Stationary missile attacks can attack an adjacent area (non-diagonal.) In the case of archers, this seems to be seriously understimate the point and utility of these ranged weapons. The purpose of missile weaponry was to wither and weaken the enemy before melee engagement. With only one area of range, archers are fodder for every other unit type, with a paltry last shot before getting ganked. The only hope they have is that they hit, and rout the enemy before they get engaged. In addition there is no way to protect your archers with a line of pikemen or infantry, due to the one unit per area rule. Unless I'm mistaken archers were typically fielded with infantry or pike in defensive support. The archers would make their volleys and if threatened with advance would move to within the protection of said units.


Indeed not all archer units are fielding meticulously trained longbowmen as the English did in the Hundred Years War, a la Crecy, Agincort, Poiters or Halidon Hill. However, these battles showed that the true power of medieval combat lay in the massed volleys of these longbowmen, NOT the over-romanticised heavy armored cavalry/footmen. The English longbowmen dominated in their custom formations such as the three-battles formation. They were only truly outdone when caught unprepared such as the Battle of Patay

I realize everyone is entitled to use and disuse whatever rules they want so I am thinking of making the following additions for my house rules:

Adding a special muster/training option for archers.

Advanced Archery (or call it whatever). Archer units with Advanced Archery may shoot up to two areas in the Stationary Missile phase. Any shots taken beyond one area incur a -2 range penalty. Advanced Archery units who take the field before their enemy can plant sharpened stakes to help ward of charges, giving a bonus of +2 Defense against charges. Unit modifier: +1 range, +2 Defense vs Charge. +2GB muster cost, additional optional requirements, see below.

Additional requirements. Due to the years of training involved, A formal decree requiring every able bodied man to practice on a regular basis should be required before any province can muster these units. Furthermore, I use the Variant: Building musters rule, any unit with this training takes twice as long to muster as its cost.

This unit would have the following cost: (correct me if I'm wrong)

Base Unit: Archer, 0.5GB, +0 Melee, +2 missile, 2hits, move 1 ,+2 morale
Armor: Light: 0.5GB, 12 Defense
Experience: Veteran +2GB, +2 Melee, +4missile, 0 hits, 1 move, +4 morale
Training: Advanced Archer +2GB, +1 range, +2 def vs charge(possible unit swap, see below.)

**I understated the veteran training values to demonstrate the attention to archery training, skimping on other areas**

Total, 5GB (musters as 10GB if you use the variant build muster) +2 Melee, +6 missile, 2 hits, 2 move, +6 morale.
Special: +1 range, +2 missile vs Cavalry, possible +2 def. vs. charge. (Possible unit swap.)

Personally, I can only see Anuirean units having this sort of training, but thats me.

I'm also considering adding an element to the training that allows the archers to take advantage of other units for protection. Such as, if the archer unit is put in a situation where it gets its "last shot" before melee, and has at least one movement left, it can defer that shot and instead be replaced with an unengaged and adjacent infantry unit behind it, which is probably in the reserve. The unit to be swapped with must be readied for this purpose. The archers must spend the next action reforming before it can return to the field after it does this.

So what do you guys think. Am I missing something about archers that makes them not as gimpy as I think? Or does the advanced archery training seem fair and/or balanced to better reflect an archer unit, namely a longbow(maybe crossbow....maybe) equipped one's capabilities?