Longbow(s)

[KARTLOS]

If longbows were so clearly superior, why had they disappeared in most European countries by the middle ages?

maybe poor nutrition! - you have to be very strong to use one.

They did require that the bowman practice a lot, it is much simpler to equip people with crossbows and guns.

Were longbows used for hunting, or were they specifically warbows. It seems that any attempt to stalk prey with a bow the size of a man is not going to be successful.

Foot

you can get different sized longbows! it doesnt have to be full length (size of a man) to be considered a longbow.

[Atraphoenix]

maybe poor nutrition! - you have to be very strong to use one.

They did require that the bowman practice a lot, it is much simpler to equip people with crossbows and guns.



you can get different sized longbows! it doesn't have to be full length (size of a man) to be considered a longbow.

that is right I am not surprised why Football banned in favour of of archery in England.
but the aim was different from the user one may prefer the longer distance one may prefer accuracy..
mongol and their successor nomad bows mostly were made to release the arrow as far away as possible.
but records does support both sides namely accuracy and distance but that is right that to be a good archer one should spend his years for mastery. parthians, mongols and many nomad non nomad factions grew up their sons with this training. to use guns was easy so that is why archers lost their position in the armies after gunners started to be deployed in the armies. in fact early gunners were less deadlier than archers but it was easy to replace gunners but not archers (Ottoman Wars after 1700s and Lepanto were good example of this.)