I'd like to make a newer review.
I still like the Crossbow changes, now it is skill based, you can't do good when you spam body shots.
About archery;
Increased missile speed means shots are landed easier than before, that caused lots of people to become archers, even though they have no experience, they are doing good because the patch made archery luck based, regardless of your aiming skills.
And the amount of archers is so overwhelming, you literally can't hide because there is always one behind you. Imo class distribution should be top priority and banner balance as second.
I always say "get a shield" but a shield is useless without its ridiculous ghost protection and archers in every corner.
Plus to that, Warchief composite bow is the most accurate bow and the missile speed is enormous, it is basically a small arbalest.
And you didn't remove Elegant Bronze Long Bows yet, people are using it creating an unfair item gap between them and others.
Plus to that, now that horses almost get one shot from arrows, there is no real counter for archery in game.Except crossbows, but you literally can't show your head for more than one second.
For Strategus, it is far worse than EU1. Imagine half of a 50 people team is using bows and shooting at you from an upper hill, you only have hunting crossbows to counter them.
Please reduce the missile speed and increase the accuracy, that will make people who switched to archer because it is easy will quit and remaining archers will have good aiming skills.