Bows and Arrows
An arrow is a modified version of a spear. It is smaller, lighter, typically has a set of feathers on the back end known as fletching to improve it's ballistics and a notch in the end. Arrows are used as ballistic projectiles launched using a bow. A bow at it its most simple is a cord of elastic material (such as string, sinew or silk) held between a rigid but still elastic arch of material. The arrow is notched to the string, held against the bow and pulled back, putting the string under tension and storing energy. When released, the arrow is accelerated to a high speed. Bows were soon adopted on every continent save Australia for hunting and warfare. A person trained in the use of a bow is called an archer, the skill of making use of a bow to shoot arrows at targets is known as archery.
In typical western fantasy, the Bow is the preferred weapon of Elves, which makes some sense given the facts about elves (long lives, good vision and dexterity and speed on foot), but is still a little problematic if you think about it. The biggest limitations on bow use are the physical strength and stamina of the user, who was subject to heavy fatigue, and elves have a Constitution penalty and aren't always known for lifting.
Archery in Warfare
The big advantage of a bow in pre-modern warfare was simple and obvious: range. When compared with javelins or thrown axes and spears, bows have a notable advantage in terms of rage, rate of fire and the amount of ammunition which could be carried into battle. Certain bows such as Welsh Longbows had range of up to 300 meters. Though when bows were used at such distances they were more akin to artillery than a modern sniper rifle, being loosed at the area in which enemy forces were standing rather than at individual enemy soldiers. A good archer could also loose up to ten arrows a minute, a rate of fire which is better than that of most firearms until the 19th century and the rise of breech loading rifles. The biggest downside of bows and arrows is that they are basically useless in hand to hand combat. At best, they are an inefficient club and a short brittle spear. For this reason archers in battle would carry a backup weapon in case of close quarters fighting: usualy a dagger, a short sword or a warhammer (which is also used to set anti-cavalry spikes).
As mentioned, the basics of archery were common across the world for both hunting and and as a sport. A basic bow and basic arrows are fairly easy to make and use. Military archery was less common however. Arrows loosed from a simple hunting bow may kill a deer or a naked human being, but they can be stopped by a basic wood or even wicker shield. There range was also limited. To a formation of well armored and/or shield equipped soldiers, arrow fire from common hunting bows and arrows are little more than a annoyance and would only be used in warfare as a weapon of last resort. For bows to be worthwhile against such forces, they need to go beyond a simple oak branch and hemp string. Large bows made of yew and ironwood were one option if said trees were available. The English were famous for using such bows. Another option would be to make bows by gluing together layers of horn, sinew and either wood or bamboo.
Both heavier longbows and composite bows had considerable power and could penetrate shields, mail and even plate armor at close range but were more difficult to make and were (in the case of composite bows) more sensitive to moisture. Either way, both of these types of bows took a lot of time to master, usually beginning in childhood. Archeologists can identify the skeletons of such archers in that they had very strong arms used to draw their bows. Due to their value in battle and the time which needed to be invested in training them, said archers were considered elite soldiers and were seen as valuable. In 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto, the Ottoman Fleet was dealt a major defeat. Amongst the biggest losses they had suffered was the deaths of many skilled composite bow armed archers. While their forces of galleys was reconstructed and recrewed fairly swiftly it took a decade to train replacement archers. It should be noted that at this time, both the Ottomans and the Christians were making heavy use of matchlock firearms.
Archers could fight either on foot or on horseback. Mounted Archers equipped with composite bows could be quite devastating, raining arrows on forces armed with spears and swords from a safe distance while easily avoiding the slow moving masses of men. Many ancient armed forces are known for their use of mounted archery, and the resulting rage it inspired in their foes: See the Parthians vs. the Romans, the Huns vs. Europe and the Mongols vs. Pretty Damn Well Everyone. Foot archers sacrificed this mobility for increased accuracy, increased numbers (cavalry archers also need to be trained in horsemanship and have a horse) and the ability to hide and dig in. Foot archers if used properly and backed up with pikemen, were the best pre-gunpowder counter to cavalry archers, in fact up until the invention of the breech loader Longbows were STILL better weapons then muskets.
The decline
Bows have two major issues that make their use on the battle field problematic: training time and user fatigue. Compared to a crossbow or a firearm, bows require years and years of practice to become really, really good at, and to build up the endurance to perform the difficult feat of pulling back a high-tension wire, holding it to aim, and letting go over and over again. There is an old English proverb which goes; "To train a longbowman start with his grandfather." The best archers in human history were the English Yeoman, and the Japanese Samurai, entire social classes full of hard-training men. In fact, we can go into any English graveyard and figure out who the longbowmen were just by looking at the left arms on the skeletons. Conversely, crossbows and guns are easy to train with and don't necessarily wear you out as quickly. If you can field more men than your enemy, it gives you a pretty massive advantage. Once stronger crossbows, more reliable firearms, and better reloading mechanisms and manufacturing methods for both became commonplace, the longbow faded from martial prominence, like the sword before it.
Types of bows and arrows
- Longbow: in fantasy, the most common type of bow seen. The longbow is defined as a bow that is big as the person using it. English long bows are traditionally made of Yew and are composed of one solid piece of wood, meaning you can make a longbow fairly quickly. The long bow has the last recorded bow kill in a war in history when British Lt. Col. Jack Churchill used one to in World War II.
- Yumi: a general name for asymmetry (the grip was not in the center of the bow) bows from japan. The Yumi is a type of long bow that can be over 2 meters in length end to end. The Asymmetry is debated, some thing it is so the bow could be fired kneeling, others thing it helped when firing on horse back.
- Recurve bow: a bow where the tips of the arms bend away from the archer. This gives the bow the ablity to store more energy while being shorter making it ideal for Calvary forces.
While most bows are gennearly the same, the type of arrows they fired could be very different and each was built for a different task.
- Bodkin point: a European four sided pointed arrow head, the Bodkin looks like a tiny tall pyramid with steep sides. The Bodkin point was, thanks to it narrow tip, better able to penetrate armor then other arrow heads, and was good at deal with most kinds of armor at close range. The french learned this to there dismay in the Battle of Agincourt where the french knights charged across a muddy feild, were slowed and made easy picking for the mass of English longbowmen.
- Broad head: what we think of when we say "arrow head", a broad base coming to a narrow point. The broad head was built to take on animals by wounding them, then causing them to bleed out through the large gash it created. When humans started killing each other it was just as effective against unarmed humans, but once we started wearing armor the Broad head had things more difficult.
- Elf-Arrows: yes. . . these exist. These are flint arrow heads used by the Indigenous peoples of Europe, and particularly England, before they got a hand on the whole civilization thing. When the medieval people found these things in the ground they assumed they were arrows made and used by fairy and elves to kill cattle and humans.
- Burning arrows these were NOT just setting the shaft of your arrow on fire, the burning arrow replaces the arrow head with something to carry the fire to the target. in a hurry you could just wrap rags soaked in something flammable around the tip of your arrow, but if you were ready you would use specially made arrows heads which were built like a cage so you could shoot a burning coal.
- Ya: Japanese arrows, unlike European ones these could be over a meter long.
- Kaburi-Ya (Whistling Arrow): used both to signel to commanders and to scare the crap out of enemy soldiers the "whistling arrow" works as you think it would, either the tip of the arrow was replaced or they added something along the length of the arrow to cause the whistling.
- Karimata: a wacky looking arrow head, the "ropecutter" is a Y shaped arrowhead, with the two upper arms of the arrow pointing out toward the target. The Karimata was used to hunt big game by causing bleeding, but logically it would also create horrible wounds on a human.