Mayan Plumed Archer

Rubbish goths player here, ELO 1000ish.

Just came up a player who had Mayan Elite Plumed Archers which just seemed to shred my huskarls and skirmishers.

I was trying to mass them. Then eventually I would send them in on “spread” formation, but they were just getting blitzed.

Admittedly I had forgot to upgrade them to Elite (I’m good at getting the essential upgrades... then somehow always miss this... FFS) which explains some of it.

But I was stunned at just how fucking ordinarily they would perform even once they got the chance to melee.

Even my elite Skirmishers were getting slammed by these things.

These archers were fanned our in an arc, meanwhile my skirmishers couldn’t fucking organise a piss up in a brewery let alone spread out and offer some resistance.

I have the habit of just clicking the closest available archer with 30 skirms, should I be using the patrol key? Where am I fucking up?

Thanks for the help.