Crossbows?

[Swimming Samurai]

Will their be Crossbows in the game? i just remebered that they actually where around in the 700s.

I remeber playing RTW BI and the Romans had Crossbows and also the pictish to. i found it intresting how they add units with Crossbows.

not sure but i heard that it was used in 796. Of course its not steel span like Arbalest or anything.

Sorry im not a history nut but dose anyone know if Crossbows where used by the saxons or ...well anywhere else in Europe?

[[Aesir] Oskorei]

no cross bows were not used.

there has not be a single find (that i know of, so if anyone does know one i want to know) of a cross bow for the Vikings or saxons for this time period

[Swimming Samurai]

http://www.pictishstones.org.uk/drosten-stone-zoom.jpg

Its said its suppost to be a Pictish Crossbow (on the bottom left) it is kinda strange how he is holding it if it was a bow. What are your thoughts on this? I dont know if the saxons used this but the Picts are up north of the saxons at the time.

[[Aesir] Oskorei]

in that picture, to me it doesnt look like a cross bow. i personally think it looks like some kind of trap that he is setting for those animals. if it was a bow or cross bow he is holding the wrong part of it to shoot it so in that contest it doesnt make sense and my money is on a trap.

but once again we come to the point that carvings/paintings/statues etc are a great source of imformation, but we cannot treat them as a "photo" of event and peoples. just look at any art gallery and the way people depict things even today, say like a car, can look totally different.

[xvii-Dietrich]

Interesting find. Do we know how old that pictish stone is? And where was it found?

It does seem an odd way to hold a normal bow, but then again it could be quite stylised. I like the trap idea too. I wonder if there are any other such drawings/carvings to give us more clues?

[Veritas]

its this one :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosten_Stone

After a little bit more google-digging i found some sentences about the crossbow in britain.
The romans had a crossbow type weapon that resembled the byzantic solenarion.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QniesVgxQck/TSBeB8MAlGI/AAAAAAAAAVg/B9mhZ7zr4Ww/s400/solenarion.jpg

And these crossbow type weapons came through the romans to britain and to the picts. But they are still far away from the later arbalest type crossbows we all know. these here are still more resembling a bow.

If these crossbows would be implemented in the game their only advantage would be that you can hold them pulled for as long as you wish, wich isnt that much of a difference at the moment. At the moment you can pull the bow for such a long time you almost never need to shoot with low power. (except for fast shots of course)
They wouldnt be stronger, maybe even weaker looking at that bolt. (at least it looks to me like that)

[xvii-Dietrich]

Thanks for the reference, Veritas. I thought the Picts were much older, but that article says 9th Century. Wow. I didn't realise the Pictish stuff continued that late.

[Swimming Samurai]

Veritas thats a very nice find. i would have ecpected the Xbow to be .... more of a Xbow.

Dietrich as for the age of the stone carving i cant find it but my best guess is that it will have to be from 500-700 but im not sure. Im also looking for more stone carving hopeing to run across more Bow looking weapons and of course post it here.

[Veritas]

Originally posted by Sir Nodosa Of Wessex:

Dietrich as for the age of the stone carving i cant find it but my best guess is that it will have to be from 500-700 but im not sure. Im also looking for more stone carving hopeing to run across more Bow looking weapons and of course post it here.

You can find the age of the stone and links to many other pictis stones on the wikipedia site i linked.

[xvii-Dietrich]

According to Wikipedia the Gesta Guillelmi by William of Poitiers (ca. 1072) mentions the use of crossbows at the Battle of Hastings. I have not been able to find the Gesta Guillelmi text, but this might be an interesting line of investigation.

Also, investigating the pictish stones further, it ssuggests there may be multiple stones with crossbows (or at least crossbow-like devices). Again, I've not been able to find any sources yet, but I'm still looking into this.

[General Sherman]

There is very scant evidence for the use of crossbows in the time period.

As pointed out, there is just enough to suggest it may have been a possiblity, but the overwhelming majority of the evidencce suggests that crossbowes were barely ever used in battle, if at all.

The only strong evidence is from William of Poiteiers as Dietrich already pointed out, and that refers to the battle of Hastings in 1066, generally regarded as the end of the Viking period.