jcpotn

A last point: The effect of a shower of arrows is not measured solely by the hits but by the effect on morale of the troops forced to endure the storm without being able to respond. The rags didn't have to check morale.

I haven't posted Phil's whole response here due to the limit of number of characters per message. A couple of thoughts on paragraph #5: How many people participated in the test shooting, how many arrows fired in what amount of time? What are the qualifications of the participants? I'm afraid their time spent practicing pales compared to the average Mongol Horse Archer.

Phil's Response Part II

5. Longbowmen today shoot at individual targets at 60 yards, much the same as composite bow competition shooters. However, there was another form of competition called “clout shooting”, in which you tried to get your arrows into a horizontal circle centred by a rag mounted on a vertical pole. This is more representative of battle shooting. Clout range was about 220 yards with battle arrows, extended to 280 yards with lighter flight arrows. This was shooting by ordered volleys, the density of fire maximising the potential bad luck of men inside the beaten zone. You might think that misses from aimed single shots would have the same effect against a formed body, but it doesn’t. There is always more space to miss than to hit. It used to be assumed that shooting at a 6 foot high cloth 20 yards wide would be the same as shooting at a 4 deep array of individual figure targets. Tests have shown that it is much safer to be one of those individual figure targets...

I had sent this email to Sue and Phil finally responded thus:
Phil Barker’s Email re Mongol HA in DBA


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Mongol horse archer myths.
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:12:50 -0000
From: Phil Barker <pc.barker@blueyonder.co.uk>
To: Jeff Caruso <potn@comcast.net>
CC: Sue Laflin-Barker <suelaflin@blueyonder.co.uk>

Sue forwarded me your email.
Sorry, but your points are all invalid. You have been deceived by less than competent researchers. Over the past 50 years, there has been a lot of comparative testing of various bows and even more joined up tactical thinking which have radically changed opinions...

Part III Wargaming the HA in DBA

I'd suggest that it be applied to all armies designated as Steppe and applied to 2LH and 3Cav.

Food for thought.

References:

The Mongol Art of War, Timothy May, Pen and Sword Books, 2007
The Devil’s Horsemen, James Chambers, Atheneum, 1979
Arms and Armour of the Nomads of the Great Steppe in the Times of the Mongol Expansion (12th-14th Centuries), Witold Swietoslawski, Oficyna Naukowa, 1999

Part II Wargaming the HA in DBA

Extra quivers of arrows were carried on the remounts saddles, facilitating resupply and allowing the Mongols to keep up a heavy sustained rate of fire.

The contemporary historians refer to this arrow storm or rolling barrage, fired at 200-300m, as a phenomenon of nature. This "rain of arrows" was used to break up and disorganize an enemy's formation. It also demoralized the enemy as they were not able to retaliate.

Concentration of such firepower was not developed by the West till the 1300's but the Mongols employed it on an ongoing basis.

In review, the Mongols had longer ranged bows than their opponents, better supply and the tactics to use these factors resulting in concentrated firepower against their enemies. Its time to address the historical record and allow for the Horse Archer to take his place in DBA.

Wargaming The Horse Archer in DBA

DBA is one of the easiest rules sets to play ancients and medievals. It achieves this by abstracting many factors such as types of weapons like the halbred, double handed axe, long sword, gladius, etc into one class, Blade. Likewise the bow, self-bow, crossbow, and longbow are all one class, the Bow.

No problem with these classifications. The problem is that Light Horse (LH) who used the composite bow are not recognized as being a ranged weapon class.

The composite bow, as employed by the Mongols (effective range 300 meters) out ranged the longbow (effective range 220 meters) and the crossbow (75m) and the self-bow.

Rate of fire and velocity were also superior. One of the tools that allowed for these two factors was the thumb ring that made possible a longer draw and a quicker, cleaner release than the finger draw used by most other non-steppe archers.