Sure it works.. personally I prefer foresters+druids, just because for some reason.. people keep running their cav units (About 4-6) of them at the druids, then suddenly 18 or so units of archers stand up and open fire, decimating the units.
After that, its largely just a mop up. Pretty much no infantry in the game can withstand the hail of arrows, and foresters with general+druid support are reasonable in combat. (They wont beat most units, but they can hold them if they are weakened by arrow fire)

Sucks against all cav armies though, and enemies who really know what they are doing.

Suicide. That's all I'll say.

A calvary-dominated army would own you. I've tried an all archer army before. Calvary slays 'em. Especially Parthic calvary.

*shudder*

But, I'd hate to be the general of a Roman infantry-dominated legion fighting you...

"Sir, they have only missle troops. What do you recommend?"

"Piece of cake, Jackitysam. Advance the cohorts! Hup!"

And then, the entire army dies beneath a withering hail of the pointiest arrows the world had ever seen.

Well, yes, I did mention that cavalry would own you, but if its a small amount of cavalry, like NOT 20 UNITS, than the archers should fare alright.

Never do a rematch with the same setup, though. That is suicide.

EDIT: Also, I noticed that there weren't any all-archer guides...

So here ya go...

EDIT2: New Sig

[This message has been edited by RTW_GamerGuy (edited 01-11-2005 @ 08:09 PM).]

Personally i prefer an all horse archer army, against a infantry army they cannot lose unless your a fool.

btw if possible perhaps having half your archer army as slingers might be better, they do not have the range but the seem to inflict more casualities.

I'll think about it, horse archers would be better aginst horses, so maybe I'll change it to 10 horse archers in the front and 10 archers in the back...

Thanks

My 15 (greek) Archer squads were destroyed by six squads of Roman Calvary.

Works good against infantry, but not against calvary.

Well, unless your opponent is a total noob with cavalry...

Also, if you take out the general first thing, the army ought to be demoralized before they hit you, cavalry or not.

[This message has been edited by RTW_GamerGuy (edited 01-11-2005 @ 08:23 PM).]

I'd defeat that army with roughly 5-8 units of Urban Cohorts, or First Legionary Cohorts. What will archers do against legionaries in testudo formation?

turn off fire at will, wait for the legionaries to tire themselves out (so they move slower) then try to surround them from a dstance, and fire into the backs of them?

edit: what about eles, though... perhaps 19 archers and 1 incendiary pig against nations that can recruit eles? numidia, selucid empire, carthage etc.

edit2: that'd take time to organise, especially if you kept them in testudo while they moved. during that time they'd still be vulnerable.

[This message has been edited by Faulty Toaster (edited 01-11-2005 @ 09:39 PM).]

the testudos could gather so that the vulnerable backs are against one another, sort of like a + if there are 4 of em

I wouldnt really move my testudos to chase the archers, that's like walking in to their trap by tiring my soldiers and moving my vulnerable back closer to enemy range (the closer the testudos are to the archers, the easier it is for the archers to swing around and shoot from behind). I'd put all of my legionaries in testudo and have them all make a circle, with one formation's back stuck to the other's front (and thats easy in the deployment stage), like a train. The archers will eventually deplete their ammo, killing about 20-30 legionaries, give or take. And what's next? Melee.

if you put them in that position in deployment, you'd know the other person's strat, and you might as well just use cav

Depends. Those damned Pharaoh's Bowmen can defeat a cavalry charge if a few units serve as a pillow to sustain the charge, and the rest of the army maneuvers around the blob of cavalry, slaughtering it. Pharaoh's Bowmen aren't half bad in melee, believe you me. But Legionaries, given that the Bowmen will have depleted their ammunition, will kill 20 units of Pharaoh's Bowmen without breaking a sweat, especially 1st Cohorts and Urban Cohorts.

[This message has been edited by Xorhas EL Malek (edited 01-12-2005 @ 00:15 AM).]

If confronted with 20 archer units, I'd put my Legions in testudo(I know, it saps stamina but the archers aren't going to be charging me). I'll engage your archers with my own. I'd have less archers but the main idea is to make those archers use up their ammo. If he decides to shoot my legions, fine. If he decides to shoot my archers, well, that's what they are there for.

Precisly why a balance army is better than an all archer one.

In MTW an all archer army could work in single player.
In RTW I never really could damage an opponent enough, and would loose in the melee.

I archer dominated army has a lot of chance. But you need a strong line before the archers and very good ground, like a hill or forrest.

Hopeless unless your archers are elite (chosen/pharoah) and have gold experience or something. An all-cavalry army or testudo legions would own them. And you do have friendly fire issues, if you space them out in lines far enough to avoid friendly fire, you then get mauled by melee.

Like what was already mentioned, you could use a few expendable archer units as a cavalry pillow while your other archers pelt them. You can really do some sneaky stuff in forests, too. Like get the enemy to foolishly chase one or two archer units into a giant semi-circle of archers. That would put on the hurt for any type of unit.

Perhaps it was luck or something but I've won aginst cavalry.

I still say this strat wuld rule in a low-budget game, where you can get 20 units of 190 denarii bowmen, and since cavalry is so expensive (comparitavely), you could, in theory, kill them really easily.

