[Ansteorra-archery] on the use of archers
Colin MacNachtan
colin at mccr.org
Tue Feb 17 07:42:37 PST 2009
On Tuesday 17 February 2009, Eric Brown wrote:
> To be more clear, (and a little more detail) You'd be in a position
> where you did not have to worry about getting rushed and run over, each
> firing aimed shots, but in larger numbers(ergo hopefully larger volume)
> at a specific section on the field where you'd have a decent to good
> chance of having a huge effect on the battle in a brief period of time.
> Specifically the only genuinely "new" skill you would have to master is
> taking turns up front to fire, falling back to load (if the front gets
> small enough)... Something I think you are all perfectly capable of
> doing. Nothing fancy or baroque, I'm a big fan of the KISS School. My
> Philosophy in battle plans usually boils down to put the right folks in
> the right place, with only general guidelines, and count on them to do
> the right thing at the right time.
I think the major effect of this would be to cause an enemy unit to turtle up
in the direction of the arrow fire. I don't know enough about infantry unit
tactics to predict what help this would be, but I gather the shield/spearmen
on the list can see possibilities in it. I for one would be willing to try
it.
I do think Robin is right that the effectiveness of the archers would be
magnified by having at least two groups of archers shooting at a single enemy
unit from different angles. I realize this would be more difficult to
coordinate, but I think the distraction factor would be much higher and make
them much more vulnerable to an infantry assault.
Colin MacNachtan
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