OKAY, I have my reservations about the Longbow, too; but I wanted to see if it can be used in a faction-pure army. Well, I tried and failed (understandably). But, I borrowed a few RotS artillery and came up with this:

HL Longbow
:^: DI Towed Field Artillery x1
:^^:DI Towed Field Artillery x2 (Republic)
:^^: Peasant Company x14

448 points

I would drop the HL Towed and add another Republic Towed and lose 1 peasant if I had another RotS Towed.

The idea is to shell the enemy while keeping the Longbow and artillery behind a peasant screen (peasants spaced to prevent base contact with artillery/mech). Units that come close get swatted with the Longbow's LRMs. Units that stay back get pogged.

No charging vs. my army. VTOLs get pogged. Formations get pogged. AnP won't work since peasants are spread out. Artillery Duel would be dangerous. Tank drop would be extremely dangerous; DF and SSw would probably own this army.

Well, now I've done it: I've made an army for the pariah of HL mechs. Yes, you could do more with those 261 points (like use Joel N., a Donar, and some other filler), but at least I tried. Nobody in their right mind would try this in a competition except to elicit gasps and giggles from opponents.

Thats exelent army with good basic tactic. This just shows that whining about Longbow's reletively weak defense(for HL assault mech) is pointless when there is army and tactic as base to support it.

Well, there are a dozen ways to kill this army, but as long as the peasants are alive, there's hope!

hmm immobile arty. no transp... bring the snipers'n'long toms!

I wouls not recoment HL Long Tom(its too inacurate) but i'm not sure about HL Sniper. I wonder if RotS has Sniper and/or Long Tom....

I considered using Snipers, but they are too expensive for this army. Two cost 122 points. Compare that to three DI Toweds for 120 points.

Also, I created an army guaranteed to win the Fellowship Prize (for pity's sake):

Longbow
HL Maxim
HL Hauberks x3
HL SM1 Tank Destroyer x2

448 points

The unfortunate thing about this army is that if your opponent is stupid enough or unlucky enough to lose to this army, he must commit seppuku.

yay i think u didn't understand. I said to bring those arties to defeat this turtle army

Well, yeah -- almost any decent AP artillery-based army can beat this army. The Toweds are fragile, but this army HAS to win the artillery duel to even have a chance to escape being obliterated. The fun of playing this army is in the challenge.

14 peasant companies. talk about serious loss of life. lets say about 20 people per company maybe more. time 14. Thats a lot of cannon fodder.lol

thing about that army is that your peasant will block your own arty... unless you figure out a way to place all 14 of them so that there will be no room for chargers to get in but enough room to stick your head out and shoot at people... and peasant companies only got 5 lil dudes per figures... i counted them :) 5x14=70 windows... and possibly 140 kid will grow up being b*st*rds.. given that 2 kids per family... you're a bad person them 140 kids will buy each a mech and shoot u... heheheheh

A company is more about 20 guys, Fearless. so 20x14=280, sooo... 280 widows and 560 half-orphans ;)

Yes, the Peasant Companies are loveable, crunchable cannon fodder. The hard part is writing letters to all of those widows.

Seriously, the peasants are spaced just close enough together to keep an enemy infantry from basing the screened unit. That will allow for some clear shots. Anyone who has used this tactic before will tell you that it does have some drawbacks, but you ought to be able to get off a few clear shots.

Now, if only the Longbow had artillery (like Thunder LRMs), we'd all be singing a different song about it. "5 AP damage at (who cares how many) inches? DUDE! It's the NEW CHEESE! All other cheese is obsolete!" C'mon, WK, it's not too late . . .

Erm - this army wont ever win a arty duel - if his arties cant move, their sitting ducks. A single arty with a transport can kill both units in 4 turns (shoot, push to shoot and load, unload and shoot, push to shoot).

Then a charge with your generic 10 attack mech - you need a 10 to hit (60% chance), and 4 clicks later, he's got 8 attack. so now you got 14 live peasant companies. Strangely, that's the most dangerous part of this army... unless you brought along a ROTS Balac.

Yes, its the Longbow Army of Death - for the one who fields it...

I'm not being mean, but really - this one is a very, very terminally ill army....

@Shiva --

That's the point. Trying to make a viable army for the Longbow is about as hard as trying to make it do neurosurgery. And yes, as the thread title suggests, it IS the army of death - for itself, as I have repeatedly suggested throughout this thread. Which you apparently haven't read. The RotS Balac won't do much because the peasants aren't touching anything. They are SCREENING. The 10 attack mech can't charge because the Longbow is SCREENED. Until the Peasants are crunchy and/or gooey, that is. But, as I have stated several times, this army has very little hope in even semi-competitive play.

So there's no need to not be mean. Be mean. Be ugly. The whole "I'll make an army for the Longbow" idea is an exercise in futility.