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The upgrade has arrived
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2026
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I feel like the other way around would work better
Interestingly enough, the English longbow was a fairly late adoption!
Previous self-bows did not have the range or penetrative power of the English longbow, and even in England itself, the crossbow was more common until the mid-14th century AD. The longbow, thus, was introduced as an 'upgrade' of sorts to the well-established crossbow!
If you had no skill or strength, a crossbow was better, but people with good skill and strength can fire lots and lots of arrows in the same time as two crossbow arrows and more accurately.
Which is why crossbows were better. An hour with a thousand farmers and you've got an army.
Takes years of practice and strength training to handle an English longbow.
Every boy in England was required to learn how to use a longbow, there were no farmers in England that needed to be rapidly trained. It was also a requirement that all men from 15-60 own and use a longbow (practice every week).
It was enforced for like 500 years.
America: You have the right to bear arms
England: I better see you bearing arms or you're in trouble
The longbow was the upgrade. Better in battle.
When I was a boy, I had a little casio musical keyboard. With no training whatsoever, I could press a button and piano music would play. A real piano would be an upgrade.
They were like the fighter pilots of their day