When I did the last episode of Archery Popshots covering Shogun 2 Total War, there were requests
to cover Rome 2. With even more DLCs and a massive update that added family trees, made
the tech and skill trees more visually intuitive, and other user interface changes that actually
made the game bearable to me, this was the right time to come back to Rome 2. And what
a rich world to explore again.
Unfortunately, covering the history and context of archery in the entirety of Rome 2 would
be enormous. That would be madness.
This DLC campaign for Rome 2 takes us back to the Classical period of Ancient Greece.
The Peloponnesian War pits the city-states of Greece against each other: Athens, Corinth,
Thebes, and of course, Sparta. And while this period was dominated by hoplite combat, the
bow and arrow were just as well known, and well recognised in history and legend.
It’s almost strange to imagine the Hellenic world and its ubiquitous use of heavy infantry:
the hoplites, armed with shield, sword and spear, fighting in the closely packed phalanx
formation, yet struggle to picture where archery would fit in. At the same time, Greek heroes
and legends were renowned for their archery skills. The deities Apollo and Artemis were
associated with bows and the hunt. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, we see renowned bowmen
such as Odysseus – famous for the feat of shooting through a dozen axe heads. Paris,
prince of Troy, used a bow in combat, and slew the mighty Achilles with an arrow to
the heel.
In reality, unlike their Persian neighbours, the Greeks did not widely adopt the bow in
their normal style of warfare. It could be said that hoplite combat was honourable, and
death in melee was more beautiful than being killed by an arrow. Some sources and scholars
attribute the low status of the bow and the archer to this idealism of war.
This didn’t mean that the bow was dismissed. It was a specialised weapon, albeit often
relegated to the lower classes who could not afford the equipment to fight as a hoplite,
instead fighting as light infantry alongside javelin throwers and slingers. The Athenians
were known to have maintained a corps of archers, and archers would see use in siege defence,
though had less of a presence in open battle and few battles record significant contributions
by archers.
The bows used by the Greeks were simple short self-bows. Later, illustrations of archers
showed them using a composite recurve bow, widely recognised as being imported from the
Scythians, a nomadic people who fought from horseback. Greek bows could shoot over 250m,
though they were more likely ranged with some accuracy at around 150m, and could shoot accurately
and directly at 50-60m. Notably, records indicate that Greek archers were outranged by Persian
archers, as was the case with Xenophon’s Ten Thousand, whose archers had to be protected
in formation.
While most of Greece largely did not adopt the bow in their military, the people of the
island of Crete became specialised archers. Their skill with the bow was so renowned,
they were hired as mercenaries by Greek city-states, particularly Sparta, and their archers would
be sought out centuries later by the Romans, and Cretan archers were present even up to
the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
The Wrath of Sparta mini-campaign focuses on Greece and the conflict between the major
city-states of Sparta, Athenai, Korinthos and the Boiotian League. As with real life,
the unit roster is greatly restricted to several different types of hoplites, along with support
troops such as cavalry and missile infantry.
The balance of power between the missile troops reflects their real-life counterparts. Javelin
throwers do a lot of damage, but have very short range and low ammunition. Slingers have
the longest range, but don’t do as much damage as archers, which are probably the
main support unit in your hoplite army.
You can rain arrows onto enemy units. However, more so here than in the main campaign, the
effect of archers is greatly mitigated by shields. Arrows simply bounce off the heavily
armoured hoplites, though the light-armoured hoplites will suffer more attrition damage
over time.
The real damage is in hitting the flanks and rear. With shields covering the front and
left, only the armour value is used in calculating damage when shooting at exposed sides, and
from these angles, units of archers can cause devastating damage, taking a unit of hoplites
down to the last man in several volleys. This is the key to breaking the deadlock of hoplite
combat: while the infantry hold the line, the archers run to the flanks. They are even
more effective than cavalry, who are countered easily by armoured spearmen and are better
suited to chasing down enemy ranged troops.
That’s assuming that your archers haven’t already dealt with them. Having 3-4 units
of archers adds a large amount of flexibility to your army, and I wouldn’t dare march
out without them.
