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What's Your Take on Using Empire Archers?

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Mike Stockin:
Interesting, in 3rd there are 2 compulsory units.
Helblitzen (Halberds) and Armbrustschutzen (Crossbowmen).

This would suggest crossbows are very common.

However I think  @Rowsdower was saying the archer (bow) is rare rather than the crossbow?

Mathi Alfblut:
In the army I am putting together i got one unit of crossbow and one of handguns. It is a Nordland themed army but that also acts as a mercenary company from time to time.
I have one unit of crossbows and a unit of huntsmen and a unit of handgunners.

Nordland is supposed to be backward so a unit of crossbows made sense to me. Guns are more expensive so background wise, the huntsmen and the crossbows are locally recruited. But the handgunners are a special units with soldiers from allover the place. They are personally selected by the commander while the crossbows are standschutzen, a part-time unit from the commanders county.

Wolfgang aus Wien:
My Empire army is based on a self-created city in the eastern Empire where things are perhaps slightly less 'modern' than they would be in, say, Nuln or Altdorf, and has a more late Medieval/early Renaissance look rather than the late Renaissance look currently being favored.
To achieve the look I want, I'm using a lot of Battlemasters figures (among many others) and their Archers still look great, imho, despite being monopose and 30 years old.
In terms of game usage, I'd say small units to screen more valuable troops or harass enemy flanks and war machines are the way to go.
In 5th edition, I used a heavily min-maxed Night Goblin army - had to, all my opponents were major power players - which featured a unit of 5 NG Archers and they always did phantastically well considering their extremely low cost.

BAWTRM:
My Archers are also from the old Battlemasters game and they indeed look great. Professional archers instead of the militia look you get from the Free Company models (great for my Huntsmen unit though).

lcmiracle:

--- Quote from: Mike Stockin on August 25, 2023, 04:59:26 PM ---Interesting, in 3rd there are 2 compulsory units.
Helblitzen (Halberds) and Armbrustschutzen (Crossbowmen).

This would suggest crossbows are very common.

However I think  @Rowsdower was saying the archer (bow) is rare rather than the crossbow?

--- End quote ---

In thought of this as army doctrine more than availability of weaponry. For example, the French used crossbows prominently throught out the hundred years world despite Crecy and Agincourt, and even then heavy cavalry still had successes late into the war. Their missile troops were primarily mercenary from the Italian kingdoms such as the Genoese crossbowmen.

And the English longbowmen was really something only the English could field anyway; longbowmen require long periods of training, which the English had laws mandating something like the freemen to practice shooting with them a minimal number of days each year. In contrast the crossbow was much easier to use. Which is also why firearms replaced the bow in the end -- it didn't start out better than bows, but when it became clear that guns could be used by a peasant with very little training, it took over because the ability to raise more able soldiers> the ability to raise few elite fighters.

The Empire has the gun (musket) and 2500s the guns would have been around for more than 500 years (Mordheim had guns), it worked like the HRE and fielded units like the HRE, including ITelian mercenaries because they can get more soldiers quickly that way.

Me, personally, I just thought being able to move and shoot in 8E Empire was a nice little bonus, but I prefered Handgunners.

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