ANST - War and tactics

Wilim Penbras wilim.penbras at pandora.org
Tue Mar 20 09:05:41 PST 2001


Well,  I was going to run this past a few of my fellow archers before I put it out to the world but I guess I'll take a shot.

The bulk of the fire was coming over the wall not through the crenelations.  Anything that had the height to go over the wall was already past anybody lined up on the wall.  I was on that wall with a few good shieldmen and I made it through till they stormed the walls when I dropped my bow and fought sword and gauntlet.  Over fifteen minutes I loosed 5 dozen or so arrows and I was fairly effective at taking out belts, hats, ballistae and archers.  If you saw an arrow come out of the front right side of the fort (seen from the inside) it was probably one of mine.  We could have fit at least 3 more archers on that wall and perhaps a single non-contact/touchkill person running arrows to us would have been alot more effective.  I'm not sure why a supply of a few hundred arrows wasn't placed in this corner but it wasn't.  

By placing a shield into the crenelation I was shooting through the equivalent of an archer's slot and we all know it's easy to shoot out of these but hard to shoot into one.  I'd like to thank the shieldmen that were there with me.  They were fantastic spotters and helped emmensely, Kept my head down and more importantly moved when I told them to move. (Something about them being in the way of a shot and at point blank range).  

Having archers and anybody in general back into the fort area just makes them better targets for random projectiles coming over the wall.  When I was back getting arrows I had to watch for shots from everywhere because I was exposed on all sides.  When I got the the wall I only had a few relative small openings I had to worry about being hit through.  (and if they could hit me through those crenelations they had earned it.)

That's about it for archery from inside the fort.  I hope someone can make some sense of these ramblings off the top of my head.  I'll think about how archer could have been better used while attacking in the fort battle and let you know.  Assuming you still want to hear about it after reading these ramblings.

In Service,
     Wilim Penbras
     Bowman, Arthurian, Ansteorran

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: GuyLestran at aol.com
Reply-To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 11:27:59 EST

>I agree with Mahee.  Both the ballista and arrow fire needs to be more 
>coordinated.  This happened during small periods of the battle, mostly with 
>the ballista and sometimes with groups of archers (two or three) at most.  
>Sir Timo was mostly the one working with the archers I believe when he had 
>the chance.  I'm not sure who coordinated the ballista fire.  It came later 
>in the defense though.
>
>Things I think we need to work on are the archers working closer in and in 
>groups of 2 or 3 at least.  The groups with not as much experience need to 
>have their fire directed so that it is effective by someone who knows who 
>being killed would be more effective.  A good example would be....killing 
>some of the hats first as apposed to getting a shot on a shieldman in the 
>line (unless he has a hat or belt).  Some of the Dukes and the like are 
>tremendous combat multipliers by themselves.
>
>I like the idea of everyone carrying a bow or crossbow.  It gives the rest of 
>the fighters some fun while they're waiting for the attack to hit the castle. 
> It would be a little more difficult to organize while on the offense though, 
>but it is doable.  The more arrows we have in the air the better chance of 
>someone getting hit.
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