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Painting by Ebine Shundo




Painting by Ebine Shundo

    ARCHERY

    For information about target archery, go here.
    If you'd like to post ideas or information, follow this link.

    Some people may disagree with what I write here. These words express what I learned from experience.  If you try something else and it it works, tell me and I'll change this web page.


    Combat Archery

    To find stores in Ansteorra that sell bows legal for war, go here.
    Follow this link to find war-legal bows over the net.

        Combat archery is used in Friday field battles, and fort battles on Saturday.
        There are usually three field battles, but archery may not be allowed in all three. If the sides are tied after the first two battles, then archery is not allowed in the third.
        I advocate all archers who are physically capable also fighting heavy. Archery is allowed in only a fraction of the fighting, so if you can't swing a stick you miss a lot of the fun. &npsp;And, if you run out of arrows or if archery is disallowed in the third field battle, your army suffers the equivalent of losing two fighters--it has lost an archer, and there is no heavy fighter to take that place.



    Whether or not you also fight heavy, do these things to get ready:

  • Practice shooting through gaps at ranges of 20-30 yards. Most shooting will be potshots through gaps in a fighting line or the embrasures of the fort.
  • Practice shooting at different elevations. Shoot at targets 20 feet in the air, and at targets below your level, to get ready for shooting from or at the towers and walkway of the fort.
  • Practice shooting and moving together. Run drills where you load while running, then stop and swing toward the target to fire, or ducking behind obstacles while reloading.
  • Practice wearing ALL your armor. Your grip will be different and your vision much more limited. Your helmet may fit a little differently when you have on your other armor. And, shooting in armor is much more physically demanding--train for it now to.
  • Practice reloading without looking at your nocks. As an alternative, practice raising the bow and arrow so you can see the nock while reloading WITHOUT looking down. Keep your head up and keep looking for threats.  Even in armor, a charging man can cover 30 yards in seconds, and a fighting line can crumble and leave you exposed in less time than it takes you to reload.
  • Practice lobbing high-angle shots over obstructions. The area inside the fort within 15 feet of the walls is normally dead ground. If you can drop shots vertically into this area it will help suppress the fighters defending the embrasures. If anyone can work out some way to direct lob shots to zero in on defending siege weapons, by all means please bring it out.
  • Recruit other archers and do everything you can to build huge stocks of arrows. We need all the throw weight we can get.

Field Battle Archery

    In field battles, your best chance of kills is to fire into an opposing unit from the flank.  This also puts you well away from from your own troops, and someone on the other side will break away and charge you. Be ready to run.
    Your best position is about 15-20 feet behind the last rank of friendlies. Most actual shooting in a field battle is done from 20 yards or less. For most archers, shooting at longer ranges is a waste of arrows. The dust and movement make an extremely confusing sight picture. Think of your weapon as an extra-long spear, and go where you can fire through temporary gaps in your line. You should be no more than 10 yards behind your own line. Closer, and you're too likely to get caught as the line shifts.
    If you are too far behind, you are more vulnerable because you're in a charging fighter's recovery vision field. When an opposing fighter charges all the way through the line, he'll have his shield and weapon up to cover his head and he can't really see anything. To make sure he's out of range of the last rank, he'll usually take another 3-4 steps past the last rank before he lowers his shield. If you're 10 yards from the line or less, you'll be in the area he can't really see because he's still covering his head. That may give you time to skip to the side and get out of immediate danger. If you're farther back, he'll have time to lower his shield and see you, and then he'll come straight at you.


    Archery in The Fort Battles

    Shooting Out
        For shooting from the towers, it is better to use a crossbow. A bowman must rise before he can begin his draw. A crossbow can be cocked and loaded before the shooter rises to aim, which minimizes his exposure time.


