Attack Archers Question

[legowarrior]

If I set up a block of infantry set to Guard Commander up front, and I scatter in a few archers, would they be targeted by archers, or should I set up a few Archers by themselves up front, and set those guys separately to guard commander?

[JonBrave]

Doubtless I'll be wrong, but I thought the AI picks a random target then fires; if you pick archers as target, increased chance it'll choose an archer. I would have thought regardless of where your archers are or what they are doing, each one has an equal chance of being targeted. If they are sitting next to troops you don't want targeted, move them away.

[legowarrior]

So, does that mean including archers in my decoy unit will draw fire?

[Soyweiser]

I don't think the target selection is random. If set to shoot archers, they will target archers over any other unit. No matter how far away.

Randomness only applies when there are multiple groups of the same size units nearby. But mostly they will just target the nearest ones.

(Not that this is the weakest part of my game, I suck at preemtive scripting, I'm better at reactionary scripting).

[Calahan]

I suck at preemtive scripting, I'm better at reactionary scripting.
Note to self - To beat Soyweiser easily, just move things around a bit after each battle.

[legowarrior]

Allow me to give an example. I have a leader with Shielded Infantry archers and halberd infantry.
Now, if I want to create a decoy for Target Archers troops can I

A) Create 3 squads, a Halberd squad, an Archer squad and a decoy squad with both shield and a few archers that acts as a decoy to units targeting both closets and archers.

B) Create 4 squads, A Halberd Squad, an Archer squad and a decoy shield squad for those targeting closet and a decoy archer squad for those targeting archers.

[Soyweiser]

I suck at preemtive scripting, I'm better at reactionary scripting.
Note to self - To beat Soyweiser easily, just move things around a bit after each battle.

Yeah, that will only work once ;). And you would be surprised how often people don't do this.

[Valerius]

Allow me to give an example. I have a leader with Shielded Infantry archers and halberd infantry.
Now, if I want to create a decoy for Target Archers troops can I

A) Create 3 squads, a Halberd squad, an Archer squad and a decoy squad with both shield and a few archers that acts as a decoy to units targeting both closets and archers.

B) Create 4 squads, A Halberd Squad, an Archer squad and a decoy shield squad for those targeting closet and a decoy archer squad for those targeting archers.

Either will work. See attached game for option A attracting fire from both archers set to fire closest and archers set to fire on archers.

[legowarrior]

I see, not all the fire was directed at the composite unit though but a lot of it was. Thanks, I think that might help a lot in a few game turns.

Thank you for your help.

[Valerius]

Doh! That's what happens when you test something and then make some final changes and don't pay close attention to how those play out. You're absolutely correct in that the archers set to "fire archers" targeted the opposing archers since they were in range - not the decoy.

I also should have attached the setup file, not the result file, so that you could change the setup and try different options. I've attached a revised version that is pre-battle.

The interesting thing is if I place TC's archers out of range of Van's then both Van's "fire archers" group and "fire closest" group target the decoy. But as TC's archers get in range Van's "fire archers" group switches to them while the "fire closest" group still targets the decoy. But then, when TC's archers get closer than the decoy both of Van's archer groups switch to TC's archers. And that part is kind of strange to me as archer decoys are intended to take advantage of target lock so I'm not sure why they are switching targets as TC's archers get closer.