Horse archers can't go that near, unless they want to meet a hail of throwing missiles. There is a quite a lot of archering involved in HA since combat is a lot more fluid compared to hide behind cover, step out shoot, hide. I think optimum HA range is just out of throwing distance. While speed is not a factor for HA, WPF reductions apparently still exist.
Well, horse archers CAN and we DO get that close, because of the shitting dmg drop off, to kill a tincan with a strong bow I must make him say "CHEESE" and place my arrowtip in his mouth before I fire to actually hurt the guy. Throwing is powerful, yes, but so are swords, crossbows, lances, etc. and I dont fear them, HA is about being able to outmanouver everyone else. The player named EGGNOGG something or other learnt this yesterday, when he tried to show that his courser could somehow compete with steppe horse. Speed and dmg are all very well, but not getting hit is still better than buying IF, or armour.
People need to change their outlook: Stop building to survive being hit, just avoid being hit, its easier, cheaper, and more reliably saves your life. Also this "hide, step out, shoot, hide" mentallity is what allows me to kill so easily: I stand in the open, you wont shoot me because I will shoot you first, with my more accurate and more powerful fire: PD6 150 wpf noone has yet survived a headshot, except ONCE i saw a guy take one from spawn to spawn, but I put that one down to range dropoff.
Meh, I wear armour so I can actually 1 match my clan and 2 not get one shot like all of the no-armor archers. If archers in real life wear light amounts of armor, and if archers in games (including this one) wear light amounts of armor, then I shall do so too.
To the OP: Unless you are Grey who dodges all shots and ignores the times when a crossbow has ganked him unaware or when he has messed up his dodging and thus dies due to his lack of armor, then you yourself actually need some small amounts of it to remain competative... Unless you do enjoy being one-shot the instant you make a mistake, because even BKS players sometimes mess up...
I dont mess up dodging, because Im so light on my feet, not having to cart that armour and shield around XD.
Clan? Theres no strategus right now, so therefor no clans, sry mate, just a friendsgroup. Match them if you want, even once strategus starts, your still gonna have to wear whatever the buyers pick when your in strategus. Public is to be YOU, not a clone.
Also, crossbow cannot gank, since it is a single shot weapon, used at range, a gank is a GANG KILL, so unless a gang of xbowmen shoot me......
I dont get ganked, I gank! XD