My archers think they are warriors

A

angryvark

Chieftain
Joined
Nov 15, 2014
Messages
22
Oke, this may be the lamest question ever :blush:

When I attack with my archer, I first see them look at their bows like ... what do I do with this thing in my hand, and then they run into their opponents' tile and they start hitting them with it ... I zoomed in once and I can see the enemy just laughing so hard all my men die of shame. They don't know how to use their bows! :eek:

But when I see another one's archer attack, they look pro. They stay in the tile and shoot arrows. :goodjob:

When I attack from a city to defend it, I don't want an archer to move out when he's won (when he didn't die from shame), I want him to stay in the city.

So what's up with that? Don't they get it or something? Or maybe they are out of arrows? :crazyeye:

Seriously, is it me? Am I doing it wrong? :confused:
 
angryvark said:
Am I doing it wrong? :confused:
Click to expand...

Attacking with archers out of a city is what you're doing wrong ;)

Archers are for defence not offence (maybe Sitting Bull is an exception but even still his winning odds won't be great).

A lot of players dislike teching archery mainly for the reason that you have to be defensive with them as opposed to attacking barbarians and whatnot with axes or chariots which are a far safer way to win a fight.

Longbows are OK attackers, not great, but default basic archers are pretty useless for keeping your territory enemy free.
 
angryvark said:
Oke, this may be the lamest question ever :blush:

When I attack with my archer, I first see them look at their bows like ... what do I do with this thing in my hand, and then they run into their opponents' tile and they start hitting them with it ... I zoomed in once and I can see the enemy just laughing so hard all my men die of shame. They don't know how to use their bows! :eek:

But when I see another one's archer attack, they look pro. They stay in the tile and shoot arrows. :goodjob:

When I attack from a city to defend it, I don't want an archer to move out when he's won (when he didn't die from shame), I want him to stay in the city.

So what's up with that? Don't they get it or something? Or maybe they are out of arrows? :crazyeye:

Seriously, is it me? Am I doing it wrong? :confused:
Click to expand...

In ranged vs ranged fights, Archers shoot arrows. In ranged vs. melee fights, the melee-unit runs towards the Archer after the Firststrikes of the Archers are used up.

You can't make a unit remain on the tile on which it's standing, the unit will always move on the tile it attacked unless there are more defenders then attackers.
 
Oke, that's what I don't like about archers, then. In Civ5 (what I've been playing for the past couple of years) archers (ranged units in general) shoot from the tile they are on and they don't get attacked upon attacking. They don't move into the tile if that unit dies.

I like that better but oh well.
 
You are only talking about the animations, right?
 
Well, not only. Apparently in Civ4 they move into the tile you're attacking. In Civ5 they didn't.

I guess I'll have to get used to that.
 
Well yeah, in 5 there is true range attacks. (some mods have ranged attack for 4 though)

I've used quick combat for so long that I forget what the animations even look like.
 
Ranged mechanics work very differently in Civ 4 to Civ 5. There's no bombardment here, instead you have 'first strikes'. Archer units will fire their first strikes before the attack stage begins, and then normal melee combat will occur. I like to think of first strikes as representing a limited amount of ammunition which is refilled between each fight. Taking Drill promotions gets you more first strikes, or if you think of it my way more arrows / larger quiver.
 
bhavv said:
Ranged mechanics work very differently in Civ 4 to Civ 5. There's no bombardment here, instead you have 'first strikes'. Archer units will fire their first strikes before the attack stage begins, and then normal melee combat will occur. I like to think of first strikes as representing a limited amount of ammunition which is refilled between each fight. Taking Drill promotions gets you more first strikes, or if you think of it my way more arrows / larger quiver.
Click to expand...

I think of first strikes as the arrows they have time to fire while the melee units are running towards them. With drill promotions they fire faster. According to this logic all gunpowder units should also have first strikes vs melee units, but it's not like battle in civ would be very logical anyway.

To have archers fire from one tile to the next without moving to it would be completely illogical, given the scale of the map. Archers are ranged units, but only on a very local scale. Firing from one tile to the next doesn't really make sense until artillery.
 
Civ 3 had true ranged attacks (siege units only) but this was problematic because you could build a big stack of siege and be nearly invincible in combat (it didn't help that you could capture enemy siege like capturing workers in civ 4). I believe this was the main reason that Civ 4 saw no ranged attacks. Civ 5 took another solution and got rid stacks entirely, rendering ranged attacks viable again.
Bottom line is that Civ 4 has no truely ranged attacks. Some mods have ranged attacks in one or another form (I've only played Legends of Revolutions, where siege units have a form of ranged attack from late industrial age artillery and forward)
 
Hmm... Without nukes Guided missiles are only units that actually work from range (and can kill target unit 4 tiles away.. from city.. fort.. submarine or missile cruiser... can build as many per turn want and get all to the same tile without any air capacity or airlift limitations.. well this is huge micro management to get it done but same time its late game fun part...
 
I thought in the past I had read something that attacking with a modifier key pressed would attack the unit in the tile, but not move into the opponents tile.

Maybe it was a mod back in the day but I can't find anything about that anymore.
 
angryvark said:
When I attack with my archer, I first see them look at their bows like ... what do I do with this thing in my hand, and then they run into their opponents' tile and they start hitting them with it ... I zoomed in once and I can see the enemy just laughing so hard all my men die of shame. They don't know how to use their bows! :eek:
Click to expand...
They have knives which they use in hand to hand combat - it's not their bows!!
 
My favorite weird animation comes from Vanilla where worker were literally killed (by barbarians) and didn't pose the "hold-up" position.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 345: Saladin of Arabia
Replies
10
Views
1K
antimony
A
AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 351: Sitting Bull of the Native Americans
Replies
19
Views
1K
Conquistador 63
Conquistador 63
Fine_Distinction
How to avoid being DoWed on Immortal?
Replies
16
Views
1K
Fine_Distinction
Fine_Distinction
AcaMetis
Nobles' Club 349: Victoria of England
Replies
9
Views
923
antimony
A
T
First moves and getting those huts.
5 6 7
Replies
137
Views
7K
Noble Zarkon
Noble Zarkon
Top Bottom