Age of Strategy Forums

Perhaps we can increase bonuses from 50% to 200%

This would make them more of a threat again'st archers.

Especially when rng and poison does them in.

It may be too much.
I already did something actually - skirmishers have bigger bonus vs mounted archers.

They have enough p.armor to stand as archer counter.
The only thing left maybe is make them better at skirmishing aka. harrasing armies, making enemy break the formation to deal with skirmishers.
And allowing them to finish escaping archers.
I was thinking of two possible ways:
1. Increasing their range.
2. Increasing their movement.

Flavor-wise I'd go for movement (skirmisher horseman could be 6 speed, normal ones 4). I works for atl-atl users, so it could work for regular skirmisher.

One more speed is basically like first strike ability considering their low range

That's one of the ways skirmishing worked.
You send some cheap forces on the flanks, that are too spread/shielded somehow to effectively deal with them using archers to make enemy break some forces - and possibly go right into an ambush.

Right now this tactic is much more effectively used with horse archers (which was btw. common strategy used by steppe armies, like mongols).

Mmm... Makes sense, can this be done?

How about give them some bonus on melee foot like 25% to increase dmg by 1-2 points of damage
(Do the math on from 4BaseDmg +)

Problem is, that infantry (especially medium and light) already have many units, that have bonuses against them.
When I was thinking about just giving straight bonuses I was rather considering low bonus vs mounted (exactly 20-25%).
But I still think speed would be better.

2020.02.02:
I was thinking about this a little, and came up with increased bonused in upgraded skirmishers - elite would have +60% and master +70% to deal with archer upgrades in exact same time - 2 turns.
Also +25% vs mounted, 4 speed and increased sight are in the pack.
Skirmisher horseman also get's +1 speed and +25% vs cavalry.