We will end up with stupid things like armies with a few infantry units to absorb damage for a few turns, then your archer retreat with next to no loss. Rinse and repeat next turn until the enemy is finally brought low by arrows.
And the enemy will adapt, spreading their army out, and your archers will do no damage. Both sides will have the same setting change.
Or, we end up with more archers used, and maybe one side has theirs set to retreat and the other doesn't, and the one that doesn't retreat wins the battle.
The idea of a orderly retreat after infantry are dead just doesn't really gel with me. There are reasons why in so many battle the majority of deaths were suffered AFTER the army left the field of battle. Don't archers already attempt to pull back from the melee lines? That should be more then enough, if you want something more then set archers to have low withdraw settings.
Low withdrawal only happens AFTER the infantry have reached your archers--at that point, it's too late.
Do you know what I see? I see infantry-heavy blob armies, with few archers, few cavalry, few SF, and few MI. I would like to see a combined-arms approach, and that only works well if the archers don't stand around like idiots while the opposing force moves 3 ranks towards them.
Archers already do less damage, due to range, wind, friendly troops on the line. Can't we make them work just a little smarter?
