Longbows are no good

[Daveybaby]

Actually, crossbows now seem able to fire in an arc over other units heads. Dont know if this affects their performance any worse than it does for longbows though.

[dopp]

I prefer the more reasonable estimate found in John Keegan's commentary on Agincourt that trained archers could volley fire one shot every ten seconds, as opposed to how fast it is physically possible to fire the bow. Compare this to 15 seconds for a musket, 15 seconds for a "light" crossbow (drawn back with a claw rather than a windlass) and 5 seconds for a modern bolt-action rifle. Remember also that they only have about 24 arrows apiece (30 in M2TW) so they cannot waste them firing all once. At least part of the longbow's (or any other missile weapon's) effectiveness is the delivery of well-timed volleys to break enemy morale, so they must wait and fire all at once. This cuts their RoF dramatically. Ingame the longbows I use have a RoF almost twice that of the crossbowmen, so I really don't see the problem.

Not all crossbow units are equal. There are steel_crossbow_bolt and normal crossbow_bolt. Pavise and all other professional crossbowmen (Aventuriers, Peasant Crossbows, Genoese) have steel ones and their range is 160, same as all longbowmen. All militia and cavalry crossbows are 120, along with arquebusiers. Muskets pwn them all with 180 range.

Crossbows will fire directly if there is a clear line of fire, indirectly if not. Not sure if it matters. Gunners just stand there blankly if a single tree blocks their vision.