Archer and Marksman

Castle creatures
Level 1
Pikeman
Halberdier
Level 2
Archer
Marksman
Level 3
Griffin
Royal Griffin
Level 4
Swordsman
Crusader
Level 5
Monk
Zealot
Level 6
Cavalier
Champion
Level 7
Angel
Archangel
Towns

Statistics
Archer
Cost per troop  100
	Attack 6 Defense 3 Damage 2–3 Health 10 Speed 4 Movement Ground Size 1 Shots 12 Growth 9 AI Value 126
Special abilities:
• Ranged attack
Marksman
Cost per troop  150
	Attack 6 Defense 3 Damage 2–3 (x2) Health 10 Speed 6 Movement Ground Size 1 Shots 24 Growth 9 AI Value 184
Special abilities:
• Ranged attack • Double attack
Portraits

Archers and Marksmen are level 2 creatures of Castle recruited from Archers' Towers.

"Archers and marksmen are lightly armored troops armed with crossbows for ranged combat and daggers for light hand-to-hand fighting. Marksmen can get off two shots in each ranged attack." ^{RoE manual}

Heroes with a specialty

• Valeska the Knight has archers as a specialty, which increases the attack and defense skills of any archer or marksman each level she attains after the 2nd level, and gives them a speed bonus of 1.
• Gelu the Ranger can upgrade Elves and Wood Elves (also Archers and Marksmen) into Sharpshooters.

User commentary

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They are critical in the early game, together with the Griffins, due to them being almost the only Castle ranged attackers, having good damage and also the marksmen's twice shot. However, with each ranged attack in a turn, the Marksmen will use up two shots, not one. Still, getting them damaged should be avoided, due to their hp and defense stats being equal and respectively lower than the level 1 Pikeman and Halberdier. Attack of 6 is average, Defense of 3 is just bad. Combined with 10 Health they are very vulnerable to just anything that can hit them. Speed of 4-6 is below average, but Marksmen should still be able to act before at least some early game opponents. Probably best spells to use on Archers are Precision and (Advanced) Bless if they are upgraded to Marksmen. Defensive spells will not be of much use, as they are very fragile to begin with, unless you can protect them from melee attackers with Force Field and enemy has no way of dispelling it or their own ranged troops. Low health and quite good ranged damage makes Marksmen great targets for direct damage spells. Advanced Curse is also very effective. While Archers are basic ranged troops and not much to speak of, Marksmen are very cost-effective troop upgrade, as they literally deal double the Archers' damage, provided they live to use their double shoot ability and it's not overkill. They don't get any other bonus apart from +2 Speed, however. In Castle army they provide basic ranged firepower, softening targets up for stronger melee troops to wipe out. In early game Pikemen and Halberdiers are good troops to pair Archers with, as they are quite tough, strong, and can tie a stronger enemy stack long enough for Archers to whittle it down. 1 Archangel can resurrect up to 10 Archers or Marksmen. Morale synergizes well with double attack, better than luck, but they can get lucky strike on any of their two shooting attacks, both, or none. Obviously the best secondary skill to combine with Archers is Archery. Another important skill is Tactics as they are incredibly fragile and should be kept away from melee. Leadership can be useful until morale bonus becomes redundant. Valeska specializes in Archers and Orrin's specialty greatly increases their damage.

See also:

• List of creatures

Strategy

OK, archers are good to boost the frontline griffins and pikemen in the early game to destroy most low-tier melee neutrals, upgrade them fast; marksmen deal twice the damage literally and are even more effective against those melees, possibly letting you take on tier 4-5 melees with minimal casualties, slow would help with this tactic a lot.