ANST - curious about archers in war scenarios

[Michael F. Gunter]

> It probly would NOT work the way we play becouse sheild stop arrows from
> bows always. In reality arrows from 80 to 100  pound pull bows would probly
> go through shields at 30 yrds. and be an inpediment.

Actually, I was at an event where an archer was claiming that his bow would
penetrate a shield and pin a fighter's arm to his body. Count Sutan disputed
this claim and offered up his own tourney shield for expirimentation. The shield 
was placed against a hay bale and the archer shot from about 20 ft away. The
arrow pierced the wood and was stopped by the cloth covering the shield's back.
A fighter carrying the shield would not have even been scratched through his
vambrace. Forgive me but I don't recall the point the archer was using or the
pull weight of the bow. Also the distance may be different since this was a
while ago. But the basic fact that the archer thought his bow would destroy
a shieldman was incorrect.

Also the lightweight norse shields, basically 1/4" plywood was mainly used to
ward off arrows until the vikings would get into axe range. They were held
away from the body to kill the momentum of the arrow. This of course would 
not be effective against the English longbow.

> The way we play you would have to hit the person behind the shield to have a
> kill, of course we kill with any hit to the body and in reality arrows do
> not kill instantly with body shots, so that a charging force would be able
> to continue forward.
> The English used archers to great effectness at Agincourt and Crecy, see
> Hardy's book Longbow. They were protected by pikes embedded in the ground in
> front of them to stop calvary and carried secondary weapons for close fighting. 
Correct. Thank you.
A charging force of SCA infantry would probably run over the archer unit.

> Plachoya Sobaka a humble archer in Ravens Fort, Kingdom of Ansteorra
> Achery champion Stargate XXV, Raven's Fort XV

Yers,

Gunthar
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