How do Stygian and Hyrkanian Bows look like?
- Thread starter The King
- Start date
Bossonian Longbows I picture as the classical english longbow, for obvious reasons. A solid piece of carved and aged yew. Pure power.
Stygians are known for their chariot combat and so I picture them as having short, re-curved bows in the egyptian/mesopotamian style. I think they would be build out of fine grained wood (teak?) and bone producing a bow with an exceptionally heavy pull for its size thus explaining its large damage die.
Hyrkanian bows I imagine to be medium sized (they still have to use them from horseback) compound bows crafted from wood and bone. The sort of materials you can find easily on the open steppes. The compound construction produces a thick, heavy bow with great accuracy at range but less power than the solid carved yew of the Bossonian bow.
Shemites I think must use re-curve bows modeled after the stygian style but I think they use more wood and less bone in the construction (I think of dark heavy grained wood for some reason) thus accounting for the increased range and AP but lower damage die.
That just seems to be what springs to my mind.
Later.
Stygians are known for their chariot combat and so I picture them as having short, re-curved bows in the egyptian/mesopotamian style. I think they would be build out of fine grained wood (teak?) and bone producing a bow with an exceptionally heavy pull for its size thus explaining its large damage die.
Hyrkanian bows I imagine to be medium sized (they still have to use them from horseback) compound bows crafted from wood and bone. The sort of materials you can find easily on the open steppes. The compound construction produces a thick, heavy bow with great accuracy at range but less power than the solid carved yew of the Bossonian bow.
Shemites I think must use re-curve bows modeled after the stygian style but I think they use more wood and less bone in the construction (I think of dark heavy grained wood for some reason) thus accounting for the increased range and AP but lower damage die.
That just seems to be what springs to my mind.
Later.
I believe what you are refering to is a recurve bow. Try a few google searches to learn more about them but I will try to sumarize the basics here.
A recurve bow is a type of compound (made up of two or more different materials) bow with a material on the back that resists stretching and a material on the belly that resists compression. When unstrung the bow naturally flexes all the way foward to look something like this:
Observe my lousy ASCII art! :roll:
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Notice that in this diagram a person holding the bow as if they were going to fire it would be standing on the right facing left. Notice how the curve of the bow is concave on the left side.
Once you string the recurve bow it takes a shape like this:
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This picture is in the same orientation as before, that vertical line on the right is the bowstring. Notice how the strung bow is bent completly backwards so that at the center it is concave on the right but at the ends the bow still is concave on the left just like it appears when unstrung. This is what allows the bow to store so much power with such a little draw distance thus making it a good choice for mounted combat where space is tight.
Anyways, like I said in my last post I imagine Stygians and Shemites using short bows with a very pronounced recurve to them while I think of Hyrkanian bows as being built of heavier materials and having a less striking recurve to them. Bossonian bows are of course simple straight bows that depend on their exceptionally heavy materials and large draw length for their devistating power.
Later.
A recurve bow is a type of compound (made up of two or more different materials) bow with a material on the back that resists stretching and a material on the belly that resists compression. When unstrung the bow naturally flexes all the way foward to look something like this:
Observe my lousy ASCII art! :roll:
-----~
-------\
--------\
---------\
----------|
----------|
----------|
----------|
---------/
--------/
-------/
-----~
Notice that in this diagram a person holding the bow as if they were going to fire it would be standing on the right facing left. Notice how the curve of the bow is concave on the left side.
Once you string the recurve bow it takes a shape like this:
--------------|
-------------/
------------/
-----------/
----------|
----------|
----------|
----------|
-----------\
------------\
-------------\
--------------|
This picture is in the same orientation as before, that vertical line on the right is the bowstring. Notice how the strung bow is bent completly backwards so that at the center it is concave on the right but at the ends the bow still is concave on the left just like it appears when unstrung. This is what allows the bow to store so much power with such a little draw distance thus making it a good choice for mounted combat where space is tight.
Anyways, like I said in my last post I imagine Stygians and Shemites using short bows with a very pronounced recurve to them while I think of Hyrkanian bows as being built of heavier materials and having a less striking recurve to them. Bossonian bows are of course simple straight bows that depend on their exceptionally heavy materials and large draw length for their devistating power.
Later.
sanseveria
Mongoose
Both these bows are illustrated in the Conan: AE edition.
SS
SS
The King
Cosmic Mongoose
Excellent Argo; thank you very much. It seems you know a lot in that field. In fact, I always remember Howard telling of the special recurve of the Hyrkanian bow giving it a long range but it must then be not too large to enable shooting from a mounted position.argo said:
Your representations aren't that lousy and the second illustration explains a lot.
Too bad I don't have the AE edition.
A
Anonymous
Guest
The were many composite bows through the Ages, among the most remarkable were the ones made the Turks, and the Hun. They went beyond recurve, they were so curved that they had the heart shape that The King was refurring to. These bows were a composite of Wood, Bone, and Sinew (from horses I believe). The Turkish bow was somewhat better, coming from a later period and was essentially a refinement of the Huns composite. The Turkish bow used less bone, and a stronger and faster whipping bow.
Yew is a strong wood, but lacks speed, that is why it's mainly used in long bows, relying on it's length generate it's whipping speed. The Native's of the NW US used Yew Longbow with a sinew back, they were some what shorter therefore lack the range and force that the English Longbow had.
In Mass combat, the longbow shouldn't lose it's ap with range, the general practice was to shoot in high arcs allowing gravity to pull the arrows down onto the unit at about the same force that the arrow had as it left the bow.
Has anyone considered armor piercing arrows? While not being mentioned directly in the stories, there is no reason why they shouldn't exist, considering that they were invented shortly after plate armors arrived on the battlefield.
Yew is a strong wood, but lacks speed, that is why it's mainly used in long bows, relying on it's length generate it's whipping speed. The Native's of the NW US used Yew Longbow with a sinew back, they were some what shorter therefore lack the range and force that the English Longbow had.
In Mass combat, the longbow shouldn't lose it's ap with range, the general practice was to shoot in high arcs allowing gravity to pull the arrows down onto the unit at about the same force that the arrow had as it left the bow.
Has anyone considered armor piercing arrows? While not being mentioned directly in the stories, there is no reason why they shouldn't exist, considering that they were invented shortly after plate armors arrived on the battlefield.
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