It should go without saying that this is probably not how archers were used historically. In
Greek warfare, if archers were used at all, it was typically behind the infantry, or sometimes
embedded with the formations and engaging in short-distance sniping. As light troops,
archers have the historical advantage of being able to out-run the heavy infantry, but alone
they cannot defeat them. Running forward to flank was unlikely to be feasible, as that
would require an overview of the battlefield and instantaneous commands that would be available
to the player, but not a real life commander.
It should also be noted that historically, the Greeks did not deploy archers in massed
formations. This style of warfare would be more commonly seen in the medieval times,
especially with the English archers. As devastating as a volley of arrows would be, Greek armies
were more devoted to infantry combat rather than investing resources into the highly specialised
archers. The fate of the battle was determined by which phalanx broke first.
Of course, this is Total War, and we have the liberty of playing with historical units
in ahistorical ways, and that’s what makes the game fun.
Unlike the original Rome, Rome 2 makes more of an effort to depict battles in realistic
ways, and you might be surprised to learn that some of the smaller details are well
researched.
Taking a look at the archer’s unit model, we see that the archer uses the simple wooden
self-bow with size and proportion close to what we see in the source material. The archer
wears an arrow quiver on the left side, and this might pique your curiosity. Most archers
are more familiar with bags and quivers worn on the right, but pulling arrows from a cross-body
position would have been plausible. In fact, historians have identified that light Greek
archers may have carried up to 200 arrows and shot at a rapid speed – up to 10 aimed
shots per minute. Some depictions also show archers carrying light shields.
The Cretan archers appear as mercenaries. On paper, their bows have more range and do
more damage than their regular counterparts. Their unit model features the linothorax armour,
though this doesn’t really help them in melee. They also seem to use composite bows,
likely derived from the Scythian bows that appeared from northern tribes. Cretan archers
are able to make use of whistling arrows to damage morale, and heavy shot to inflict more
damage but at the cost of range and accuracy. This is particularly devastating against the
heavily armoured hoplites, almost ignoring all armour. This isn’t far from history
– sources make reference to long arrows with heavy arrowheads that could pierce through
shields and armour, but only at very short distance.
The animations are not very specific, but we can see that the game roughly shows a conventional
Mediterranean grip, with the first two or three fingers pulling the string back. The
source material is rather ambiguous, depicting a “Greek” pinch draw or a Mediterranean
draw of some variant. What is known from historical sources is that Greek archers drew the string
to the chest, which is exactly what we see here. Drawing towards the ear or cheek, as
many of us would know today, was more of a medieval development.
Speaking of animations, Rome 2 has improved the fluidity of the shooting. For the most
part, archers no longer hold onto the bow for extended lengths and instead execute the
shot more cleanly. In general, missile units are more responsive, beginning their shooting
cycles quicker on command and not being stuck on reload while one archer is out of position.
Considering that archer units are just one out of many in Rome 2, the game does a reasonably
good job of illustrating them in a battle environment, and they are fairly well balanced
for gameplay purposes. If there’s anything really missing from the Hellenic campaign,
it’s that Greek archers were also known to be mobile combatants, shooting from kneeling
positions and being more versatile instead of being static massed archers.
It’s interesting how a campaign that focuses on hoplite combat brings out the importance
of archers and other missile troops. Without them, battles are long and drawn out – much
like how ancient Greek battles actually were. By bringing in mobile missile troops, the
player gets to out-play their opponents, risking their potent but vulnerable archers or slingers
to cause havoc in enemy lines, thinning out enemy infantry and breaking morale. In fact,
it wouldn’t be unusual to see archers accumulate the most kills in campaign battles. They are
the tilt factor in armies and can make all the difference in close matches.
Of course, we should be wary that Greek armies did not shoot volley upon volley of arrows
into the backs of enemy hoplite formations. That was simply not the Greek way.
That brings us to the end of our first foray into the Rome 2 franchise. Should we look
further? Post your thoughts in the comments below. This is NUSensei. As usual, shoot straight,
and aim for your best.