"Successor archers... skirmishers and/or formed units?" Topic

Another question to help me along with my Pyrrhic/ Macedonia successor army:

Pyrrhus supposedly had 2,000 archers coming over with him to Italy. I've ordered a copy of Duncan's "Armies of Macedonian and Punic Wars" but it's going to be a while coming, and I'm just a little impatient to know: were archers only used in skirmish units or would a successor army also have formed units of archers? Most army lists for my rules style have them as skirmishers only, but are there any accounts of them as formed units?

Gratias!

Pyrrhus probably had skirmishers. Some of the Successors farther east may have had a few formed archers.

Definitely skirmishers.

In the olde days WRG allowed the Seleucid levy as formed archers. In the 'modern' world I think all are open order skirmishers.

Seleucids had Arabs as allies and these may have had archers in their ranks. Pontic armies did use formed archers.

The archers were used as an escort for the elephants at Asculum. Successor elephants usually had an escort of about 50 infantry per elephant.

Pyrrhus had Cretan archers in his initial army. These were noted as high quality archers and were comparable to peltasts in fighting ability and equipment. They could also be described as javelineers in some armies, since they carried small shields and swords.

Their high level of experience means they could be open order troops, or skirmishers-- which is the usual deployment option chosen by gamers.

Cretan archers once stood up to a Roman Legion in Thessaly on rough ground behind a barricade, some tried to resist by using bunches of arrows as stabbing weapons if they did not have swords. They were defeated of course.