Heavy Foot vs Missile Troops Question

[siRkid]

Storm of Arrows - I know this will be hard to answer without a specific example but here goes. I've seen a lot of attacks by heavy foot against missile troops where the heavies come off on the worst end. Why is this? My whole life I've been taught that once the heavies caught up with the missile troops they would slaughter them.

[jomni]

Not unless the missile troops are armed with melee weapons.

[jdew]

It depends on what kind of missile troops.

If they are Medium Foot, then they can engage Heavy Foot and possibly win (depends on the die rolls). The English longbowmen, for example, are MF. The MF class is described as:

"Foot troops capable of fighting in close formation, but less reliant on formation for their fighting style, and hence better suited than heavy foot to fighting in rough terrain.  They are capable of fighting alongside heavy foot in the open, but are less able to resist a mounted charge  and are less resilient to losing a fight.  Three foot figures per battle group."

Mounted heavies might better engage MF archers... that was a typical French tactic (and why English longbowmen would deploy their stakes once they took up their defensive position).