    Shooting from ground level, there should be enough room for archers to crouch behind the wall between shots. If you will be firing from the same position all the time you could set down a box or basket full of spare arrows. However, if the heavy fighters are deployed close to the wall, it will be crowded. You have to make sure you don't lose your arrows by having them snagged in other people's gear.
    Once the ground assult begins you will have to get away from the wall so more heavies can move up to defend the embrasures. When the attackers start trying to top the walls you may get some shots from inside the fort, but there will be many people and weapons in the way. It would be a good idea to put some boxes or stands near the center of the fort, so that you can stand above your own heavies and fire over their heads. That will make it a lot easier to find targets during the assault.
    Your target priorities should be:  ballista crews, other siege weapon crews, archers, and high-ranking individuals. Ballistas are usually the most effective missile weapons in the fort battles; their crews should be bumped off as quickly as possible. Remember that crew members can be replaced--you may have to return to shooting at the same point. Other siege weapons should be suppressed or eliminated if possible, but they will probably be too far back for arrows.
    To effectively reduce or suppress opposing missile weapons, fire in groups, with one person to designate targets. Groups of 3 to 4 are about the largest that can be effectively managed in the crowding and noise inside the fort. Whether shooting to eliminate a siege weapon or a specific person, take a specific target and fire at it in mass until you have undeniably eliminated that target. This has been proven to be the only way to effectively reduce Trimaran missile weapons. Any individual arrow shot, unless fired by a genuine master, has too great a chance of missing. Only in mass firings at a common target is the hit probability high enough to give a real chance to knock out siege weapons or other high-priority targets.

Shooting In
    Obviously the closer you are, the better your chance of getting hits. For working the embrasures I advocate taking pavises (click here for an idea about making cloth pavises) and working as close to the walls as you can. If you do, be aware that if you get too close some berserker may jump the wall and charge you; coordinate with a couple of heavy fighters to stand ready to cover you if needed.
    Attacking archers should not pay much attention to the passageways, except to keep an eye out for defenders making a sally. If you're shooting into the fort, you have four main target types and areas:

    Point targets--shooting at people through embrasures.  Your main purpose in this is to hit or suppress opposing archers; most likely everyone else will be crouching out of sight or have shields up. Work in groups of 3 or 4 archers that shoot in turn. The group shoots at intervals, and as each archer fires he yells something to let the next in rotation know when to shoot. The continous stream of incoming arrows gives a much higher chance of hitting the target.
    Point or area targets--shooting at people through the passageways.  This may or may not be productive; it depends on how the defenders line up.  If they have spear men up front, shoot them. If their front ranks are shield men, you have almost no chance of getting hits.
    Point targets--shooting at people in towers and on the walkway above the gate.  The towers flanking the front gate are open on the sides facing the walkway. &npsp;Position yourself where you can shoot the people in the tower through those open sides. &npsp;The wall of the walkway facing the attackers is invulnerable to all arrows or ballista bolts. To have a real chance to hit an opposing archer on the walkway, keep up a steady fire so there are already arrows on the way before the opposing archers expose themselves.
    Area target--lobbing shots over the wall.  This is just harassing fire. You won't be able to see targets and they can usually see incoming shots in time to get shields up. But there are chances to hit those who are distracted or are too tired to raise a shield. Archers should work together on this--some fire high lob shots, and some fire on low angles that just barely clear the wall.  This divides the defenders' attention and increases their confusion about where shots will come from, and that increases their vulnerability.
    Shooting into the fort, you have the same problem as you do shooting out while the ground troops are attacking:  seeing and shooting over obstructions. If you can, bring ladders or some kind of platforms, so you can see targets over the wall.  This is especially important when the attack goes forward.  Standing on a platform you are likely to draw more fire, but you can fix a cloth pavise to the front of the stand.

    For more information on how archery fits into the fort battles, go to the part of the "Siegecraft" page that covers being under fire.


Target Archery

    The schedule and rules for target archery are covered on the Gulf War web site.
    The range is located just uphill from the entrance. It is bounded on the left side by the site access road, and on the right by a parking area.  The area directly behind the target line is clear for about 70 yards, then is heavily wooded. The land slopes down slightly from the firing line toward the targets. Live weapon competitions are held on the same range, off to the side.
    I don't currently know how targets will be set up in the future, but at Gulf War VII the targets were hung from frameworks, with the centers about 5 feet off the ground. The targets used 4" thick foam backed by hanging sheets of heavy vinyl rather than hay bales or solid backstops.  Such target arrays may be all right for bows 30-40 pounds, but not more.  Don't use a real heavy bow with a setup like this, because a miss can punch through the backstop.
    Please don't let these words discourage you from shooting. Just use a reasonable bow weight and watch the angle at which you address the target.