Greetings!
I wonder if you can help me with this. I want to place archers to guard my SH gates, but not sure how many “floors” high they can be and still shoot to anything down by the gates.
And the other question is: how can you build a nice looking spot for archers so that you can keep the “harmony” of your stronghold? It should still look nice 
Any screenshots will be appreciated too.
They can be up pretty high and still shoot down, but the AI can still bug on occasion and make them decide “Ehhh, I don’t really feel like fighting today.”
We’ve recently had to set up a massive gate (due to someone kiting the Giant Crocodile into our base) and have tested a few different “thrall walls.” Because of the slope we’ve built our gate on, it’s hard to judge the actual square distance between archer + target, but it is at least greater than 5 blocks.
Great shots @Tovakiin.
Higher than a spam jump, so two floors up at least. Place them on triangles with crens, preferably against a wall. Place their protectors on the opposite wall 1-2 floors up on triangles, surrounded by crens. Defenders who shoot down and are protected from strikes on high are the best. DLC Awnings are nice, cheap umbrellas. I’ve seen tons of raids defeated by archers using the angles of a game of pool. Just make sure you give them gas masks.
I found that archers can aggro to things on the ground when at the top level of a gate on top of foundations… so about four or five walls heights off the ground.
I found that they failed to hit their target on the ground if the angle is too acute … so if an attacker it at the gate door, the most effective archers will be the ones which are on ceiling tiles attached to the first, second, third wall either side of the gate… NOT on the gate itself. Archers directly above the door and on a platform attached to the wall next to the door will not get a good angle to shoot down.
I found that archers have problems hitting their target if there are crenulated walls between them and their target…
As Barnes said you can put triangle or square foundation pieces out from your walls to place archers…but I do not advise putting crenulated walls on the outside edges (unless you need to for anti-climb defence on a PvP server) as it will make your archers randomly miss the targets as they shoot into the edges of the crenulated wall…
Crenulated walls however are useful to stop them running out of their assigned place. So I put a crenulated wall between their extended platform and the walkway across the top of the gate to stop them running off their assigned spot to somewhere where they can shoot down.
PC users can be, well they can do alot with them.
Ps4 user on other hand, shouldn’t put them much higher then 2-3 foundation height. They have habit of not shooting below them or as far as PC does.
They have a 5-7m range on ps4. (they shoot further once enemy has back off)
I’ve had them on 4+ wall to pin cushion a dragon, (who could peek over it) And half of them would lose sight of it.
Ps4 anyway, its best to have no fence or obstruction blocking there vision. And no way down from there perch. As they’ll often run into melee range instead of firing from above.
I’ve had some on higher spots fire outward and down. But once anything closes in on wall, they stop firing in most cases. And start running around roof/wall trying get down.
2-3 height, they’ll often reangle pretty fast and keep firing.
PC users seem got a better Ai package going. =/
Thanks a lot everyone!
Lots of useful information and insights, now I sure have a better place to start from.
Good hunting! 
I, too, have found that distance is less a factor than the angle. Archers have very little chance of successfully attacking anything that’s hugging the wall on which the archer stands, and the dumb archers try to run as close to their target as possible, which means most of their arrows will strike the wall at their feet.
This is why I try to cover each approach to my bases with walls at an angle, each of which can see each other, like this:
Archers on the side wings can fire at enemies at the gate (which is under the elevated platform), the archers on the platform can fire at enemies who try to break the wings.