[Renojustin]

The archers on the inside of the block still fire and wipe out your harpies in one turn, resulting in much gold (and troops for that combat towards autorout) lost for one turn of archer soak. I mean, yeah I use a VERY light screen of harpies (like the ones generated from the harpy hero) from time to time for just that purpose (maybe even getting opponent to shoot themselves) but I personally won't be spending too much on them outside of patrolling. They're not even good for sneak attacks on PD; your other troops can do that with a much higher degree of proficiency. Harpy leaders, on the other hand, are a totally different story. They are scary good for moving many items and scouting.

Satyr Warriors can take arrows and you don't even have to worry about afflictions afterwards. Mix them up with Revelers and you have a bonus to enemy archer fire, even... higher offense from that group of units when they berserk.

If you're really all that worried about archers just get some Centaurs, they are superior to even Man's archers, just more expensive, but they'll win archer duels against them if they're not outnumbered more than 2:1 with their great hps and higher morale. Of course when you look at the costs, it's entirely possible you WILL be outnumbered by that much... but if they're shooting up your minos, the centaurs will have time to work.

Gold for gold and resource for resource, I think Satyr Warriors are probably the best non-sacred unit in EA. They can take hits; they can hold a line; they're very mobile, strong, and skilled. And cheap as all get out.

The only time I could see you using totally unbuffed Minotaur Warriors against archers would be in a rush, and I definitely wouldn't want to be blowing gold on harpies there. With Protection, they can soak up the archer fire just fine. JUST FINE, I say!

But... I like the two waves model when you're just looking to distract their archers. That's a nice trick.