(TFT) Re: TFT Digest V4 #348

[David Bofinger <bofinger.david@gmail.com>]

> there are numerous accounts of arrows not just penetrating the front of
the heavy plate
> armor but coming out through the back as well.  There is no way to dodge
that
> even at 50 yards plus the arrow would as you say just appear in the
target.

To put it into perspective, though:

Agincourt was one of the great successes of longbow archery. The English
killed thousands of French men at arms using longbow arrows. But to do it
they loosed hundreds of thousands of arrows. The vast bulk of those arrows
either missed or bounced off the armour, even at shorter ranges. So if
anything went through two layers it must have been a freak shot or shoddy
armour.

It's worth remembering that the French won that war, partly because
face-hardened plate armour would bounce arrows. What it couldn't bounce was
gunpowder weapons, which is a big part of why they took over.

The longbow's D-shaped cross-section is a surprisingly poor design. A
flatbow, for instance, with a square cross-section, is more efficient. In
theory an I-beam design would be even better but I don't know of anyone who
did that.

-----
David
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