Quote Originally Posted by Aper View Post
Longbow is often overrated, but don't make the opposite mistake! It was very effective on short distance against chain mail, that resisted very well the arrows fired by the composite shortbow of turkish horse-archers during the crusades, according to an arab historian (I don't know if Al-Dahabi or Baha'al-Din Ibn Shaddad) who states that arrows had no effect against the soldiers of Richard the Lionheart, so that they seemed iron porcupines!!! but they still were unharmed...
Isn't bare chain-mail bad against missiles? I read from somewhere that mail blocks incoming attack by distributing the pressure by the chain structure - it's much better to counter slashing attack but not thristing, since the thristing power on one point cannot be distributed.