ANST - Combat archers

[James Crouchet]

On 11 Nov 98,, Michael F. Gunter wrote:

> > Do you like archers?
> > Plachoya Sobaka a humble archer in Ravens Fort, Kingdom of Ansteorra
> > 
> 
> I beleive that archers are necessary for many of the scenarios. I would
> especially like to see groups of around 4-5 archers in "hunter/killer"
> units who would focus their mass ability on one target at at time, thereby
> assuring a fast kill instead of the sporadic shooting I see too often. It
> may seem to waste arrows but when that archer in the tower or that Duke in
> the backfield gets taken out before they can do real damage it's worth it.

There are two issues here. One is unit composition, which I will get 
back to later. The second is command and control. Assuming you 
have hunter units, it is necessary that the command staff (and that 
means more than just the top commander) understand their use 
and apply them effectively. That will require something of a shift 
over what I have seen thus far in Ansteorran strategies.  

> Archers should concentrate on eliminating priority targets before
> going for targets of opportunity. Other archers, unit leaders,
> spear units, etc... 

Sounds like a very effective way to apply us, provided we have the 
training and the support.

>  And they should fight as units. Either firing in alternating waves
> so that when a target ducks for cover after the first one then pops his
> head out to see what's happening only to get nailed between the eyes,

Training to work together, great. Training as PART of a unit, great. 
*SCA* archers, like spear,  are not as effective working solo as 
they can be when they are part of a unit.

> or to fire en masse to assure the target can't avoid all of them. 

Now for unit composition.  

First, I will point out that I have never seen en masse fire amount to 
much on the SCA field. By en masse I mean being able to have a 
large number of archers concentrate fire on a limited area to 
decimate a flanking unit, create a large hole in enemy lines or take 
out a C&C unit.  I suspect this is because of numbers, range, 
weapon effectiveness and training. I think we are unable or 
unwilling to fix ANY of these problems and to make it work we 
would have to fix them all. Consider:  

Numbers: How many archers did we have at Gulf? My guess would 
be around 25 or so. I suspect we would need a units of at least 60 
or more to make massed fire work. That would give us two waves 
of 30 (one-two punch) or 4 waves (and thus continuous fire) of 15. 
Even then we could only concentrate that fire on a relatively small 
area.  

Range: Due to our arrow construction and bow weight we simply do 
not have the range of our period counterparts. On the field the 
range to the enemy is the same as it was in period, but our arrows 
will not go that far. It is difficult to get our arrows past our own 
lines, let alone into the enemy ranks before they close.  One part of 
the solution would be to use better arrows, say by using rubber bird 
blunts instead of  Baldars/TM/Marklands. However, that would 
require screening helms. Second, we would need to up bow 
poundage. Way up -- like 75 lbs or more. For safety reasons that is 
just not practical.  

Effectiveness - Our arrows cannot penetrate shields, or even stick 
to the front. If one of our arrows is not noticed or ignored, it does 
nothing. Our slow moving arrows can be dodged and deflected. 
Real arrows are much more deadly. Hiding behind a shield is not 
proof against a real arrow.  

Training - I am not talking about training individual archers. I am 
talking about getting large groups of archers together on a regular 
basis to train to work as a mass fire unit. If we could get our 60 
archers together no less than, say, 4 times a year with 100 fighters 
willing to act as targets for a full day of intensive training then 
maybe we would have the training. However, it would still be 
pointless unless we have resolved those other three concerns.  

So, do I have a better idea? Yes, what Gunther suggests works. I 
have seen Trimeris use it to great advantage in the past, though 
not so much last year. Trimeris created hunter units with just one 
archer, a couple of spears, some shields and a great sword or two.  
I would suggest there be 3 or 4 archers in that group and, perhaps, 
drop the greatswords. That gives a squad total of 10 to 12.  
Alternately, you could have very small squads with half that.  

The key is to build those squads long before the war and have 
them practice together. Given a unit size of 6 to 12 this is practical 
within local groups, which brings it much more within reach for 
Ansteorra. Several well-oiled hunter squads would be a very 
effective weapon in the wars.  

I will go one step further and say that the place to have our archers 
is in amongst the troops. About where the pikes like to be. Talk 
about a target-rich environment! Standing back occasionally 
lobbing a shot into a melee is better than nothing, but not at all on 
a par with the kind of destruction you can do to the enemy or the 
level of support you can provide your own troops from up close.  

Don Doré  


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