"Although it has a history going back thousands of years, the crossbow disappears from the record in Europe by the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and did not appear again until the 11th century. Traditional bows were seen at the time as the weapon of choice, primarily because they could release far more missiles per minute than a crossbow could, but gradually the crossbow improved both power and range, and by the 15th century was a highly valued weapon in any European army, particularly when it came to sieges (both in attack and defence) where the rate of fire mattered less. Crossbowmen were valued more highly than men-at-arms, and paid more as a result. In armies with many mercenaries, such as those of the Dukes of Burgundy, these respected soldiers appeared in large numbers.
Our top row shows the four crossbowmen in this set. Unlike many such figures, most of these men are holding their weapon horizontally, perhaps already loaded and just looking for a target. A fourth man is in the process of loading his crossbow, or more specifically in spanning it (drawing the string back so it is ready to be loaded). We much liked all in this small collection of poses.
For a set titled ‘crossbowmen' it is more than a little strange that half the figures are nothing of the sort, but are instead arquebusiers. Our second row shows these men, and again we have a selection of men loading or using their weapon. The 15th century saw a great rise in the use of such troops as the weapons gradually improved, and ultimately they would replace the crossbow in the military altogether. Again we thought all these four poses were very good and natural…."
Full review here
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Amicalement
Armand
looks at some new terrain products, which use space age technology!
