As an ongoing bit of editorial license, I'll be bringing up tactical hints to use with MW and AW. Here's one that I always have interest in...enemy close order archers and now to deal with them.

Here you are, facing an army of close order archers arrayed waiting to shoot your army into oblivion. Your unarmored apearmen are going to be in very bad straits! What can you do to keep from being slaughtered like the Scots were at Falkirk and Halidon Hill?

Let's look at the effectiveness of of the enemy archer fire. At long range, they will start with a base factor of 10 needed for a hit on your spearmen. You are unarmored, however, bringing this down to an 8. He will probably have Defend orders, if awaiting you, so with four figures per stand (he is close order), his factor to hit you at long range is now 6-10. You are shielded, so this brings it back up to a 7-10. That's still a 40% chance per stand shooting getting a hit on your spearmen...at long range! Move into effective range, and the odds are 60% for a hit - and at close range, it's a whopping 80%! Ouch. Okay, what can you do to cut this rate down?

First of all, put your spearmen into shieldwall once they are within effective range. This will cut their casualty rate by 10%,not a huge difference, but it helps. Remember, in shieldwall you only get to move at 1/2 speed, so don't go into it until you are close enough to charge and hit the archers in one turn at the most. There's no sense in taking more hits than necessary.

The other thing to do is to screen your vulnerable unarmored foot with skirmish infantry. That's what they are for. They are much harder to hit, if shielded, with 20%, 40% and 60% hit probabilities instead of your unarmored foot with 40%, 60% and 80%. Sure, they'll be hit and hit hard, but every shot at them is one less you'll have on your spearmen. Keep the SI in front of the spearmen, that way even if your opponent has double Defend orders, he still can't direct the fire on your spearmen...the SI are blocking that shot.

Once your SI are within range, you get to shoot back at his archers and get some hits of your own on them before your spearmen close in for the kill. These SI work equally well screening your vulnerable heavy cavalry.

The enemy archers will be in trouble once they are involved in a close combat, having no weapon and often, no shield. A smart opponent may have given the archers Retreat orders to get them out of harms way. That's okay. Always have a unit supporting your attacker, as the enemy archers will be disordered after their retreat. Next turn, before they can recover, charge them with your supporting unit while your spearmen recover from their charge. Charge into the archers and enjoy the fun. You should be able to rout them in tow turns at the most as they are already disordered.

What about when the enemy archers are part of a mixed unit with spearmen in front of them? This is a much tougher situation. Now they can sit and fight as well as shoot. I recommend skirmishers in front to tie these units up while you move against his flanks. Large, mixed weaponry units are costly and are vulnerable if you can get around them. Frontally, keep them occupied with your skirmishers.

I should note here that Ken Brate has adopted this tactic and it allowed him to close with my Anglo-Normans with virtually no casualties on his close order, unarmored spearmen. His skirmishers screened the spearmen from the deadly archery.