Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth
They are, in fact, referred to as longbows (at least sometimes, obviously that's not the original name) and more than 2 meters long...though I am not completely sure that those particular Japanese bows are the ones used on horseback.
Real world testing is cool...but note that the Basic rule is that mounted archery uses the worse of Riding and Archery. And that's before looking for any further penalties. So if you don't have Riding to begin with, completely ineffectual is the expected result.
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Parthian archers were the Persian equivalents of knights, for their day. They started to ride as small children, and to shoot as soon as they could draw a child's bow.
As the sons of wealthy families, the Parthian archers had spent 10 years doing both, by the time they reached their late teens.
The Mongols, whom the Samurai patterned their horse archery after, rode before they could walk.
The samurai, themselves, trained their whole lives.
So, yeah. Nobody not born into that life would ever get any better than mediocre.