muskets vs.longbows in MTW2

[AussieGiant]

sharrukin post explains why the transition from Bows to Muskets occured. To repeat, the main reason was:

The time and effort needed to train a man to weild a bow effectively was far greater than a musket. This simple point meant that over some centuries the long bow was dropped in favour of muskets which allowed "the under six foot and not as strong as an ox men" to participate in ranged war

The minimum physical requirements of a man to be effective "en Mass" with a musket meant that much larger armies could be raised and used effectively.

Both weapons used massed formation to be deadly in battle but as an individual weapon the musket did not reach the level of precision of a Longbow until the advent of rifles in the late 1700's.

Stats:

The average Longbow could be shot between 200 and 300 yards and was accurate as an individual weapon out to 200 yards. Given a man could fire 20 arrows a minute it was deadly.

The average musket (not rifle) of the 1700's, and please note this is some 200 years after the time we are talking about in this game was as follows.

British Smooth Bore musket. Effective range 50 to 70 yards. You would be very lucky to hit a target at 100 yards. MAXIMUM shots per minute by the British (THE BEST AND FASTEST OF THE Napoleonic Era) was 4 shots per minute. The French and other continental armies shot between 2 and 3 per minute maximum.

So you can see that as an individual weapon there is no comparison, and this is with a musket of the 1700's and not the early 1500 or 1600's in which the MTWII is set.

In the late 1700's the British invented the Rifle. Basically the same as as a musket except 5 to 7 grooves were spiraled into the muzzel. This weapon could be aimed effectively out to 200 yards but a marksman and reached recorded shots or 300 yards and more by real experts. due to the grooving of the barrel this weapon could only be fired about 2 times per minute by an expert.

I'd like the recommend two series of books to everyone who wants to learn more about Muskets and Longbows.

If you want to get a great and realistic account of Professional Longbowmen in medieval times read Bernard Cornwells "The Grail Quest" series. Reading about Thomas of Hookton's adventures will get you ready for some real MTWII action in November and December!!

Equally if you want to learn more about muskets and the like, read Bernard Cornwells Sharpe series.

To all the English fella's here he will be well known, and Sean Bean did the character of Richard Sharpe proud

All I can say that Mr Cornwell does an enourmous amount of research to make his novels as historically accurate as possible and you will get a great feel for this subject as a whole by reading his books.

P.S. How CA are going to balance this out will be really interesting!!