Crossbows vs. Longbows

[Maerlande]

Hmm, decent analysis BigDaddy.

Fatigue comes in to play.

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by BigDaddy

Still, I think I'm understanding more of the situation here. The crossbowmen were unskilled. Skilled crossbowmen worked in teams of three with two loaders and a shooter with 3 crossbows and a couple shields that make a wall, but those were mercenaries. Essentially all the longbowmen were a type of mercenary as well. These were all skilled units. The crossbowmen were handed a weapon and sent out.

Something like this, yes. You should also note that numbers of such skilled crossbowmen in mercenary units were sometimes less even than numbers of knights - crossbows included some rather intricate details, so were not that common. I've seen a publication of a muster rolls of some mercenary companies - numbers such as 15 knights and 20 crossbowmen seem quite common.
And another thing - crossbow contained an inherent factor of accuracy problem: a joining of bow to stock (forgot a proper name of it). In many museum pieces they are simply lashed together! This was another reason why professionals often preferred a longbow.

[chrispedersen]

usually each knight had an accompaniement of foot soldiers and men at arms he was required to provide.

Typically only nobles were nights with commoners, freemen as longbowmen, men at arms etc.

Medievel lords were required to provide specified numbers of men at arms and there were equivalencies.. so one knight was equal to five men at arms etc.

[BigDaddy]

I didn't realize how controversial crossbow vs. longbow was. It seems that this is a controversial topic in modern times as to what to allow people to hunt with. I had thought it was obviously a decent hunting device at least for rifle season. I do think it is much easier to use than a regular or compound bow, and really similar in usage to a gun. Nonetheless, if you see it from the game management side of things, you could just determine crossbow hunting season in a way that help manage deer populations on the margin. Bow hunters see this as horning in on their territory, but if I see it from a conservation aspect, I'm looking to make hunting as open as possible when I need deer harvested safely, and effectively.

[Eximius Sus]

Wow. 283 replies. This is an interesting forum. Some of these threads are really huge. Do you folks really have that much to say about this game?

[GrudgeBringer]

It is a deep game with a lot of different opinions on how things are used (weapons, spells, etc). Remember that different nations have different capabilities and attributes....So what might work for one nation doesn't work for another.

Once you start reading some of the threads you will see that you can glean what you need to know about a certain question and then go back to it for a different question on the same subject.

I have been playing 2 years and some of these guys still amaze me with the amount of knowledge they have. Just read the wiki, the manual and the walk thru that people have written as well as ask questions, and you will start picking it up quickly.

[Eximius Sus]

But this thread seems to be about real bows. I read some of it but it's crazy long and bizarre.

[thejeff]

There is the occasional temptation to go off on long tangents. Really long tangents.

And then come back a year later and raise the thread from the dead.

It happens.

[Lingchih]

Ahh! God no! It's been resurrected again!@

[Ferrosol]

did we ever settle the debate on the value of bagpipes?