Spears or arrows

[Loopmaker]

I heard that javalins outclassed arrows in terms of accuracy. What's the point of arrows then?

I kinda wanted to make a Ranger esque character and had my heart set on archery

[A Nickel]

Archery is much more accurate. Javelins typically work best around 3-7 tiles.
Gotta run, but hopefully someone will flesh this out for me. :)

[Privateer]

Javalins are based in spear skills, as such can be an effective ranged option.
Arrows weigh far less and are based in bow skills, as such can be an effective ranged option.
Rocks/stones are based in club skills, as such can be an effective short ranged option.

[urman.gamer]

Just did some testing: rocks will go about 12-13 tiles, max. javelins will go about 17-18 tiles, max. Arrows will go to the edge of the map space and beyond, 23 tiles. This does have some disadvantage, but arrows are relatively cheap to buy.

Note that without mods better than average/decent javelins and rocks will be hard to find. Good and superior bows and arrows are available and can add to your effective skill and impact.

Broadhead arrows can cause edge/bleeding wounds which can be more effective than the basic arrows and javelins which cause simple puncture wounds.

Note that a javlin weighs 3 pounds. For the weight of 2 javelins you can carry a 4 pound longbow and about 20 basic arrows, or 10 broadheads.

[Malarky]

Personally I like javelin, mostly because I use a spear for melee and javelins work on same skill. My spear skill is 89 so I'm pretty good at both melee and ranged, but the earlier comment about range is correct - javelins are pretty poor at long distance.

On the other hand, I've lost a lot of arrows when shooting things long distance. Javelins are a lot easier to find. I have so much gear now that I don't care if I lose some arrows, so I'll likely start training up bow skill. It does suck carrying 5 javelins plus a spear.

[Mnemovore]

I use a rough javelin (blunt attacks) for training spear skill. Saving an elk or two in pit traps and returning to them once every week or two is great skill practice. This technique also works on domestic animals.

[Malarky]

OMG, that is soooo cruel!

[Brigand231]

I bit of a necro, I know... I always carry around a couple javelins for "trash" fights against simple enemies or hunting and reserve my more expensive spears for Njerpezit villages; it seems silly to me to degrade and lose quality on my best battle gear when the attack and defense bonuses of better spears like Angyo, Kaumo, and Northern spears can make the difference between life and death when outnumbered.

[ringhloth]

The major advantage of javelins are that they use your spear skill, even when throwing. Combined with spear skill being really easy to get high at spawning as a Kaumolain (IIRC, it might be one of the other Ks), that means that a javelin is an easy to get, high accuracy early game weapon, and against enemies that are charging at you are a potent weapon no matter how far into the game you are. However, they suffer from short range, and even though they can reach ~15 tiles, past 5-10 you're unlikely to get a solid hit except with luck and high spear skill. At equal bow and spear skills, bows are far more accurate and likely to wound an animal at first sighting, but it's expensive early game to get a solid set of bows and arrows.

[The Lost Viking]

Javelins also weigh more than arrows keep this in mind when packing them. REMEMBER! that the weight also helps with the weapons damage and the severity of wounds dealt. but also armor penetration. A javelin will punch through armor much more easily than an arrow would. Also consider that throwing a jav removes its weight malus.

projectile speed is also important thats why arrows can be very deadly at close range. but for any throwing weapons there is a sweet spot for launching them. range, damage, speed are all a little different depending on a characters stats.

at closer ranges it can most certainly be more deadly to throw javelins, they can do incapacitating if not outright murderous damage it is one of the reason they can be very good when fighting against a group. everybody closes in anyway do they not? Also note that throwing weapons seem more accurate than a bow and arrow to some people at smaller ranges.

Stones and rocks are also pretty good offensive weapons. just chuck away at unarmored parts legs for instance. In the past NPC's RNG equipment made it so that allot of Human targets were pantsless, allot of broken knees came as a result. Hilarious njerpez removal was had in many playthroughs.

Another thing to consider is packing handaxes they are very good throwing weapons and can do some devastating things to targets. they also weigh less than a javelin but their throwing is a bit iffy. . targets 3-4 tiles away however are in for a shock. Aim for the head with decent skill you can outright kill or KO someone leaving an easy target.

Personally I like to carry a little bit of everything:
Bow, 10-20 arrows
2-3 javs
2-5 axes

this is more than enough ammo to skirmish down well equipped traders into near death leaving only badly wounded ones to finish off with minimal effort.