[Ansteorra-missile] Safety of Longbows - New Combat Archery Ruling

[CinaedOHosey at aol.com]

 Guys if you look it up you will find a lot of period English longbowmen also had two handed swords! If they got attacked they added their ability with the swords to the thin line of English Knights and men at arms in front of them. Indian longbowmen and Samauri are also bowarmed two-handed swordsmen. Do not confuse professional english longbowman and mercenary crossbowmen with the pesant archer leavies. There are plenty of examples of mercenary crossbowmen standing their ground and fighting hand to hand. Just as our fighters are the "elite" of a period army so are our archers.

On to the egg shaped heads and a silver lining. Flat headed, soft tipped arrows do not deflect as easily as the hard round heads thus giving you more kills. I have learned to "twist" with an arrow making more of them deflect away and it is much easier aginst a hard round headed arrow. Mike will tell you this is true. He learns how to hit heavy fighters by shooting at me, I learn ways to survive by being shot at. Also note that more and more fighters are using period armor styles that were designed to deflect arrows, hard round heads deflect off them like water off a duck's back. Just a thought.
             Cinaed O'Hosey
             Commander of the Condottieri