[Uh-Nu-Buh]

Japanese Bows are over 7 feet in length. Historically, they are the largest in the world. They are laminated composite recurves, made of bamboo wood and natural resins. They are labelled according to how many people it took to string them: 7 man bow, 4 man bow.... The tales of the warring states give the impression of their power being akin to siege engines, with great archers destroying ships by puncturing their hulls. The bow is peculiarly suited to mounted combat as well, since it is asymmetric, with 2/3'rds of the bow above the grip, and only 1/3'rd below, it is very manouverable from the saddle. They have dozens of war arrows, each producing a different effect. One howls thru the air producing terror in the enemy, another whistles as it destroys evil spirits, another has an indented curve that allows it to catch and cut ropes/strings, fire arrows were common. Just as with an English longbowman, it takes years and years to train a Japanese bowman.

I suggest that these bowmen be powerful, but expensive. Japanese footsoldiers were essentially draftees. Inexpensive, poorly equipped, and fodder. Samurai were often well-equipped (they routinely looted the dead), well-trained, and deadly. I suggest that the commander samurai be very powerful att/def/armor/weapon, but that the regular samurai come in low/med/high with corresponding stats--and the high being much more expensive than the low. I suggest that bowmen only come in one Category--high. The bow was the weapon of the aristocracy.