Rapid Fire Archery Combat Style

[alex_greene]

This article on a rapid fire Archery Combat Style recently turned up on BoingBoing.

I've seen the clips of this artist at his work, and it impresses me. I'd love to see this turn up as a Combat Manoeuvre for Legend: the ability to rapid-fire a maximum number of arrows equal to 10% of one's Archery Combat Style, rounded up, with each arrow beyond the first imposing a -10% penalty to the roll. Make one roll and check it against the unmodified result, the result with the -10% penalty and so on.

So let's say your character has Archery 75%. He can fire off, theoretically, eight arrows in one go. Let's say he wants to fire off just five arrows at his opponent. each arrow after the first imposes -10%, so the second is at -10% (65%), the third is at -20% (55%), the fourth is at -30% (45%) and the fifth is at -40% (35%).

So the roll comes up as 52. The fifth and fourth arrows miss; but arrows 1, 2 and 3 hit.

You can make it a CM, or you can make it a Heroic Ability, with the prerequisite that the wielder have DEX 13+ or something.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Mamluk horse-mounted archers were trained only to draw three at a time (although they shot one at a time). The technique was to ride up close, halt, and blast off a salvo then ride away fast.

 

[soltakss]

The "Three Arrow Trick" is described in The Birch Bark Chronicles, for Mythic Russia. Basically, it involves drawing three arrows, putting two in your mouth and firing the third, then taking the other two from mouth to bow and firing them. It is faster than drawing three arrows in turn from quiver to bow.

In RQ3 terms, it reduces the SR of each fired arrow by 1, which allows even clumsier Adventurers to fire three arrows per round.

However, I have never come up with a good explanation in Legend/RQ6, which is frustrating as it works so well with RQ3.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

The Mamluks didn't put the two "spare" arrows in their mouths. They used a draw that enabled them to use spare fingers to hold the arrows in a sort-of vertical-ish position, that meant they could swing the second arrow into position after shooting the first (and the third thereafter).

Quicker, but they could only do this from a stationary horse... I don't think they ever bothered trying to do this while moving as it would be stupid, and result in a lot of dropped arrows.

 

[soltakss]

The Mamluks didn't put the two "spare" arrows in their mouths. They used a draw that enabled them to use spare fingers to hold the arrows in a sort-of vertical-ish position, that meant they could swing the second arrow into position after shooting the first (and the third thereafter).

Quicker, but they could only do this from a stationary horse... I don't think they ever bothered trying to do this while moving as it would be stupid, and result in a lot of dropped arrows.

But the Bashkorts drew three arrows and put two in their mouths while riding. They were better horse-archers than the Mamluks ...

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

The Mamluks' technique (according to their training manuals) was to ride up fast to about 50 yards (or less if practical), stop, shoot two aimed handfuls in under 6 seconds and then ride off. Rinse and repeat.

The point was that they were aiming at individual targets rather than merely shooting a volley into a target area.

 

[Bifford]

Guys, look up Lars Anderson on Youtube and be amazed.

https://www.youtube.com/user/larsandersen23

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Well, he does mention the Mamluks (or as he says "Saracens") being able to shoot "3 arrows in 1.5 seconds" (a lot of people add on a few seconds for a slightly "high-strung" horse in a combat situation)... but yes, that's what I was saying.

 

[mr31337]

Has anybody seen any of the video responses to Lars Anderson?

Here's one.

 

[Bifford]

Has anybody seen any of the video responses to Lars Anderson?

Here's one.

Most enlightening, thanks!