Poll: Bow or Crossbow

[bam13302]

Would you rather have a bunch of crossbow men or a few trained archers (me and my girlfriend got into the discussion after watching Robin Hood) Bows take a lot more training to use and their arrows are a lot harder to make then crossbow bolts but are more accurate and longer ranged; crossbows are cheap "simple point and click interface", the only hard part is cocking it (lever or wind up , or simple pull back, the bolts are just small wooden spikes, even with training, are less accurate and shorter range then arrows. Basically this boils down to quantity(crossbow) vs. quality(bow). Oh and crossbows, and with the exception of those giant overpowered mounted crossbows, could not pierce any but light armor.

 

[p3t3r]

well i would rather have a crossbow then a bow. but i think a group of bow users could beat a bunch of crossbow users it would depend on the sitution

 

[Souplex]

I'm fairly certain crossbows had longer range than longbows. It's a pretty simple principle; the bolts are lighter, and fired with more force, and therefore should go farther.
A balistae is just a giant crossbow. There isn't a super-longbow however. Also you forgot to mention factors like the fact that crossbows have better armor-penetration.
You pretty much got the quality V quantity thing backwards. Crossbow shots are generally more effective all around, but they take significantly more time to load and fire.
Real men use polearms anyways.

 

[Yer man o'er yonder]

A group of bowmen would be far superior. Ther're better trained (out of neccessity) and bowmen have a faster rate of fire than crosssbowmen.

 

[rokkolpo]

i guess if i had a skilled group of archers than bows.

just random idiots, crossbow.

 

[rokkolpo]

I'm fairly certain crossbows had longer range than longbows. It's a pretty simple principle; the bolts are lighter, and fired with more force, and therefore should go farther.
A balistae is just a giant crossbow. There isn't a super-longbow however.
Real men use polearms anyways.

REAL men use suplexes to defeat their enemies.

 

[SimuLord]

For one soldier? An English longbow.

For an army? A gaggle of peasant crossbowmen.

Interestingly, in one of the world's great cases of "winning the battle but losing the war", English longbows got the better end of the early stages of the Hundred Years' War (particulary at Crécy and Agincourt), but attrition and adaptation to tactics by the French ultimately led to the French crossbow's superior numbers carrying the day by war's end as the English presence in continental Europe was reduced to little enclaves around Gascogne and Calais.

 

[Tuken]

Like the look and feel of the bow, so I'd go with that.

Crossbow probably has accuracy and power advantage in certain situations but I'd still stay with the bow.

 

[DividedUnity]

Id take the bow any day. You can reload faster, shoot further, penetrate deeper and you can also indirectly attack the enemy pretty accurately if you know what youre doing.

 

[Yer man o'er yonder]

I'm fairly certain crossbows had longer range than longbows. It's a pretty simple principle; the bolts are lighter, and fired with more force, and therefore should go farther.

I believe the longbow fired further. It has a longer draw and wider arms to store the force.

 

[Woodsey]

Real men throw rocks.

 

[Souplex]

I'm fairly certain crossbows had longer range than longbows. It's a pretty simple principle; the bolts are lighter, and fired with more force, and therefore should go farther.
A balistae is just a giant crossbow. There isn't a super-longbow however.
Real men use polearms anyways.

REAL men use suplexes to defeat their enemies.

Yes, but we were talking aboot armed combat here. Relying entirely on one move limits you.

 

[Soulgaunt]

For a second I thought this would be about Maplestory.

OT: I have to say crossbow, only because I like the sound it makes. Well, that and also because it's difficult to stay alive when it's raining sharpened chunks of aerodynamic metal!

 

[NeutralDrow]

I'd take the mass of crossbowmen, and teach them to stagger their shots.

Real men throw rocks.

Real roleplayers carry slings.

 

[Warped_Ghost]

Most armies had a combo but I like crossbows more. But both wepons are pretty much equal.

But some people think bows have longer range and armour penetration but they do not. Crossbows have more power, accuracy and range but take ALOT more time to reload.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

bow, I'd use it because its more mobile and faster reload

 

[Woodsey]

I'd take the mass of crossbowmen, and teach them to stagger their shots.

Real men throw rocks.

Real roleplayers carry slings.

Touché my friend, touché.

 

[Souplex]

I'm fairly certain crossbows had longer range than longbows. It's a pretty simple principle; the bolts are lighter, and fired with more force, and therefore should go farther.

I believe the longbow fired further. It has a longer draw and wider arms to store the force.

From Wikipedia:
"Although a longbow achieves comparable accuracy and faster shooting rate than an average crossbow, crossbows release more kinetic energy and can be used effectively after a week of training, while a comparable single-shot skill with a longbow takes years of practice."
The OP's accuracy point is also apparently moot.