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<DIV> 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. </DIV>
<DIV> 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. </DIV>
<DIV> 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.</DIV>
<DIV>Agnarr</DIV>
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