Custom Archive Page

Hi All,

I’m trying to make a modification to the way that WordPress handles archives.

I understand that something like https://www.mysite.com/?cat=14, will load the archive.php template file with the cat set to 14.

What I’m trying to do is modify something like https://www.mysite.com/?paged=2, so that instead of loading my index.php template file, it loads the archive.php template file and show page 2 of my blog posts. My home page is unique so I dont want it to be the page refreshing from page to page but rather the really slimmed down archive.php template file instead.

Any help would be appreciated.

Best,
Cent