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Magpie · 04-14-2012, 10:15 PM

This isn't a game reason so much as a historical one, but...

Because a human being can use a short bow and a long bow typically requires someone who has spent a freakish amount of time developing the upper body strength required to draw a longbow. Wikipedia mentions that skeletons of longbowmen are visibly deformed by there efforts and I heard a (possibly apocryphal) quote attributed to some English king that "If you want to train a longbowmen, you have to begin with his grandfather."
So it's kind of like why be an infantryman when you could be special forces- it is better to be extra-awesome if you have the time, resources, and desire to put in, but the investment in training is prohibitive to many (which is probably why many nations favored the simple but not terribly effective crossbow when it came to warfare).

04-14-2012, 10:15 PM	#6
Magpie Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Montreal, Canada	Re: Why short bow instead of long bow? This isn't a game reason so much as a historical one, but... Because a human being can use a short bow and a long bow typically requires someone who has spent a freakish amount of time developing the upper body strength required to draw a longbow. Wikipedia mentions that skeletons of longbowmen are visibly deformed by there efforts and I heard a (possibly apocryphal) quote attributed to some English king that "If you want to train a longbowmen, you have to begin with his grandfather." So it's kind of like why be an infantryman when you could be special forces- it is better to be extra-awesome if you have the time, resources, and desire to put in, but the investment in training is prohibitive to many (which is probably why many nations favored the simple but not terribly effective crossbow when it came to warfare).