Why won't my ranged troops target the cavalry

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So I joined a battle to help a defending castle and it's militia with me having a very ranged focused army and the enemy has a bunch of minor faction lords in it with about 200 cavalry.

No matter how I deploy, my crossbows and archers will just fire at the enemy infantry and even turning to fire at the infantry whenever I place them in a good position to shoot the enemy cavalry.

Is there a reason for this? Are they programed to favor infantry?

Will there ever be a game mechanic that allows us to order units to focus their attack/fire on a specific unit?

I'm having to resolve to shooting, killing a bunch of infantry and archers and timing my retreat perfectly before a bunch of camels and horses ride my archers down, cheering whenever we kill one of the approaching camel boys or horse boys.

I've been doing the same battle for 2 hours now just because I can't stay in it long enough to unleash my deadly rain of bolts and arrows the way I should because my men just can't seem to get it in their head that it would be better to shoot at the fast horse and camel boys when they are still far away. Giving them the chance to sprint towards us.

It's frustrating
 
Which version of the game are you playing? Because in 1.5.7 and lower archers literally cannot shoot at cavalry unless they are 50 metres from them or closer. This is definitelly fixed in 1.5.9 and I think in 1.5.8 too.
 
1.5.9 It seems my archers really prefer to shoot at the enemy infantry shieldwall and waste their ammo instead of taking out the bigger threat of the enemy cavalry. It's annoying because my army is composed mostly of crossbows and a few horse archers who's role is to make the enemy shieldwall turn it's back to my "line infantry" unleashing it's crossbow volleys.

This doesn't work when we have to worry about 200 horse and camel boys.
 
what troops do you have?you know that the lower the troop tier...the worst they perfomance..and this is my opinion crossbows suck and im assuming you have the crossbow perk tree well leveled?
 
This seems more like a situational thing. You were trying to fight a battle that was not on your terms so you didn't have the right troops to bait or destroy their cavalry. In every battle I first kill to silly horse archers that always attack my left flank then if I have time I'll attack the enemy cav and bait them into my archers' fire before their infantry block meets mine. Archers will shoot at the cavalry if they are they only things range.
 
It's better then it was, but they still purfur to fire at the main formation. What I do is pull every one back at battle start and kill all the cavalry first! You can go aggro them and pull them into ranged usually too. If you can't get you troops to behave just retreat and try again. One way or another you'll be rid of the cavalry eventually.
 
1.5.9 It seems my archers really prefer to shoot at the enemy infantry shieldwall and waste their ammo instead of taking out the bigger threat of the enemy cavalry. It's annoying because my army is composed mostly of crossbows and a few horse archers who's role is to make the enemy shieldwall turn it's back to my "line infantry" unleashing it's crossbow volleys.

This doesn't work when we have to worry about 200 horse and camel boys.
 
"Charge to formation" does not work on archers in a sense that they change their ranged target, they will only melee charge designated target.
 
From what i have seen, archers will shoot at the nearest target which is not moving. I noticed that in a larger battle....enemy line of archers was about 200m away, infantry behind them. Once they stand still, my archers are shooting. As soon as they collectivly change position, my archers wait patiently until enemy reaches position, then opens fire again. After about 5-6 minutes of this rinse and repeat, AI had enough and marched towards me. As soon as their movement towards us was "constant", archers once again started firing, this time on infantry, as they were in front now. Fast moving cavalry will be ignored until they are critically close. As usually AI puts their cavarly on left and right flank, you could try to set your archers far away on either side, than the cav should be closest in the "waiting" and "advancing" phase, but they will also most likely be targeted first...
 
you gotta bog down the enemy cavalry with your infantry. and then they'll get shot down like flies
I don't have "infantry" My crossbows are in the infantry slot. I play to win every fight without losing a single soldier hence why I went for a combination of only recruiting Vlandian crossbows (the infantry) Battanian Fians (the archers) and horse archers to make the enemy's backs vulnerable. and still making use of the retreat tactic when the AI gets too close
 
I don't have "infantry" My crossbows are in the infantry slot. I play to win every fight without losing a single soldier hence why I went for a combination of only recruiting Vlandian crossbows (the infantry) Battanian Fians (the archers) and horse archers to make the enemy's backs vulnerable. and still making use of the retreat tactic when the AI gets too close
if you are using retreat tactics with full ranged army what's the problem? when there's only cavalry left they'll shoot at them. typically the enemy cavs run faster so you are forced to retreat before their infantry connects. and the ai use cavs in their push on the flanks that's why they are not being targeted. you can specifically position some archers to the far left and right and tell them to face the enemy cav direction.
the only thing you can use to tank a cav charge without taking damage is shield wall so do what you will with that info. i personally enjoy having javelin infantry and cav units employ shield wall against cav charge. the enemy does nothing with their couch lance but suffers huge casualties to my throwing spears.
 
if you are using retreat tactics with full ranged army what's the problem? when there's only cavalry left they'll shoot at them. typically the enemy cavs run faster so you are forced to retreat before their infantry connects. and the ai use cavs in their push on the flanks that's why they are not being targeted. you can specifically position some archers to the far left and right and tell them to face the enemy cav direction.
the only thing you can use to tank a cav charge without taking damage is shield wall so do what you will with that info. i personally enjoy having javelin infantry and cav units employ shield wall against cav charge. the enemy does nothing with their couch lance but suffers huge casualties to my throwing spears.
The problem is when I get caught off guard by a 1000 + strong army with lots of cavalry, you get 1 or 2 kills in before having to press retreat because the cavalry reached you whilst your troops are emptying their bolts/arrows on enemy shields. Just spent 3 hours reducing the enemy from 1080 troops to 996 troops occasionally having to exit to the main menu and reloading because a lucky arrow killed one of my sharpshooters instead of knocking them unconscious.

Ah well there's a new patch so I'm abandoning that campaign anyway.

Going to try the viking shieldwall play and try not to be so obsessed with not taking casualties. with the new levelling system leveling shouldn't be slowed down anymore and maybe I can actually develop medicine for a change
 
the cavalry reached you whilst your troops are emptying their bolts/arrows on enemy shields
I suggest you try the RTS mod to pause and set up your troops and gain precious time when they charge if you aren't already using it.

the most effective way to mitigate the damage from an enemy cav charge is shield wall. the thicker the better. cavalry shield wall work too. your troops will suffer almost no damage while theirs might die in the charge to spears. you'll notice the enemy charges the flanks with your cavs. so position your infantry and cavs on either side. but if you don't have any. well get recruits as fodder troops just to soak damage.

another way to divert enemy charge is charging in yourself. weaving around enemy cavalrymen, especially effective with a 2h swing weapon you can just pass by someone and cut them. this way it will change the trajectory of the enemy charge. they'll veer off and loose momentum by the time they reach your troops.

positioning your archers in front/beside a forest/rock/hill can prevent their charge effectiveness.
 
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