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power or speed of shooting?

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willie:
not to hijack from power vs. speed to......... aimed vs volley shooting, but they are related some.

the archers of old shot lots of arrows to be sure, but probably not as much "ammo"was wasted, as in more recent times.

Lucasade:
The whole point of projectile weapons is to avoid (or at least extend the time until) hand to hand fighting. So when you have an army coming at you a moderate distance away accuracy is not so important, as if you miss one man you will hit the one next to him. Even if you dont actually kill him the force of impact will slow him down a bit, affect his concentration or even better bring his horse down so he has to walk. All of which gives you a bit more time.

Once they are within short range you need to be more accurate as you need to hit that man who will be on top of you if you dont bring him down, which I suspect is where their extensive training in loosing off many arrrows quickly comes in.

Hawkdancer:
Sort of have to remember that when the enemy is in range, so are you!  There would have been an arrow storm "incoming" as well (SH).  The archers likely used the "relay" or "rank" method of keeping the volleys flying, but I'm not certain.  Haven't researched it enough.
Hawkdancer

WillS:

--- Quote from: Hawkdancer on May 04, 2017, 12:04:56 pm ---There would have been an arrow storm "incoming" as well
Hawkdancer

--- End quote ---

Ummmmm...nope.

If the opposition were able to shoot heavy military arrows the same distance as the English, the hundred years war would have been very, very different.

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