Quote Originally Posted by Ferth View Post
Most of that post is pretty accurate, EXCEPT your allegation of Bows not being as effective as Crossbows in close range.

The bow in the hands of a trained archer is devastating, at hand-to-hand fighting both weapons are largely useless but real crossbows take an inordinate amount of time to reload... longer than single firing muskets even.

The only benefit crossbows had over long bows was that you didn't need to spend most of your life training to use one.
I never said the archers weren't good with bows at close range just the crossbows are better at that range, being easier to aim and fired faster because repeating crossbows could be fired damn fast.