Art De La Guerre

[Carlos Lopes]

Good evening everyone,
Is it possible to convert some ashigaru bowmen in ashigaru longbowmen from 1465?

the reason is:

"...The biggest change in the Sengoku period (1467-1603) would affect the role of missile troops in battle. At the start of the period, these were all armed with the yumi (bow) and fought in coordinated units to pepper the enemy with their arrows. This bow, like the equivalent English Longbow, took many years training to perfect but was deadly when used correctly. Due to the training needed there were never as many yumi armed troops as a daimyo may have wanted!"

This not only made the list more competitive, but it brings the archers' efficiency closer to the Europeans of their day. (1500 and no firearms)

what is your opinion?

Best regards
Carlos

[fdunadan]

Well, I would say no:

Japanese bows were long to master, but not particularly more powerful than Mongol or Turkish bows. the rule treats longbows differently because there was a significant difference in power with the shortbows.

More info in there:

https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-Japanese-longbow-Yumi-compare-to-the-English-Welch-longbow
_________________
Audentes fortuna iuvat.

[Jhykronos]

Modern sport bows really tell you nothing about the draw weights of ancient and medieval weapons, though.

IIRC, most findings of historical Japanese Yumi are a -lot- thicker (therefore considerably heavier and more powerful) than the bows used in modern Kyudo. Same with Mongol, Turkish, Manchu, Korean bows, etc.

Whether they rival the typical English War Bow is another question, but I'm not positive that we can say for certain that the English bow was really comparatively that exceptional in power compared to contemporary bows used in other parts of the world.
_________________
- Let the Die be Cast