Arquero Compuesto Élite

The Composite Bowman is a foot archer with an attack which ignores the pierce armor of all land units except siege units. Thus, its special ability does not apply to ships and buildings either. The unit is hard to balance in certain matchups, since it negates many archer-resistant units like the Elite Skirmisher, Huskarl, Ghulam, and Rattan Archer. However, anti-archer units such as Elite Skirmishers are still deadly to them, thanks to their bonus damage, while Mangonels and Scorpions are unaffected by the Composite Bowman's anti-armor effect, and thus are still very effective against them. Rams and Armored Elephants will also absorb their shots, just like with any other archers. Compared to the Archer line, it must negate at least 1 pierce armor in the Castle Age and 2 pierce armor with the Elite form to compensate for its low attack (2 and 3 for Spear units due to lower attack bonus). Luckily, this is not a huge barrier to cross, since the armor difference is matched exactly by the armor upgrades of the previous Age. The only non-Spear units which fail to cross this barrier (and hence for them, Archers are better than Composite Bowmen) are the Monk (except for Bengalis), Trade Cart, and Burmese Archers in the Imperial Age. This makes them really good against cavalry if they can maintain a distance, since negating armor is like having +4 attack in the Castle Age and at least +6 attack in the Imperial Age. However, Composite Bowmen have a slightly longer attack delay than Crossbowmen; coupled with their shorter range, this makes them less effective at hit-and-run tactics. The Composite Bowman has some subtle advantages, like melee armor, which is increased with the Elite upgrade, and its projectiles move in a straight line. This makes them similar to Hand Cannoneers and ranged melee units since even without Ballistics, they can hit targets coming towards or fleeing away from them in a straight line. This ability is capped by giving Composite Bowmen a low pierce attack and range of 4 (the same range as mounted archers) in both the standard and Elite forms. The attack does not matter much, except against some siege units, but the lack of range is an issue. The range disadvantage makes it vulnerable to be kited by other foot archers, and siege weapons are much more threatening (since they resist the armor-ignoring attack). Another bottleneck is the lack of Thumb Ring for the Armenians, which hurts their fire rate, but not their accuracy, since they are already 100% accurate. A potent counter to Composite Bowmen can be Ballista Elephants, since as siege, they resist the armor-ignoring attack, and as Scorpions, they chew through groups of them, while being tanky and competing in the same range bracket, though they should be cautious of Armenian Monks. Despite being able to ignore armor, the attack doesn't ignore the anti-projectile dodge meter that Shrivamsha Riders get, making Shrivamsha Riders a very powerful counter to Composite Bowmen. The best pairing for Composite Bowmen is Mangonels to counter enemy archers and siege, but this is risky, since they do not have Siege Engineers and Bombard Cannons to compete with enemy siege in late game. Warrior Priests can also work in the mid-game, as they can form a potent meat shield, are faster than Swordsmen (after Fervor), and can heal each other and Composite Bowmen.