Not everything will work properly in a video game. Sometimes things fail, and that can only happen in Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord, mainly because the game is in Early Access. Players of the game are likely to find small issues and bugs with it, such as issues with quests, talking to NPCs, attempting specific combat scenarios, or even besieging a castle. A notable issue that some players are experiencing is Bannerlord having his archers shot in combat.
The first thing you want to do is try to line them up with the correct troop commands. You want to make sure you turn fire control on / off at will, which you can do by pressing the F4 button. All you have to do is click this button a few times, and you want to make sure you set ot to "shoot at will". If you don't have it, your archers will refrain from shooting during a combat situation, and you may find yourself running out of luck as melee fighters prepare it, potentially tearing them apart.
For those who have rechecked and are not experiencing this minor issue, there might be a different issue at work which is these archers do not have a clear line of fire. An archer in Bannerlord won't shoot an arrow if they don't have a clean shot, and a friendly troop in front of them can prevent them from firing. To make it easier for them to see the players have moved their troops into "loose" formation. You can do this by double-clicking the F3 key, changing the overall structure of your troop.
Players have reported attempting these fixes, and they still come across archers who don't shoot as often as they expected. Veteran players of the Mount and Blade franchise have noted that Bannerlord archers have a significantly reduced range compared to a previous game, Warband. If you expect your troops to shoot the same distance in this game, unfortunately they are not. Make sure you try to distribute your troops, fight in an open field, or place them behind a wall of shields, perhaps to make it easier for them during an encounter.
