ANST - Combat Archery

[Michael F. Gunter]

> 1.  In a seige battle versus a tower for archers, it is impractical to spend a significant
> number of the besieger's archers trying to pin down the archers in towers.  This is because
>     a) they have elevation, and therefore longer range and better field of vision,
>     b) they have a lot of stuff to hide behind,
>     The scottish side @ one point in time had 4-5 archers trying to kill the two archers in
the tower.  Many many arrow shafts that could have been spent killing the english troops went
sailing harmlessly against the tower or over it.

You are both correct and incorrect. The reason so much time was wasted trying to kill the
archers in the tower was because the besieging archers were trying to get kills from the
back of the line. Had the archers moved to within minimum range the tower archers wouldn't
have lasted very long. 

The Scottish archers should not have been shooting at the English troops inside the fort
until the immediate threat of the tower archers had been eliminated. Then the archers should
have worked on certain individuals in the fort. Not shot indescriminately into the crowd.

>  IMHO it would have been more effective to have one archer per archer in the tower pinning
> down (thereby rendering the archer in the tower relatively useless), and let the other
> archers concentrate on killing commanders and pole weapons on the ground.

The one or two archers would not have been effective in pinning tower archers down. That is
why I'm working on four or five arrows being fired every time an archer sticks her neck out.
If the archers had been divided into two groups, one killing archers and the other 
concentrating on poles that stuck out too far it would have been very effective. But not
from the back of the ranks.

> 2.  Volley fire in SCA archery is not very effective.

Depends on how it is used. Volley fire into a mass of armored fighters is not effective.
Volly fire against a central, unshielded target is very effective.

> This is mainly because of the fact that half of the fighters on the field hold "The
> unbreakable shield of the SCA".  In real like, arrows go through shields and cause damage.  > In our combat they do not.

This is a common misconception of archery. Unless you are firing long bows straight into
a target an arrow rarely goes through a proper shield. We have demonstrated this at a
tournament where an archer took his (I believe) 75 lb bow and fired it at close range into
a typical tourney shield. The deepest penetration would have barely scratched the vambrace.
The viking roundshield was mainly used as defense against arrows and it averaged 1/4 inch
thick. 

> Volley firing simply gives the opponent the ability to block ALL of the archers arrows at
> one point of time, as opposed to being constantly worried about the arrows as they would be
> with the staggered fire.

Once again, yes and no. Yes, all the archer firing at an onrushing armored fighter will
probably get eaten. But if those archers spread out and all fire at different angles at
that fighter will at the very least put him on the defensive. Five archers firing at at
spearman or another archer at once will probably get a kill.
 
> 3.  A commander is good.  Two commanders are bad.

Agreed, but another fighter who happens to see a spearman constantly lean out of a kill hole
should not be afraid to let a hunter/killer team know about the target. 

But you are correct. A chain of command is essential and two commanders conflicting with
each other is deadly. One of the major problems at Three Kings.

> Personally the strategy that I had the most luck with was I would pair up with a fighter
> and they would point out targets (whilst I hid behind their shield) and then I would pop-up,> acquire, and shoot.  It seemed to work pretty well.

It does on a limited basis. That is why I'm planning on giving certain archers, Baroness
Octavia for one, autonomy in choosing how they best wish to be utilized. But the majority
of the archers I want to see as units and being led.

I want as many archers as possible at War Practices and such to see which strategy works
the best. I'm thinking about commissioning something like a Captain-General of archers
eventually but that's just thinking for now.

> Jean Paul le Pel
> Second In Command, Lion-Dragon Guard

Yers,

Gunthar
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