Crossbowmen. How to make them work?

[Elkerlyc]

Hi everyone,

Admittedly I have very few games under my belt (about 5 or so as of yet) and out of those games I only saw Crossbowmen used once.
But watching them in action I was seriously underwhelmed.
Main thing seems to be the pretty short range given the fact that many units can charge you once they are in range to be fired upon.
(or close enough)

Did some of you make this unit work? If so; how?
I'd love to glean your insights and see them cost effective.
The way I look at it now I'd prefer halberdiers every day and twice on Sunday.

What am I missing?

 

[SunTzuArtOfWar]

Yes I agree and think that in general the ranged units are hard to use in ASOIAF. The Stark bowman are better because they ignore other units and terrain so can just line up behind other units and shoot, while also having the bonus 4 dice for a total of 10 if you don't shift. With the Crossbowman, you have the better starting dice line and the sundering (so better against armor) but no bonuses when not shifting and cannot shoot through other units or terrain. I guess if you shifted you infantry to leave a gap you could then shoot the enemy unit through the gap. Honestly though for 6 points I'm taking Halberdiers or Mountains men every time. Honestly wish I wouldn't have purchased the crossbowman. Once again I do feel the stark bowman especially with a crannogmen warden attached have there place, but I agree with you that the Crossbowman are hard to use or justify for the price.

 

[hithero]

I've used them twice. In the first game they deleted two units and finished of a third. I used Tyrion as Commander and stuck him in the unit. I marched moved up to a wall (a bog would be better as that buggers up enemy movement). I grabbed the free attack spot, they activated to shoot, he used his command card to activate them again instead of one of my other units; that's three shots in one turn. He also has cards that get back previously used ones, triple attack again and another dead unit.

In the second game, they scared of a unit from advancing into range, they got a shot of at another unit in combat with Mr Mountain and dealt some good damage but my oppo wiped them out without closing by using command cards and the NCU board, think 4 was my highest morale roll

So, use terrain to slow enemy advance, and place it a march move in to make sure you have targets. Of course you will need to do this from both sides of the table as you won't know what side you are starting on. Field Tyrion as your commander to make maximum use of those deadly crossbows when they get a nice target.

I've ordered a second set

 

[HydraulicGold2]

Personally, I use them to put Damage on units that my Guardsmen are tanking. I find that putting them as a Secondary rank, sniping through gaps let's them put in good work, while the Guardsmen act as a blocking force, to mitigate retaliation

 

[Oakwolf]

I used them with Tyrion as well. Got them in a good position and forfeited guardsmen activations for extra shots. Their attack is good against anything really. Guardsmen are great for this because once they have reached their objective, or once engaged, it's well worth trading their activation for a unit of crossbows. Besides, most of the guardsmen threat come from Lannster supremacy.