Initiative isn't that good on xbow. Vs enemy archers it's advantageous to move after them, since you both wait and their xbow will move and shoot first, giving you a clear shot.
Ranged def isn't really useful on your archers. Unless your entire outfit is high def enemy archers will just gangbang your other guys while staying out of range of your own archers, which is much worse than them shooting you and you killing them back.
Rotation is superior to footwork and you don't really need both. You need bags&belts + quick hands for anything involving throwing, you will be useless otherwise. Quick hands for archers is very good but not mandatory.
Agreed that there is no real reason to go hybrid melee/ranged, you are just wasting valuable stat points.
Initiative+dodge (which depends on initiative) = ninja ranged bros, at least for the first turns, when fatigue doesn't fuck with your initiative, and those first turns are where any ranged confrontation is decided anyway. I can't even remember when was the last time one of my ranged brothers was hit by an arrow. Even more so when your crossbows have to get near their bowmen to get them. Nobody likes to be on the receiving end of Crécy, thank you very much.
No ranged defence on your archers? Now I understand why everybody complains about enemy ranged units murdering their archers in one turn. I pump it every single level up, even if it's only +1.
Otherwise your archers fire first, your melee brothers advance, and then their archers murder yours because they don't have a shield in front of them anymore, and no ranged defence.
The enemy range units attacking anyone but my archers? GOOD. Everyone has heavy armor, heavy helmets, my 2 handers have steel brow and my shield bros a big ass kite shield. Good luck with that.
And while they are trying to open my tin men, my archers will kill them all. Everybody wins. Except them.
And the enemy archers shouldn't be able to fire at your bros while outside your archers range, unless you are charging ahead with your line while leaving the archers behind. And why would you do that? Besides they don't really do that, normally they either turtle up when in ranged superiority, or they charge at you, and then THEY leave their archers exposed to yours.
Rotation needs you to have an ally next to you, and if that ally is already in melee, you've just gone from one bad situation to another. Footwork let's you dance away even if you are alone in the world, while the necrosavant gets netted and poked to death by the cavalry.
My legionaries get b&b and quickhands, but only because my shieldbro build is perk-light. I'm pretty sure they could manage with loosing half a turn to change weapons, and with carrying only EIGHT throwing axes.
My range bros on the other hand never get neither, and seem to be doing okay. If they're not using any melee weapon, that's 30 ammunition they're carrying. Unless they enter machinegun mode, it's never been a problem.
In the end, I suppose it comes to personal choice.
¿Berserker on crossbowmen? Surely that's heresy. It doesn't benefit them in the least. Drop it.
thing is you run out of viable perks on a crossbowman very fast, so then you just pick shit at random even if the boon is negligible, and berserk gives you a free attack every now and again (kill, reload, shoop again), which isn't the worst of deals
We must play crossbowman differently.
I do need extra-perks.
If i had room, i would take executioner (since i cripple every hit) and frenzy, for example. Also would take battlle-forged. Adrenaline looks nice for some situations for low Int crossbowman, etc.
Absolutely agree. When I was ready to create my definitive builds, I always ran into the same problem with my ranged bros: not enough perks. In the end it was sacrifice either pathfinder or bulls-eye. Normally I go with the first.
And berserker would only give you an extra attack, in the first turn, if you manage to kill an enemy with the first bolt:
You start with 9 AP, -2 for the attack, 7 AP. If (if!) it kills, you are back on 9 AP. -7 to reload, 2 AP, one more shot. End turn.
Next turn, you need to reload, 9 AP - 7 AP leaves 2 AP. Even if you manage to kill an enemy with that shot, you only have 4 AP. Not enough to reload (enough to relocate, as has been said before).
And then next turn you need to reload again, so even if you manage to kill an enemy, you can never reload twice in a turn (14 AP). Berserker on crossbowmen (if taken to attack) is useless, except on the first turn, in very exceptional situations.
Or I'm bad at math, which is also a possibility.
I seem to remember carrying loaded crossbows in the bags and changing them with quickhands and shooting god knows how many times in a turn, but either they changed it (because stashed crossbows start unloaded now) or my mind is playing tricks with me.