Why cant my archer attack (screenshot)

[Vladesch]

I am trying to attack the orange bird head unit with my archer 2 squares to its right.
I'm currently at war with russia. When I select my archer and hover the mouse over the orange unit it shows me the combat odds and I get the red target dot (as is shown in the screenshot), but it just doesnt attack.

I can attack fine with my spearman one square to its right.

I dont get it. This has messed me up in other games before too.
Anyone care to explain to me what the problem is?

 

[JohnnyW]

Hill in the way.

 

[cf_nz]

Hill?

 

[Scam]

spearmen are on a hill. Archers can't shoot over the hill (unless standing on a hill)

 

[lschnarch]

One of the weaknesses of the GUI.
As others have said, there is a hill in the way.

Meanwhile, I have got used to range attack not via the right mouse button, but via selecting the bombard option via hotkey ("b"), which will show you the effectice range of the selected unit as caused by landscape and environment.

 

[Tokira]

KEY = Terrain for your ballista -- Intervening terrain -- City

Flat terrain -- Forest -- City = no line of sight, can't shoot.
Flat terrain -- Hill -- City = no line of sight, can't shoot.
Hill -- Forested Hill -- City = no line of sight, can't shoot
Forest -- Hill -- City = no line of sight, can't shoot.

Hill -- Forest -- City = good line of sight, can shoot.
Hill -- Hill -- City = good line of sight, can shoot
Any terrain -- Flat terrain -- City = good line of sight, can shoot.

Hope this helps. If there is indeed flat terrain between you and the city, double check to be sure your siege is set up. If it still won't fire, it must be a bug.

I thought that this quote from another thread would help you. builer680 originally posted it for a situation where a ballista couldn't shoot to a city but as far as I know, it works for archery units too.

 

[Polobo]

Since you have two moves on the archer simply move SW adjacent to the lake and then attack. If you are on a "diagonal" then both intermediate tiles are considered and if you can shoot past either of them you can attack the target.

 

[DarkSchneider]

Since you have two moves on the archer simply move SW adjacent to the lake and then attack. If you are on a "diagonal" then both intermediate tiles are considered and if you can shoot past either of them you can attack the target.

This has messed me up a number of times, I strongly feel it should be a cleanshot if either intermediate tile is passable. This gets even worse with the English longbowmen.

 

[builer680]

This has messed me up a number of times, I strongly feel it should be a cleanshot if either intermediate tile is passable. This gets even worse with the English longbowmen.

It is... that's exactly what he said.

 

[Kyroshill]

you can fire "around" a mountain as long as you have LoS on the other hex

 

[Soronery]

This has messed me up a number of times, I strongly feel it should be a cleanshot if either intermediate tile is passable. This gets even worse with the English longbowmen.

Considering that archers, catapults, trebuchets, and crossbowmen are fairly weak I think this might be a good change.

 

[Redoubts]

Meh, trees kinda force you to prep your killzone.

 

[Airey]

Considering that archers, catapults, trebuchets, and crossbowmen are fairly weak I think this might be a good change.

they're fairly weak?

 

[Smote]

with the correct terrain+chokepoints, archers can stop rifles...

 

[builer680]

Considering that archers, catapults, trebuchets, and crossbowmen are fairly weak I think this might be a good change.

What change are you talking about? You've been able to fire around obstacles as long as one tile gave LoS since launch.