Reply To: Real Value of Ranged Brothers

[Holy.Death]

ManaSeed wrote:

About at least 1/3? (I dunno the portion) of the time, you don’t start the battle with a lined-up or tidy formation. You might get surrounded and has scattered formation especially if you engage enemy in forest. This depends on your play style, some people always engage enemy on plains. I dislike battle in forest but most enemy bases are in forest.

I didn’t have problems fighting in forest (or any terrain, to be honest). It can present difficulties, but if terrain is just too bad then I switch to a secondary weapon that allows to support melee brothers directly. Still, most of the time even the thickest forest wasn’t that bad as to completely prevent my ranged brothers from doing their part. Being scattered was rarely a problem too.

In my experience, when you get surrounded or pursuing enemy archer with your archer, there is a chance your archer might get shot. In small scale battle, the enemy archer could miss you or you might dispatch him very quickly. But in large scale battle, there is a good chance for enemy archers to hit or wound your unit severely (if he has no ranged def or armor).

I don’t let myself to be surrounded. Exactly because my archers more often than not thin down enemy ranks before they get close (or weaken them so much that melee brothers can finish the job), even when enemies have numerical superiority. Do not underestimate the ability to fire twice per turn. Also do not underestimate the power of a crossbow. Additionaly, I position my archers in a way to make it very hard to reach them and even if enemy reaches them (veteran orcs are the worst), then that’s why all my archers/crossbowmen wear a good armor on them. I mostly level their fatigue to be able to fire bow more often, but it helps them wear better armor as well.

Wow wow just- wait, you’re actually right but that idea is extremely dangerous. I think most people will try their very best to keep everyone alive. Because if someone dies, all the experience gained will be wasted. Even he’s just a meatshield to you, you would rather him to be a veteran meatshield than just a rookie meatshield forever, right?

Your point is…? Because what you’ve said is not even an argument.

If 2 meatshields can do 2000+ dmg respectively in 3 rounds (shown in my previously posted image), they must be made of some highly poisonous or corrosive meat. Each meatshield deals 700 dmg in every round (without Rally perk). Don’t even try to calculate, your ranged brother can’t do this at all.

I think you confuse meatshields (raw recruits) with someone else, because meatshields miss more often than they hit (very low base stats), so they are incapable of reaching a vast amount of damage in 3 rounds. Besides, bandits? I fight Orcs. Heavily armored too. Led by a Warboss. At that point bandits are nothing, so it doesn’t really impress me.

Slap me- forget it. Slap my friends if I’m wrong. How long have you been playing this game? I think most people won’t say archers are the most powerful role in this game. Well, I also believe most people don’t give a damn to archers. So they might not discover the value hidden within archers.

48 hours. I don’t really care what people will say or won’t. I am saying how it plays in my experience. If anything I’d say people are discouraged from leveling up archers, because they think chances to hit are too low and can hit their own guys, but I looked past these issues and found out that they hit quite often for a lot of damage and can dominate mid-game and still remain valuable in end-game.

I recommend you to compare a crossbow and javelin. Crossbow for accuracy & firepower, while Bow for tactics (1 extra range means everything in battle). I’ve seen people mentioning the advantage of javelin is the ability to wield a shield. But when I look at the amount of Javelin’s ammo again, I bend slowly and cover my face with my palms.

Ammo is not a problem. It’s stamina. And ranged accuracy. It takes a rare breed to be javelin user. However, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that javelins can replace bows or crossbows. Rather they’re to supplement brother’s capabilities by allowing him to hit from afar for a lot of damage in various situations.