Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)
Missile troops may only use missile attacks from the back rows of the battle. Missile troops in the front row will engage in melee combat using their attack rating.
Each missile trooper who makes an attack during the missile phase must be protected by a front row melee fighter. Therefore, the number of missile attacks taken by a side during the missile phase will never be more than the number of fighters that side has in its front row.
For example, if a stack has 25 lt. foot in the front row and 35 archers behind them, only 25 archers will be able to attack during the missile phase. The remaining 10 archers hold themselves in reserve; they do not advance to the front row.
If the location of the battle is windy, all missile ratings are halved. If it is raining, the missile rating for archers and elite archers is reduced to zero. The location of a battle is based on the defending stack. This may be different from the location of the attacking stack (e.g., when attacking from one province into another).