Archers (Light Armour)

Archers (Light Armour) is a High Elves missile infantry unit in Total War: Warhammer II. The bow is as natural to the High Elves as breathing; each shot is a masterpiece of death from afar.

Description
When a High Elf begins his martial training, he first learns the arts of swordsmanship and archery. Only when he has mastered both blade and bow is he inducted into the white-garbed ranks of an archer regiment. For the High Elves, white is the colour of purity and integrity and of death, and their robes symbolise their determination to fight to the end, no matter what horrors await them on the battlefield. Once trained, an archer serves in his regiment for a decade or more, forsaking all previous allegiances. There, he will learn how to send volleys of arrows high into the air, so that they scythe into the enemy ranks from above, and when to hold fire against a charging foe, so that every shot cripples or kills. Most of all, he learns to focus his pride into a courage that will allow him to stand his ground. Ulthuan is forever beset by grave perils, and even the finest weapons are worth naught without valorous hands to wield them.

Strategy
Compared to the unarmored Archers, these ones´ armor value goes up from "practically nonexistent" to "light protection". They go from 15 armour to 40 armour which is equal to a High Elf Spearmen unit. It helps provide a bit more protection against missile fire, hounds and other harass units, but 40 armour is still not a lot. Similarly, they gain 4 melee defence which is nice, but not enough to be significant. The difference in upkeep to regular archers is negligible, but so is the difference in survivability.

Trivia

 * No High Elf archer unit has armour values above 40. Despite being lightly armoured, this unit has the same amount of armour as the Everqueen's Court Guards (Sisters of Avelorn).