[gurps] [Worldbuilding] Intriguing concept

[Rupert Boleyn]

On 5 Jul 2006 at 16:54, Pauli Hakala wrote:

> Any succesfull military knows when to adapt. If typical level of
> opposition is heavy infantry and more power is essential,
> horse archers could start using steel-bow crossbows with heavy
> armor piercing bolts. Upper body strength is also much less of
> a factor with crossbows (although I do not consider male/female
> strength differences essential for trained archers - accuracy is
> way more important than brute force). For conquering cities,
> amazons would of course need more conventional military with
> infantry, siege engines and so forth, but it would be their elite
> forces they would be known for abroad.

For military archery accuracy isn't that important - fire is en masse. 
Power, to give range, penetration, and rate of fire, is at least as 
important. Longbowmen had very strong upper bodies from practicing with 
their bows, and in pre-medieval times the bow wasn't a clear winner vs 
slings, quite possibly because the bows weren't as powerful as later 
bows.

-- 
Rupert Boleyn <rboleyn at ihug.co.nz>