Loose Archer

[Jilu]

Unprotected shortspears are often fleet of foot, unprotected bowmen are not...i wonder why

[SimonStokes]

An option to consider might be to allow them a run away response to being charged but not a skirmish response. I suspect this might be useful in certain circumstances e.g. where they have a wood behind them that they can run back into. That sounds reasonable to me and not something that will massively change the balance of the game.

[AlecJH]

They do appear very much the worst troop type, only taken if a list requires them.

Perhaps they should get an automatic free 'Integral shooters' characteristic to boost their effectiveness against the enemy initial charge. They do after all have integral shooters!

[Wizard of Oz]

I am quite interested in this discussion because at times I get frustrated with the difficulty in getting archers to actually shoot for a period of time. However I think that is perhaps the result of mistaken expectations. Unprotected foot archers are by their nature not good at standing up in combat and should not be expected to be. Forgive me if I am barking up the wrong tree here as I have never played against a person who really knows the rules, all my games have been solo or to try to show others how the game works (and in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king), but I think that you need to put them in the right place (terrain of some sort or with troops who can protect them with an intercept charge etc.). Also, don't forget that with an ounce of luck, three or four white dice can really slow down an opponent or at least damage them and this leaves the opposing unit vulnerable to units supporting the archers.
Other missile troops are better protected and/or dual armed with spears and so can combat with a better chance of success because that is what they are designed to do. I don't think that that is the case with the poor old unprotected loose formation foot archer.

[Gower]

I'm with Mr Oz on this. There is a reason every ancient rules sets I have used have "rubbish" troops in them be they loose archers who'd rather be anywhere else or peasant spearmen who crumble on first contact. You don't always get a stellar army to fight with. Make the most of what they can do rather than want you hope they'll do

Wayne

[MrSki]

Would it be reasonable that loose unprotected archers should have the option to run if charged.

I would go as far as to suggest that any tug that has only missile weapons and no melee weapon listed should have the option to at least run away. I doubt massed archers would ever skirmish or evade in a skirmisher fashion, and in terms of MeG, they'd only go 1bw anyway so not a lot of point.

[badhabum]

The main problem of unprotected loose order bows is they are pretty fragile vs any shooty opponent

And their second problem is they are pretty fragile vs any close-combaty opponent.

Other than that, they're fine.

Vs foot opponents they can still slow them down and move backwards ...but difficult to outrange enemy bows or crossbows