Possible longbow archer bug, please advise.

[Asp-Sorcerer]

Hi, Im playing Calabim on noble and Thessea the elf leader has one of my cities occupied,
she has 5 longbowmen fortifieed. two leave priests and some 6 tigers, I attacked with over 30 vampires, most experts in siege, and around 50-60 skeletons, guess what, the 5 archers killed off my entire army, why? when i cheched the sterngth meter the archers had strength 22+!!! because of fortification and their normal strength is 8, even though the civilopedia states that their strength is supposed to be 5, plus an upgrade of +1,
thats 6 max, so 22+ against my sceletons of 4 and vampires of 5, tell me thats a glitch,
otherwise no army can defeat that kind of defence right?

P.S everybody sais that the ai doesnt cheat at noble level, I find thats quite not the case, the ai seems to be able to construct and support rediculous amounts of units very fast and still evolve and not go bankrupt. shure ai doesnt cheat?

 

[A Moon]

Longbowmen can use metal weapons for +2 to their strength. With that their bonus to city and hill defence, and all their first strikes, 22 strength is entirely possible. If you want to beat them, use the shadow 1 spell, blur, to negate their first strikes, use maelstrom and fireballs to lower their health, perhaps send in some catapults.

 

[Doug Piranha]

What A Moon said, plus:

1. Use fireballs/catapults to reduce city defense (may already be zero if they recently captured it from you).
2. Use Rust spell to remove metal weapons (may require multiple castings to affect all enemy units).
3. Use Dispel Magic spell to remove Flaming Arrows enchantment, or any other magical buffs (Bless, Shield of Faith, etc.).
4. Send in Spectres first before attacking with Vampires. If you have a lot of death nodes (highly recommended for Calabim), your Spectres may well be stronger than the summoning Vampires.

P.S everybody sais that the ai doesnt cheat at noble level, I find thats quite not the case, the ai seems to be able to construct and support rediculous amounts of units very fast and still evolve and not go bankrupt. shure ai doesnt cheat?

At noble level, the AIs get better strength against barbs and a few other minor advantages, but on the whole they're playing under pretty much the same conditions as you are. If they're doing better than you, look at where they're placing their cities, how they're improving their land, and what buildings they're constructing. If you're not building enough workers (a common problem for players who have trouble with the game), or constructing every single building in every city, the AI can pull ahead by having more cities.

 

[Folket]

I find that the AI always bankrupt themselfs.

Civilopedia shows offensive strength. Longbows are 5/6. They can also use iron weapons which gives +2. Then Ljosalfar has +1/0

So if Thessa has iron her longbows should be 8/8.

Also in FFH2 archers can damage attackers before the fight starts. It is called defensive strikes. You should be getting messages about them.