I looked at both options. And I realized that in both cases, a unicorn horn bow would be an excellent gift for archers.
A unicorn bow is a great gift for any ranged unit, and especially for the Titan; are you suggesting nerfing them too?)
Retaliation is unnecessary, because after the ranged units take damage, I might not have time to heal them, because they will kill the enemy stack (of ranged units) with a retaliatory attack.
It might be unnecessary; there was a choice between retaliation and maneuvering, but I already had experience with the second ability, and I decided to try retaliation.
In the second option, it would be worth giving crossbowmen 1 unit of defense, due to the large damage range.
Crossbowmen already received +1 unit to minimum damage, compared to the original version of archers; what else should be compensated?
There will also be certain difficulties in creating a box for ranged units, and this, in turn, will greatly complicate the passage of mobs, with which it is impossible to do without a box. Therefore, even despite the high damage, I will always take crossbowmen against neutrals, and most likely in the final as well. I'm afraid archers will not be very useful. Archers need to be protected, but in the end they will stand unprotected, as they will attack their own stacks if they are protected. One solution is to make it so that damage to their own units does not spread to creatures standing on adjacent cells.
Mages/Archmages have a similar ability, and so far no one has complained about it. A box is not an option for them; the unit was originally conceived differently.
It would be possible to give them a pattern that would allow them to be placed in a box, with battle mages, and not ordinary/archmages. Battle mages only hit their own units at certain angles.
Do I understand correctly that you are suggesting giving them the "Magic Dampening" ability of battle mages? The idea may not be bad, but then we will get a second, reduced copy of battle mages. In addition, piercing shot was introduced in Heroes 6, and it was quite good to play with.
