Quote Originally Posted by Alusair View Post
The problem is, you're wiping out 100k scouts for probably around 30k~ archers per hit. If you can set up a scenario where you can hit the archers directly with a solid team of cataphracts/cavalry, you can do significantly much more damage. I've seen upwards of 250k (possibly 300k? can't remember) archers wiped out with a single 100k cataphract wave. Unfortunately I can't remember the cataphract losses, but they were the winning side.

A major issue is, of course, getting the defences whittled down so you can strike the archers with the cataphracts (unless you already know some of the more effective manners of doing so), but IMO it makes for a more impressive battle report when done.
For a moderator you fail to see the economics of the fight. For one, when you reach high level fighting you are not talking about just a few waves on the enemy. When you use scout bombs you are also dumping honor on the person and gaining 50% back while having them receive 10%. Also you do not just attack by yourself but use group effort from several members to send scout bombs at a city. Yes cav layered with ranged attack can do well on specific cities with wall range cut and layers gotten rid of but that only works with an offline player. 1 abatis and some layers pumping and goodbye uber attack numbers. instead your little cav masterpiece will be wiped. On the other hand, throwing bombs with layers in with the mix and timed together will kill mass amounts of the archers and make the person get 10% for many attacks. That will kill the attack power of that person. Also, any who reinforce that city will also be getting back 10%. In long fights the only way to effectively wear down your opponent is to bomb with layers thrown in at proper times kill ats if gates are closed, kill 'bomb shield' troops to let bombs kill archers and to saddle the person with 10% heal rate.