ANST - Combat archers

[James Crouchet]

On 11 Nov 98,, Gary Koehler wrote:

> Another good use for archers is as skirmishing screens.  Yes, I know that
> this sounds pretty brutal, but it's pretty hard for enemy fire to hit a
> unit that's spread out and moving fast.  When the battle lines get close,
> the skirmishers get out of the way and form into their respective "H/K"
> teams. These guys can get REAL annoying now, using HH Gunthar's tactics,
> occupying terrain features (spears hate going into the woods), and using
> high mobility to make life miserable for the enemy (can you say
> enfilade?).  Oh, having some of them (yes, I know there are a limited
> number of archers--a pity) see if they can take out enemy artillery, once
> again using high mobility to stay alive, seems a good idea too.  Dunno,
> sounds good on paper, at least....

I am not sure to what mobility you are referring. Do you mean the 
mobility of small units? Individual mobility is no better (and perhaps 
worse) for an archer than for a spearman. Carrying a bow and a 
quiver of arrows (particularly the types we must use) in full armor 
(remember, no partial armor, fence mask, etc.  for Gulf War) does 
not make us any more mobile than anyone else on the field.

What we can do is strike from 10 yards away. Get in our range, 
shoot and then run before the enemy can close. That makes an 
effective harassing technique, but only if you have the archers to 
spare.

BTW, I would like to see the marshals keep a little closer eye on 
the engines this year as I noticed a few times when there were 
only two guys on a siege engine last year, yet it went on firing. 
Were not we required to have minimum crews of 3?

Doré

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