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They do have double the body armour but they run significantly slower with double the encumbrance. IMO Karhold are the worst of the 3, with a 10% upkeep increase over Raventree archers despite having lower attack speed and damage. Northern Archers are OK but outclassed by Freelancers by a long shot.Īmongst the super-elite high-cost Longbowmen are Karhold, Raventree, and Nights Watch Longbows. Ironborn and Westerland Longbowmen have extremely low weapon skill for their cost and the worst melee weapons in the game. The $11 Upkeep Freelance Archer is nearly as good as Elite archer competition that have $27 upkeep. They are almost as good as Karhold or Raventree bowmen, sacrificing 20 weapon skill, 42% damage buff and 7 athleticism for being approximately half price. They have the best melee weapon of Longbow competition, even beating specials by having the 109 reach Arming Sword.
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They can carry double the arrows of other archers- this alone may even make them preferable to elite alternatives for drawn out fights. I won't get into details but just to summarize, Freelancer Longbowmen have 140 weapon proficiency, which is almost what a super-elite $36+ upkeep special like Karhold or Raventree archers have. I'm talking about a $19 upkeep FL Longbowman beating elite counterparts that have a $27 upkeep by a significant margin on all levels.
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So, Bowmen: Hands down, at all levels, the Freelancer Archer and Longbow beat all non-special ranged units by a BIG margin, at both price and damage. So this discussion is discussing ranged specialists. The idea behind Crossbowmen is that they are heavily armoured and have a decent melee loadout. However, Crossbowmen do not benefit from the Power Draw buff and have an attack speed of generally half so will never compete with Bows for ranged killing power. Raventree Archers have the highest dismounted runspeed of any troop in the game, so with the 'Avoid Melee' special command from Tactics they will be able to avoid melee confrontation with all dismounted infantry.Īs a brief pre-cursor, Vale Crossbowmen are considered to be top tier for ranged, with extremely high armour and good melee fighting capacity mixed with a heavy crossbow and high weapon skill, at a low cost of $36. Of the special bowmen, Nightswatch Longbows may be better, however each variant has a perk (armour for Karhold, movespeed, cost & recruitability, and damage/speed for Raventree). TL:DR: Freelancer Longbows are the most cost-efficient bowmen in the game, beating all non-special bows at a fraction of the cost.