Archers produced a plague of misses

from Elemental Forums

From Frogboy’s posts I wanted to try out some archers. I like the philosophy of killing your enemy before he gets to you. It took a number of tiers in weapons but I finally got them out.  So my sovereign and three archers take on 4 spiders.   I figure between my magic and arrows this should be cake.

Every shot missed, until they were one tile away. I’d say about 12 shots in all. The spiders had a 3 armor or so (level 3 I think).  

 The question is why did they miss so much?

  • Was it the difference in attack and armor?
  • Was it difference in level (like WOW where a level X-2 can never take on a level X)
  • Are they of such low xp (level 1 or 0?) that they are like 12 year olds with bows? 

Does anyone know the formulas for attack, so that I can better understand the mechanics?

If I do need to train the archers to hit targets, could someone outline all the research requirements. It seems to me like getting archers (or groups of them) take like 6 or 7 research in warfare. It takes me a while to get to that piont, but some of the other sovereigns seem to get groups of archers, very very early.

Any suggestions or tips would be great.

 

 

elemental
3,540 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Hits fully absorbed by armor are registered as misses, so that's most likely what you're seeing. Single archers are only really effective against unarmored opponents. Training groups so they can volley will yield better effect.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Ahh...thanks.  So single archers are no good against armor until they can be done in groups. It might help to indicate that as something else (other than miss) like "glancing".

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

You can get shortbows as the third warfare tech IIRC, and longbows one after. I'm not sure what the formula's are, generally I find archers work best in groups - with a party you can virtually guarantee at least one hit. I'd jump for longbows straight off (I don't find shortbows worthwhile) and then get logistics. You don't usually need to worry about armour, because if your archers are in melee they're doing it wrong ;) Some of the magic or miscellaneous items might help though, if you can afford them. I find parties of longbowmen more than adequate to defend my cities until I can start training up some really nasty stuff, and they're pretty effective against the initial wandering beasties too.

 

I've also had some success equipping my sovereign with a longbow; she managed to snipe a Drake down (though not before he'd wiped out three NPC's and three parties of units). Her attack wasn't much more than 17 or so.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

yeah archers do low dmg

and it is correct otherwise it would be too easy to just wipe enemies without being touched

 

even a sovereign with first bows does 3 4 dmg and often 0 which is counted as a miss

 

anyway probably bows could scale a bit more, but thats a balance we can talk about in the future

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

This is just guessing, mind you, but I suspect that the idea is that if you want GOOD ranged damage, especially with your sovereign, use magic.

Still, I do find a combat - Sovereign with a longbow QUITE effective, especially early on. :D

 

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

you know whats better being able to out run a giant that would one hit you and just keep casting fireball until its dead thank god he could only move one space and i could move 2 forums went fireballed.