ANST - Re: Anst - Slings

[H.L. Agnarr Thorvaldsson]

    True that the heavily armored knights (14th century and after) were not as vulnerable to arrows as the common soldier, but as to the effects on arrows and the Armour we are supposed to be recreating during our combat (chainmail and a spanglehelm with nasal tang, from the 1066 era). Arrows are very effective against that type of armor as they just cut through the chainmail. 
     The Bodkin tipped arrows are made just for that purpose.  They manage to  pierce between the rings; splitting them open and they just go straight in like a high-powered dart/needle. They stuck in and could seriously impair a person even if hit in the arm or leg as they would in effect pin the arm to the body. Or a leg to the horse underneath them.  If a Bodkin got into the body itself - Ouch I do not think a person was able to do much do to the trauma involved. So arrows are effective against chainmail, even eight in one.  In our rules they say that an arrow that hits either the back and or side of a helm are supposed to glance off while a face shot counts. I have done some tests with some homemade bodkins  and they do not glance off easily. they have a tendency to penetrate and go through the metal deeply This was with a 50lb bow not the 70 plus pounds that was used by the common archer of the 11th century (ues some used a lot more powerful bows but the tests on the longbows recovered from a water archeology site showed that the bows were about an average of 80 pound drawa t 28").  So a head shot in my view from any direction would cause serious injury.  Even the more traditional wide tipped type of arrow was dangerous as it would cut through the armour and then the person would basically bled out such as deer do when taken by an arrow that misses the vitals today, a lot more painful and a lot longer delay in death, so both of these types of arrows would allow the target to get off the field and receive some help if possible.  .  But I like everyone else in the Kingdom go by the rules. 
   Now as to the effects of a stone launched from a sling, it would cause hardly any cutting damage. IMOH I believe that it would just make a real nasty bruise (similar to what we get now in unarmoured areas).  But a stone on an unarmored person would definitely cause more of an impact maybe even enough to make the person incapacitated for a couple of minutes (like the modern rubber bullets and beanbag shots available to law enforcement now for non-lethal force).  This would allow for the ground troops to engage and overpower them while they were in the process of recovering.
Agnarr

 
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