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Archery Range |
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BOWMAN |
IMPROVED BOWMAN |
COMPOSITE BOWMAN |
CARIOT ARCHER |
ELEPHANT ARCHER
HORSE ARCHER |
HEAVY HORSE ARCHER
| Bowman |
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- Cost - 40F 20W
- First Available - Tool Age
- Speed - Medium
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The bow was an important military weapon from the time of the first armies, being easily adapted from hunting animals to warfare. Archers required less discipline and leadership in battle because they were not expected to engage in hand-to-hand combat, a terrifying experience. Bowmen fought from a distance on the battlefield, from behind walls or other cover, and from ambush. They were usually not decisive in battle on the attack because they could not physically take ground from the enemy like infantry could. They acted mainly as defensive troops and as light troops that disrupted enemy formations prior to the decisive moment when the infantry clashed. If barrages of arrows could cause casualties and lower morale of the enemy prior to the clash, friendly infantry had a better chance of breaking the will of the enemy infantry and being victorious.
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| Improved Bowman |
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- Cost - 40F 20G
- First Available - Bronze Age
- Speed - Medium
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The simple bow was improved by using better materials and by better training. Employing better wood or strips of laminated wood increased the tensile strength of the bow, increasing power and thus range. Arrows were improved also by such changes as metal arrowheads. In modern times, hundreds of bronze arrowheads were recovered from an archaeological excavation of the battlefield at Thermopylae. On this site, a Spartan force under Leonidas had perished under a hail of Persian arrows after delaying the huge Persian army for many days.
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| Composite Bowman |
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- Cost - 40F 20G
- First Available - Bronze Age
- Speed - Medium
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The composite bow was developed in Asia and was also known as the oriental or recurved bow. It reached the Mediterranean and Middle East by the beginning of the second millennium BC. It was made of layers of wood glued together rather than a single piece. The composite material was then bent outward at each end to increase tension. The result was a very powerful bow that doubled the effective range of the short bow. Egyptian engravings depicting the Battle of Kadesh show Rameses II and other Egyptian archers using composite bows.
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| Chariot Archer |
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- Cost - 40F 70W
- First Available - Bronze Age
- Speed - Fast
- Technology Required - Wheel
- Special - High resistance to conversion; triple attack vs. Priest
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Around 1700 BC, two existing technologies of military consequence, the chariot and the bow, were merged to create a fearsome new military weapon the chariot archer. Armored archers carried in fast chariots dominated the battlefields of the civilized world for the next 500 years and remained useful for some time after that. In the open ground of the settled plains and river valleys, the chariot archer was devastating due to its speed, mass, and firepower. Chariot archers were typified by the Egyptian nobility and pharaohs of the New Kingdom, 1552-1069 BC, who prided themselves on their archery. The first recorded battle of history, Megiddo in 1460 BC, was fought with chariots carrying archers.
The chariot archer was the dominating battlefield weapon from China to Greece from about 1600 to 1200 BC, according to the historical and archaeological record. The long reign of chariot armies was due to several factors, including most importantly the placement of a composite bow archer in the basket with the driver and using the chariot as a mobile firing platform. The fast-firing chariot archer was devastating against slow, poorly armored infantry in the open areas of the civilized cultures. The glorious vision of elite archers from the nobility fighting from their expensive chariots and wheeling around the battlefields at will pervaded all civilized cultures of the time.
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| Elephant Archer |
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- Cost - 180F 60G
- First Available - Iron Age
- Speed - Slow
- Special - Trample
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Attempting to use elephants in combat posed a number of problems, including the central one of how the elephant would fight and cause casualties. One answer was to place a box on the elephant’s back from which archers could shoot. The archers were protected by the box and could fire down into the melee below. That worked only as long as the elephant remained standing and within range of the enemy. In the years following the death of Alexander the Great, many western kings adorned their armies with elephants but they were rarely effective. Armies of ancient India used elephants more successfully for many centuries.
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| Horse Archer |
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- Cost - 50F 70G
- First Available - Iron Age
- Speed - Fast
- Special - +2 armour vs. missile weapons
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The chariot archer was replaced eventually on many ancient battlefields by horse archers. This transition took place during the dark age following 1200 BC. Mounted warriors fighting with composite bows made up many of the barbarian armies on the Asia steppes. This type of unit was embraced by the Assyrians first and eventually by their rivals. Two horse archers had twice the firepower of one chariot archer, were much more flexible in where they could go on the battlefield, were only half eliminated by the loss of one horse, and avoided the expense of the chariot itself. Horse archers rarely dominated fighting as the chariot archers had, however, because advances in armor and tactics relegated horse archers to a supportive role. The hordes of horse archers employed by the Persians against Alexander, for example, were no match for his Companion cavalry, heavy Greek infantry, and skirmish troops. The Great Wall of China was built to restrict the movements of barbarian horse archers from the north.
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