is the mean average of what I should expect. 

With both companions consistently falling below the mean average I'd say that the Ivory Bow is probably not the best bow for them to use. 

My next test will be with them using my Strong Ivory Bow and see if that improves their kill ratio.

 

[Incarnal]

Ohh! Statistical testing!

Well, time for me to just throw a bunch of opinion into this, or "interpret" what may be behind your numbers.

I think that archers who open fire earlier actually do less killing. Simply put, they only carry in so many arrows, and as a result at long ranges more of these will miss and have fewer arrows to shoot at closer ranges where they will not miss. I bet the Ivory Bow probably destroys the Strong Yew at close ranges, but if he opens fire too early he will lower his killing potential at closer ranges.

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

Ohh! Statistical testing!

Well, time for me to just throw a bunch of opinion into this, or "interpret" what may be behind your numbers.

I think that archers who open fire earlier actually do less killing. Simply put, they only carry in so many arrows, and as a result at long ranges more of these will miss and have fewer arrows to shoot at closer ranges where they will not miss. I bet the Ivory Bow probably destroys the Strong Yew at close ranges, but if he opens fire too early he will lower his killing potential at closer ranges.

Good point! However, I have equipped all my companions with 2 large quivers of Ivory Arrows. That's 82 arrows for 15 companions which totals 1230 arrows to be fired at the enemy.  So far they have never run out.

In testing I did notice that Achilles made most of his kills at close range which is surprising because I would think that the more powerful bows that are less accurate would do more damage at that range. 

More testing is needed.

I will give my Strong Ivory Bow to Achilles and see how he does with more power.  I might also compare just Achilles to comparably skilled archers like Kelemvor and Alyssa to see how they do.  I might even put in a Ranger or Ivory Archer if I can capture and recruit one.

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

Totally disregard this whole thread.

Turns out I'm playing version .550 and not the .586. 

I distinctly remember downloading .586 a couple months ago and installing it but perhaps I put it in the wrong folder.

Now I have the latest version and have started over and everything is different so I have no idea what to do next.

Thanks. 

 

[Incarnal]

It happens. It will still be interesting to see just how much better the bows are from eachother in the newer version.

 

[Nihil]

I don't use bows myself, but in .586 the Composite Yew Bow looks best:

                                                    Acc Spd Dam Dif
Ivory Bow                       99 72 16p 4
Composite yew Bow             82 70 15p 6

As you point out, accuracy probably doesn't matter all that much when the AI shoots like it does. +2 Power Draw gives potential for much more damage.

Alternatively you can always do that quest for Sanjar as many times as you like and get a bunch of Tulgan bows. Those things are just ludicrously unbalanced and should give you similar firepower to outfitting your party with a bunch of .50 cal machineguns.  It's probably the easiest of the king's quest's, too.

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

Thanks Nihil.

As mentioned above I had downloaded the wrong patch or install the right patch in the wrong folder and have been playing .550 for the last month.

Now that I am playing the right patch I've discovered all kinds of bows and it is a bit overwhelming to say the least.  I did not know there were king's quests but it's easy to miss with so many new and exciting features added.

Alas, it seems that without braced spears the game isn't as fun.  It is the ONE thing that really really attracted me to this mod and right now it's broken.  So I don't think I'm going to play much anymore until that is fixed because I think the next patch will be save game incompatible.

But I will look at those kings quests for sure.