Why has no clan choose to do fire by rank with crossbows on the battle server?

[Banzai!!!]

I am fairly new to this mod and I have been wondering that what with Arbalest crossbows able to deal 81 pierce damage why no clan has choose to decimate the battle server by all getting together and doing fire by rank against all these heavily armed people?

I realise that alot of the tactical gameplay takes place on strategus and perhaps this 'fire by rank' is done on strategus but I think it would be just epic to see all these people who may be skilled when it comes to using a sword or have lots of money to get the best equipment just get mowed down by a continuous barrage of crossbow bolts 

[BaldRider]

Simply because fire by rank in the most retarded tactic that ever existed.
It's only function is keeping your worthless troops from not retreating.

[Lizard_man]

A bunch of people lined up, easy targets for archers...

[Ujin]

We did it a long time ago (still was the Shogunate) for a while, just for shits and giggles =). Not too efficient though.

[Lange]

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/8152847/Funny_Things_with_HRE_by_dLR

Note it took two rounds to kill that guy.


Would probably be more effective with all crossbow-chars, but still...

[The_Bloody_Nine]

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[Turkhammer]

Real crossbow users had an assistant who placed a portable shield in front of both of them when they were in the field.  That would be a nice addition to C RPG.

[Osiris]

you cant really fire by rank unless you can kneel

[Christo]

Simply because fire by rank in the most retarded tactic that ever existed.
It's only function is keeping your worthless troops from not retreating.

^

I really don't like this kinda tactic, it's up there with WW1 in stupidity and dying for nothing.

[Greziz]

Probably because massing in a location and trying to organize draws attention this attention is generally archers with fast fire rates and good aim from relentless practice that almost no human in life could ever achieve with real battles. So in essence your just lining up to be slaughtered also doesn't help that the crossbow is by in far the most inferior of the ranged weapons as once it fires its shot your sol in the open and thus you must take cover and anything that flanks or forces you from cover reduces you to a hybrid melee character without the range being used even remotely to its fullest use in most cases. There is a reason there are dedicated throwers and archers but dedicated xbow men tend to be much rarer it is because the dedicated ranged classes are able to move and fire and thus always stand a chance of real return fire vs another ranged class that can move and fire/reload xbows only good quality it has is single 1 shot raw hitting power and ammo speed and both of those qualities have been nerfed to being only narrowly almost non existently slightly better than a long bow arrow and dmg.

[dodnet]

Fire in ranks really was one of the stupiest tactics on the battlefield. I dunno why it was even used for such a long time.

[Azrael]

My clan has done it, it is quite fun however we do not do a line formation cuz that is too vulnerable to arrows. it is quite fun and can be efficient if your team has good aim

[isatis]

one thing: big mob is a good target for catapult

that's all.

[Jarlek]

Fire in ranks really was one of the stupiest tactics on the battlefield. I dunno why it was even used for such a long time.

I believe it was mainly used to make cavalry unable to attack you. If infantry stood very close together it was almost impossible to make a horse charge into them. Horses aren't stupid animals and wont charge something it believes it can't run through, especially if that mass of humans are pointing sharp objects (spears/pikes) or loud sticks that shoots fire (guns). The fire by rank was then the most efficient way to make as many people able to fire while staying in a concentrated mass. Ofc, it made them more vulnerable to enemy fire and artillery, but it was usually better to have a random chance to be shot by the enemy, than definitely be ridden down by the enemy cavalry. This is why the skirmishers and other light infantry (those who DIDN'T stand in a centred mass) greatest threat was cavalry. Skirmishers could easily defeat a larger force of normal infantry, and artillery was even less effective, but cavalry would cut them to pieces if they could get to them.

[Renten]

You can only get by hit one attack a time. So if 40 bolts hit you at the same time you'd only get hit by one and likely survive.
Fire by squad* or down the line would work better.

*1/5 of the total fires at a time down the line.