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Old 27th June 2018, 02:56 PM   #33
fernando
Lead Moderator European Armoury
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Portugal
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roland_M
...Bow and crossbow against chainmail armor are good to very effective but almost useless against plate armor...
Roland, i am a bit hesitant at continuing with this interesting conversation, as by now is established that the example posted by Jen's that gave place to the present topic is navigating in a different direction, but here goes my last approach ...
There is a Spanish saying that, roughly translated, says:
I don't believe there are witches ... although they exist .
For each article or chronicle or video clip that we take account, there is another one that admits that, a good (cross) bow shot, well directed and at a close distance may perforate plate armour, not to mention mail armour. For each battle they recall about bows having not been effective as expected, another author argues that the opponent's victory was due to other factors, like in the context, archers not having reach the kill line distance in the terrain, for one.
Not that the primary intention of crossbows was that of armour perforation, but still was considered as complementary. We must not forget that not all armour had the same thickness, or temper, or deflecting angles. All in all, i am not ready to be subject to such life test myself; would only care to have a real early crossbow in my collection .


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Last edited by fernando; 27th June 2018 at 03:50 PM.
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