A proper working bow should make no sound when its string is pulled. I know that in every movie there is a lot o clicking noises coming from the bow, but it would only indicate a damaged and broken bow…
Sorry mate, but in skyrim you can hit a target quite far away by using the crosshair with no difficulty at all (and that’s why I disable the crosshair)… and the ragdoll was just stupid. An arrow should never have the same effect when landing as a battering ram to the chest.
I own a 50 pound bow (nearly half the weight of medieval warbows - 90–110 pounds-force) and cannot imagine the archery shown in the videos without some really light bows. The ammount of strenght needed to pull a proper war bows is massive, and in the videos you can see little effort from the archers.
The comment you made about using the bayeux tapestry as a source for bow os even fighting technics is perfect. Using it to prove that a half-draw was common is just nonsense when percieved with just a little of historical caution.
LONGO, can you provide a source for the use of wood shortbows by “skandinavians”.? I would like to read about that. (I know some of the hunter cultures in the extreme north used composite bows… bot not wood short bows.)
ThomasAagaard
I heard about vikings using short bows earlier, but before posting I checked the net and found this.
The source being a university archery I thought it might be somewhat legit.
http://www.archery.susu.org/archery-info/archery-history/#Shortbows
There is no mention of the material used, but then I did not know we were talking purely wooden bows.
The article mentions the fact that short bows were not so effective against heavily armored knights. But that should not be a reason for them not to be used at all, since there were lot’s of people in the armies of the 15th century that did not sport full plate armor.
It’s like saying assault rifles could not have been used in the 20th century because they could do little against tanks.
I don’t doubt that you are right though.
The theory that shortbows was used at Hastings is common. Also in academic literature…
But it is based on the tapestry. It can tell us that bows was used. but I simply don’t think it can be used to tell us the size of the bows… or that the use of half pull was common.
That is off cause just my opinion.
What I do know, is that I have yet to see any clear evidence of the use of short bows.
(there is one wood short bow in a museum, but it is knows from written source that is belonged to a child)
Where we do have clear evidence of the use of longbows both before and after 1066.
So judge for youself.
But if you want to read moreabout it look in the book I mentioned earlier:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Great-Warbow-From-Hastings/dp/085733090X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393956634&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Great+Warbow%3A+From+Hastings+to+the+Mary+Rose.
The chapter is called “The myth of the shortbow” and most of it is actually in the preview of the book. page 35 and forward. So take a look.
I hope they get the archery stance right. Not the Victorian sideways stand but the actual medieval stance. Perhaps even utilizing a particular medieval draw technique where you lower the bow and pull the string back with your latissimus dorsi instead of your arm and shoulder muscle. It work certainly make it a bit easier to draw a 170 pound warbow.
Actually here is a good video
1 Like
My heavens Joe makes it look easy!
Good luck trying that with a warbow …
The bow he´s using also doesn´t seem to have too much of a draweight.
And if you watch closely most of the time he doesn´t even fully draw the bow.
I doubt that he would be much of a use with this technique in a real battle.
1 Like
I’d wager that most bows (not crossbows) used in the game’s historical setting were hunting bows and nothing like the Welsh high-poundage yew warbow, which was widely used in battle in England and France. The (recurve)bow in this game is only effective against lightly clad warriors, to bring down horses and game or as a harassment weapon. But definitely not as a “Panzerknacker”.
If it is a composite recurve bow used by the horse nomads it’s poundage is about the same as a longbow. It can fire faster and shoot arrows further.
(however since most nomads used lighter arrows they are not that good at penetrating armor)
I agree with this, one hundred percent!
So true, great set of books. Cornwell writes historical fiction so well… It gave a really awesome insight into the powerful force that was the English Archers. And for me at least, really highlighted some unknowns around how they operated (tactically) and the amazing skills they possessed.
Definitely like to see the longbow come into play in KDC. Be interesting to see how they implement it, and how that development and progression translates throughout the game. Can’t wait
Respect to the longbow-men!
Another Cornwell and barebow aficionado here … “The Last Kingdom” is where I took my handle from (Ragnar Ragnarsson).
But I do hope English longbowmen stay in England and France, not Bohemia.
1 Like
It is definitely a good point you make albeit in a bit broken english 
You want to have a challenging way of archery as you would wilth swordplay but not so much that you have an entire ingame minigame just to get a goddamn arrow on the bowstring. Thats not that hard and a decent archer should be able to put an arrow on in an instant and pull back pretty fast pretty easily.
You would need to better yourself by getting a better pulling arm strength so you can hold longer, without as much shaking/moving while aiming longer periods of time, and use stronger bows later on. The mechanics should be pretty simple, you push a button/mousebutton to arm the bow with a quiver and pull back in the same instance, holding the buton lets you aim and releasing it when strung back should fire the arrow accordingly to the measure of force it was pulled back. Not fully pulled to the chin should make it less powerfull and fly less distance and drop off faster. There should be a minimal distance drawn to even fire one so you cant make the idiotic 2m shots where the arrow just flops on the ground nonsense. Drawing the bow should not be a half minute of work, in war, you rip that badboy back as fast as you can, and shoot the damn thing.2-2,5 sec tops would be fine me thinks.
Are there any longbow-men here that will join the “The Big Shoot” in 2015?
I completely agree. I would love to see something like this, it would fit in well with the realistic sword combat. if this was done correctly, it would be realistic but not artificial or cumbersome.
I want to know will be slings in a game? I think sling is an important part of medieval battles, because its costs less than bow (i heard bow costs at 10 time more than sword), but it have similar range and very dangerous for enemy without armor.
PS throwing rock to someone head its so funny))) i love doing this in chivalry)
PPS sorry for my english
I dont think swords are cheaper then bows. All you need for a bow is some elbow grease, a good piece of wood and some tools. For a sword you need the ore, a smelter, a furnace, lots of tools, lots and lots of time, and then you need to learn to fight with it, although for a bow this time would be somewhat similar for good bowmen. I have seen a lot of documentaries about bows since I am building an english longbow soon, so this has been mentioned there too.
A bowmen was expensive though since you need a shitload of training to even fully draw a strong longbow of 100pounds + drawstrength let alone hit anything with it. Swords you need stamina too and training how to effectively hit enemies but far less people used a sword since it was more expensive and priviledged to certain citizenship or noblemen only. common folk used axes, maces, spears, bows etc.
I can you that by the late middle ages 1300-1500 swords became increasingly common due to new ore refinement processes discovered. They didn’t have to pattern weld each sword with an iron core and sharp steel edges but got a reasonable carbon stable steel product from which the whole sword could be manufactured. Really by the time of Henry the fifth an English archer could buy a sword for as little as three days pay. Of course there is a wide range of prices when it comes to swords of this period but you can say that generally a specialized warbow would cost more than the average sword those bowmen had (if they had them because some preferred other weapons such as mallets).
You also have to keep in mind that there was a continent wide demand for steel/iron and swords while bows, especially the high poundage warbows are a niche product. You need a properly seasoned and well shaped bowstave for bows of “military grade” which are a fare bit rarer than steel or iron bars.