Bretonnian Archers, their lore and their lack of skill...

[Gisborne]

Ok so i quote this

"Peasant Bowmen are the most basic support infantry fielded by the armies of Bretonnia. It is customary within Bretonnia for every peasant to learn, willing or not, how to use a longbow. This custom is usually enforced by a local Bretonnian Lord as a means of training their peasantry should the call to war be sounded."

Hmm ok so this was a real thing in my country of England back in the day... but what i don't understand is why the Bretonnian archers in game are WANK when they apparently by law same as Englishmen had to train (from a very young age) with a longbow weekly?

Not only would they just like the English in real life be ♥♥♥♥ing strong as ♥♥♥♥ BOI... and be able to draw over 100lb bows from their lifetime dedication of training and muscle building but they would simply put be master archers... so why the ♥♥♥ are the Bretonnian archers this ♥♥♥♥♥♥? because IMO if they did what they did like the English they would be perhapse the best archers in the game in terms of dmg, accuracy and skill...

I just bought an English Longbow IRL and had it a few weeks now, it's 50lb and it's hard for me to use, after two weeks i can now draw it ok ish but after 10 full draws im ♥♥♥♥ed and i can not hold it steady at full draw to actually aim for long.

This is my baby... https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16807283_10212545208803990_5209396743575515239_n.jpg?oh=6354e6c626d48f3f0dfb82d55b99351a&oe=5928B5A3

But i just find it a bit ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and insulting that such a powerful law that created a peasant army of master archers is treated with such arrogance in the warhammer world... is this like some ♥♥♥♥ take of the English by the English because the Bretonnian are French ish and got wrecked int he 100 years war by us? hmm...

[[HN]]

But they are good tho, it's just that they are fighting against ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ monsters undead and super fantasy strong knights and warriors ?

They are as good as a medieval english peasant (well, french peasant to be exact) it's just everything else that's super strong.

[FieserMoep]

Bretonnian peasants are the fantasy extreme of peasants.
Think of Monty Python level of intelligence.

https://youtu.be/k3jt5ibfRzw

Even with training they are just super stupid and incompetent.

[Gisborne]

Originally posted by Hell_Nico:

But they are good tho, it's just that they are fighting against ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ monsters undead and super fantasy strong knights and warriors ?

They are as good as a medieval english peasant (well, french peasant to be exact) it's just everything else that's super strong.

The char roster pretty much says they're wank in every way compared to the other range units like the empire.

[Vargas78]

Gisborne the English Longbowmen tended to be a semi-elite (by archer standards) unit though, drawn from the yeomanry, not the peasantry. Even in the Byzantine empire all peasants under the emperors had a similar law, a decree that peasants had to own a bow and practice archery every day but in reality no-one got round to doing it regularly, let-alone own their own bows. It's probably a similar situation in Bretonnia with regards to their peasant archers.

But Yeomen were partly kept and armed to enforce the peace and had the means and time to train regularly, and from a young age as the position tended to be inherited. Whilst the Bretonians have more in common with medieval france and Arturian Britain than to medieval england of the time of the longbows. And medieval french archers were pretty average. So i think it makes sense for Bretonnian peasant archers to also be pretty average. The priority for them in life was toil in the fields so any commands to practice archery would likely just be given lip service like we saw in the byzantine empire.

[SleepyNarwhalz]

Because they're all terribly malnourished and probably don't actually practice as often as they're supposed to.

[AriDeer]

Does not matter how good the bow is, if the person using it is sickly and untrained your not getting far

[FieserMoep]

They are stupid peasants.
That IS the explanation.

[Sultschiem]

The imperial Archers are militarily trained and have better equipment , the huntsmen are...hunters... they hunt in the woods and scout for armies
Elven Archers....no need to talk about that
Dwarven Crossbows?...They are dwarves, better equiped and way more experienced
Ungor/Greenskin archers? Yeah they suck compareably, but they have more sheer mass
Skinks? Dedicated bred creatures
Ogres? they are shooting cannons...
CHaos dwarves? Gunpowder..

[Nix]

Key words = "warhammer world".
Unless england its actually between the Grey mountains and the great ocean bretonnia isn't under the jurisdiction of your queen, for such reason you have no right to be offended in any way, shape or form.
It's warhammer, bretonnia it's just a layer of meat between the greenskins and the Empire of man, a tasty one.

[FieserMoep]

Exactly.
And in the warhammer world bretonnian peasants are inherently stupid.

[Gisborne]

Originally posted by Vargas78:

Gisborne the English Longbowmen tended to be a semi-elite (by archer standards) unit though, drawn from the yeomanry, not the peasantry. Even in the Byzantine empire all peasants under the emperors had a similar law, a decree that peasants had to own a bow and practice archery every day but in reality no-one got round to doing it regularly, let-alone own their own bows. It's probably a similar situation in Bretonnia with regards to their peasant archers.

But Yeomen were partly kept and armed to enforce the peace and had the means and time to train regularly, and from a young age as the position tended to be inherited. Whilst the Bretonians have more in common with medieval france and Arturian Britain than to medieval england of the time of the longbows. And medieval french archers were pretty average. So i think it makes sense for Bretonnian peasant archers to also be pretty average. The priority for them in life was toil in the fields so any commands to practice archery would likely just be given lip service like we saw in the byzantine empire.

In England it was the peasants who had to train with the bow and they did every sunday after church. We wiped out entire species of tree in england making that many bows and wiped out entire forests in europe importing wood. It got to a point every trade ship coming to england had to being and gift like 30 bows. It was a big deal here and our peasants used an average of 130 lb bows up to even 170lb like found on the mary rose. But i guess the bretonnians are just wannabes lol

[HuffingJenkem]

Every Englishman had to train with a longbow, but the people who actually went to war were usually career mercenaries, not peasant levies. Also, as has been mentioned, malnutrition.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

A longbow man took a long time to train and was eventualy replaced by the much cheaper and faster to trainer gun users(musketeers? riflemen. not sure what there called)

In real life an arrow will stop most people from moving.
In warhammer...
Most orks can take a beating, wood elves are centuries old archer's who lives in a wood that kills the weak, stupid, etc.
The empire crowbow man and gunners have a far higher armor pentraton then mere arrows have.
vampire counts are undead so causing internal bleeding doesnt effect them much.
And chaos is substain by demonic gods.
So they arent horrible there enemies are just much deadlier then your avarge human.

[Nerivant]

Also with the general distain the nobility of Bretonnia have for ranged weaponry, do you really think theyd be bothered EQUIPPING PEASANTS? Its even said in the lore that a Bretonnian family has a single bow passed down from father to son, who knows how low quality or old those things can be?

[Gisborne]

Originally posted by HuffingJenkem:

Every Englishman had to train with a longbow, but the people who actually went to war were usually career mercenaries, not peasant levies. Also, as has been mentioned, malnutrition.

When i bought my longbow as you see in my pic, i wanted a 60lb as my first bow lol, my bow cost me £450 and was made by Bickerstaffe, one of the best bow makers left in this world. I spoke to him personaly on the phone and he said 60lb is too much for you i said are you sure? he said start at most with 40lb and even that will be too powerful for a beginner... I settled on a 50lb with him but he said "back in the medieval days of england peasants were working very long hours every day in the fields and training with bows weekly, their bodys were stronger than nearly every man and women on this planet today" they were not as malnurished as you think, most of them were not even malnurished, they generally farmed enough food and traded their wares to not be. we were not africans... England was renowned for it's fertile farmlands even, it's why the vikings wanted it so bad.