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[–] 243 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Props to the movies that shout the "Loose!" command

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  • [–] 86 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    As I understand it, that's still not very historically accurate. It was not really a thing for archers to nock and loose together like they do in the movies.

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  • [–] 127 points 1 year ago (11 children)

    Never really made sense to me, loose all the arrows at once and then give a break between volleys? Gives everyone a chance to hide behind their shield, and then advance when it's clear. Unless volleys are perfectly timed between multiple rows of archers.

    Random arrows flying constantly never gives the enemy a chance to feel safe since it's a constant barrage, and there's no wasted time for the archers needing to wait for the command to fire.

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  • [–] 101 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Archers were strategic weapons, not the main crux of killilng. They were used to do things like keeping an enemy division pinned down so that your cavalry can move around them or one of your own divisions can reach a more advantageous position. A well placed concentrated barrage could force an enemy to move in a direction that is more advantageous to you, etc...

    They weren't the primary means of killing people. They were the means of steering the battle where the general wanted it to go.

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  • [–] 36 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Actually, it worked pretty much exactly this way in the first stages of battle.

    In the opening moves of a medieval battle, archers were essentially like the "creeping fire" that they used in World War 1; it's purpose is to keep the enemy immobile behind their shields and unable to advance as fast as they would like. Your army can't rush to take an advantageous position if they're constantly having to stop and hide under their shields.

    In WW1, in the Somme especially, the artillery would lay down what they called "creeping fire" to keep the enemy huddled in their trenches while their own soldiers advance behind the wall of firepower. Archers basically played the same role.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volley_fire Y'all really just make stuff up without even checking wikipedia huh? It wasn't typically used in medieval Europe for bows beyond the initial volley, though of course initial volleys were still a thing. You didn't just have elements of archer formations fire whenever they decided the range seemed right.

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    [–] 136 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Or that they're holding the bow drawn for a long period of time, waiting for the order to "fire".

    Long bows averaged a 200lb draw weight. Try holding that for 5 minutes.

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  • [–] 147 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • [–] 150 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Literally - you can pick out English longbowman bodies from the shape of their skeletons

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  • [–] 40 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Now I'm imagining a swole skeleton with buff bones

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  • [–] 67 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I never blamed the archer on the walls of Helms Deep. Waiting for the enemy to get all the way up to your walls was dumb enough, but waiting while having drawn your bow for what must've felt like ages for a human archer, is fucking rediculous. Terrible leadership.

    You don't want your archers to be excausted before the battle even starts, just so you can look really unbothered on top of your wall.

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    [–] 130 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • [+] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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    [–] 81 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    i usually complain to the wife when horrible tactics are used in medieval battles.

    like... why is everyone always doing a full frontal assault, have the wrong weapons, not use fire appropriately, never flank, use cavalry inappropriately.....

    miltary tactics in movies is usually abhorrent.

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  • [–] 93 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I loved the battle of Winterfell, where everyone took up defensive positions OUTSIDE THE CASTLE WALLS.

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  • [–] 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    That battle caused a mass-extinction event among the Total War community.

    • Frontal cavalry charge without any follow up

    • Siege engines positioned outside the fortifications against a mobile enemy

    • Projectile forces unsupported outside the fortifications

    • Melee infantry inside the castle, watching and picking their noses

    My wife told me to shut up multiple times during that episode as I was screeching like a monkey. The wrong side won that battle that night.

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    [–] 60 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Given the fact that any language used in such a movie is going to be wildly unlike the language spoken in the time and place of the movie, I think that's a mild anachronism

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago

    Old English / Norman French etc would be practically incomprehensible to anybody.

    There was an interesting TV show called Barbarians a few years ago where all the Romans spoke Latin but with Italian accents but they had the Germanic barbarians speaking modern German. Not sure if that would please anybody.

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  • [–] 51 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    If you were commanding a mass of archers "Spaff!" was the correct command.

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    [–] 49 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Well, this is going to bug me for the rest of my life.

    Thanks.

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    [–] 47 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

    for the haters :

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volley_fire#Bows

    The co-ordination and timing could probably be resolved with musical instruments, which were used to relay orders, messages etc.

    EDIT : Also, what did OP expect, for all the characters to speak Old English?

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    [–] 41 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Correct term was probably "loose!"

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    [–] 41 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah, or a sequence of "nock, draw, fire/loose/shoot" commands. Warbows cannot be held that long ffs.

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  • [–] 40 points 1 year ago

    I never gave it a single thought. But now I have been cursed with this knowledge and will fly into a fury every time I hear it now.

    But thanks anyway.

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  • [–] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Often times, I think of movies or stories as the story teller as translating for the audience. You don't watch Troy and think it's odd the characters are speaking English.

    It's acceptable to complain if the work is nonfiction and meant to be for education.

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    [+] 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)
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    [–] 35 points 1 year ago (19 children)

    Something I dislike in movies is when a movie is set in a non-English-speaking country, but all the characters are speaking English. I would rather have the characters speak the proper language for the country, with English subtitles. But I guess the movie execs have calculated that subtitles will make the movie less profitable.

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  • [–] 30 points 1 year ago (17 children)

    Even worse in my opinion is when they use a generic British accent as a stand-in for literally any time and place in history. Ancient Rome? British accent. Ancient Greece? Also British accent. Ancient Persia? British accent again! Ancient Egypt? You guessed it! British accent! Even when the actors aren't even British, the accent is. It makes no sense. It's lazy and arrogant.

    If I had a billion dollars, I'd make the most painstakingly realistic movie about Samurai in feudal Japan, and have all Japanese actors using a SoCal Chicano accent. Or maybe a hyper realistic Viking epic with a full Nordic cast, but they all talk like surfer bros.

    The audience needs to be forced to see how insulting that shit is.

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    [+] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
    [removed by mod]
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  • [+] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
    [–] 27 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Archers also didn't usually shoot upwards to arc their shots. It loses power, reduces accuracy, and makes it more likely for them to hit armor, not less.

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    [–] 22 points 1 year ago

    “Let fly!”

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