Role of archers in low-tech parties?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Actually one aspect of early Samurai warfare was to ride out in front of the line, issue a challenge to someone, and then have a brief exchange of arrows with them. Though, this type of archery is irrelevant to the subsequent pitched battle.

However, so are PC group skirmishes for the most part, so relevance to the pitched battle is fairly irrelevant for core GURPS purposes. If these exchanges indicated effectiveness as a person to person weapon, that could be interesting despite bow-sniping not being a battlefield tactic.