It doesn't take much to realize if you send 8 archers up against 8 opposing archers they will eliminate each other. Archers should never engage their own kind without clearly being able to win. In fact there are only two proper uses for archers and far too many people have not discovered them. -- Archer should supplement your melee units and they should give you a definite command over a situation. They are certainly not the best unit in your army, and rarely will you win with them, but they are still incredibly important.

Archers supplement the melee units by:

1. Taking out incoming dwarves, wights, and other undesirable units that could cause great damage if allowed within proximity of your troops.
   
   
2. Scattering arrows into opposing infantry forces before they clash with your own.
   
   
3. Concentrating fire on "open" targets caught in mid-battle with your melee forces after the initial clash.

Archers give definite command over a situation by:

1. Harassing other players until they are forced to commit to an attack
   
   
2. Letting you set up your defense under your own conditions in the location of your choosing.
   
   
3. Giving you infinite potential damage without you taking any in return.

The trick is learning to apply both of these guidelines in the same game. You must value your archers prior to the melee clash but once it starts it is ok to sacrifice them for a greater purpose.

You must realize that if you have archers but no infantry you are screwed, however if you lose your archers but still have a handful of infantry you can contest flags and have a chance at winning. The units that are the most damaging to your infantry are dwarves, wights, and enemy infantry. The arrows of your opponent do only minor damage to your troops' armor thus making archers the least of your worries. When you engage in a battle your archers should begin taking out the most damaging units as fast as they can -- in other words: kill wights and dwarves above all, then start firing at the backs of opposing infantry while they are busy fighting your own. Just make sure you move to where you can get a clear shot off so you avoid killing your own troops <g>. Meanwhile if your enemy targets your archers with their own they will only be damaging the weakest attackers while your archers will be damaging the strongest of the enemies. Sounds like a good deal to me. After your infantry slaughters the opposing forces you can have fun watching the warriors chase down the foolish archers that spent the battle attacking your own and not the very units that are about to cut them down.

But if you only use your archers to sacrifice for your warriors you are still wasting them. Think of the huge advantage having archers gives you over a player who has none. It gives you the ability to set up a perfect pincer and chase your enemy around the map weakening their troops until they have no choice but to charge into your trap.

Now think of being on the higher ground when facing someone with an equal archer force. Your opponent must either go around (in a 10 min game?), try to win the archer battle (against your height advantage?), or just charge (up the hill into your pincer?). If he runs follow and start picking away at him with archers until he stops and tries to fight you, then run back up the hill and repeat. Either way as long as you have the archers and can get to the better terrain you are in control. In this case you would be giving up your control of the battle if you just went straight for the battle and did the usual archer sacrifice.

Once you can master both uses of archers and stop wasting them you will have much more success. After all they cost 3 points each so you damn well better make the most of them.