Besides, Pharoah's Bowmen own. :P

Lastly, I submitted this strategy not because I put all of my faith in it, but because it has worked nearly every time I had used it. It kills big time in team games, combine forces with your allies and tell them not to worry about archers. I knew this wasn't the greatest strategy, I just wondered what you guys would say about it.

[This message has been edited by RTW_GamerGuy (edited 01-12-2005 @ 06:30 PM).]

What about an all Horse-Archer strategy? You avoid cavalry better, you more easily destroy infantry, you can spread your opponent out more, plus when you use these factions, you don't really have another option.

A few other things to consider about all archer armies.

Horses are your bane, as it's been stated. Sure, you can drop a couple of units of them, but if someone brings as many calvary as you have archers, even if they are light calvary, your day is decided for you.

War dogs can also be problematic for much the same reason, as they can close distance quickly.

Leigonares in tsestudo formation might give you some grief as well. Especially if a couple units advance slowly on you. At that point you have to start considering if it's worth disabling fire at will to make sure your archers don't blow thier quivers on a couple units of tsestudoed infantry.

Weather is also something to be considered, since adverse weather conditions can play hell with archers more then any other troop type.

I think that you will find you will be much more efficent overall if, instead of going for an all-archer army, you build an army that's mostly archers, with perhaps a unit of onangers and a few units of spearmen. The onagers can be used for "Tseutudo Bowling" and the spearman can provide the immobile triangle for your archers to skirmish around. This way, if your foe charges with calvary, you can at least have something for your archers to fall back past...

Oftentimes people start with fire mode enabled, but archers are so much more accurate when they don't use flaming pitch. If you have 2 PCs and too much free time, load up a MP game with yourself and do some testing by facing off archers who shoot fire vs archers who don't and you'll see for yourself.

That's not to say that fire isn't effective as a weapon. It generates fear. The trick with fear generators seems to be not sheer numbers of them but rather using them at an apporpriate time, such as when thier morale is low. Morale is lowered from things such as flanking, which an all-archer army can't really do, and also from toppling an enemy general, which it can. I thikn you'll find that your all-archer idea is a little more effective if you hold the fire until the right time.

Hope it helps, best of luck.

Indeed, I love fighting enemies who turn on flaming arrows when my achers are skirmishing with theirs. They cause about the same amount of casualties per volley, but I shoot twice as fast. It's hard for your units to get scared when you're tearing the enemy's units apart. I also noticed that units are most prone to just breaking from fear during their charge. I've had slingers break chariot charges, I've had archers break cavalry charges and my cavalry charges broken by good archers. For some reason, foreward momentum always seems to be lost when a unit is charging but gets some fear smacked into them with a nice volley right before they hit.

Aye, defence value goes down during a charge, as the units are more 'reckless' in putting more imphasis on speed and momentum rather than dodging missles. I once had a unit of Cretans shoot down 12(!) horsemen of an experienced Roman General's Bodyguard (They dropped from 41 to 29 men) in just one volley during a Roman charge. I just love how realistic the game is :P

[This message has been edited by Xorhas EL Malek (edited 01-12-2005 @ 09:11 PM).]

Defense skill value might go down, but things like Armour and Shield don't. You don't suddenly go naked during a charge. Using purely cavalry against archers isn't very effective, but combine cavalry with some archers, time your charge after the enemy just discharged their shot, utter devastation.

I think this strategy would own most balanced armies, i.e, most battle strategies.
I think Cretan archers are great for this strategy, for their range.

All you have to do is get rid of the cavalry, which should be easy if there are like 4 or 5 . Hell, you can even kill the general easier with this strategy. Then you win.

Infantry will lose really bad. If the enemy uses tetsudo, you can stop shooting or try to shoot at the back, better yet, use fire arrows or shoot at other units.

The tricky part is, while you take out his cavalry, or charging infantry, you will also be shot at by his missile units. And after it comes down to melee, if you have taken a lot of casualties, then you are doomed.

Another weakness, units tend to die quickly to arrows, but they tend to rout not as quickly as they do from melee. Here, fire arrows can be used as a helping push. You will also need to make the right decisions almost always, since archers are so vulnerable.

So yeah, I don't think its suicidal, but it takes skill to pull off.

Funny stuff. Yesterday, one guy(name was satanO.o) used all units of Gallic forester archers against me in macedonian ruins. I had Egypt with 5 Pharaoh's bowmen, 5 desert axemen, 5 desert cavalry, and 3 peasants.
His formation was(North)

A=Archers --=Space

--------------AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Mine was (South)

A=bowmen X=axemen V=cavalry P=peasants --=Space

----------------------P
--V-V-----------A--A--A--A--A-------------V-V

----------------X--X--X--X--X
----------------P-----V-----P

His archers skirmished with mine but interestingly my bowmen dealt more casualties despite much inferior numbers(loose formation helped I guess). I also charged my lone peasant at him which caused some withdrawal of his front units. Sweet, after half minute of firing arrows, I positioned ALL my cavalry on both sides of the enemy and charged. Also I set all my bowmen(Alt+right click) and charged with the axemen. Most of the cavalry was dead by the time I reached his formation but my cavalries badly disrupted their formation so my archers+infantry finished the job with light casualties.

Basically all archer tactic failed against me.

[This message has been edited by el_bandito (edited 01-16-2005 @ 11:23 PM).]