Dark Knight

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Now, what if that tiny squad up front consists of wights? Do you still want to ignore?

On the other hand, if there are only say, 10 units out of a hostile hundred, and you have forty archers? Maybe cap the number of archers who can target those squares at 20 or 4 or some mathematically calculated percentage based on proportion of hostiles relative to number of friendly archers, and force the rest to target elsewhere.

Alternatively, factor something into the equation where if archers are split into two squads, they are more likely to target other squads?

Well... as I don't play archer races, I don't really care about archer decoying yet.

[LoloMo]

Or just add another command "Fire at Largest Squad". The archers preferentially target the most numerous squad.

Also, "Fire Middle", "Fire Rear", in addition to the "Fire Closest". The enemy half of the battlefield can be segmented into 9 sections. Archers would preferentially target an enemy squad in a section directly opposite its own. So an archer located in a lower section with "Fire Middle" orders would preferentially target an enemy squad in the Middle, Lower section of the enemy's side of the battlefield.

Probably easier to code too.

[Jazzepi]

I like the idea of a "fire at largest squad" using the AI firing the way I mentioned above.

Jazzepi

[sum1lost]

I do think that a screen is entirely thematic and valid, but if the game was not meant to encorporate them, then it wasn't meant to.

[Kristoffer O]

Archer screens are not unheard of. But they should be screens and not just three guys.

Shooting beyond the closest target is also something that is not very historic. Target closest should be the default for archers, but would worsen the single-unit-squad decoy tactics.