Fundamentally change combat in fantasy?

[Michal]

He's using a thumb draw, which is pretty much required to get this speed/accuracy. There are various fast-shooting demos you can look up on Youtube, most of them for horse-archery. Pretty amazing stuff, and obviously requires a lot of skill and training to do.

[Ken]

In fantasy, you can shoot an arrow and have it turn into a whale before it hits the ground. :)

[John (Nevets)]

Only if Douglas Adams is writing it. ;-)

[Alicja]

Wow! That is really cool.

[JohnViril]

Wow, great catch. I'm going to have to look at this.

I guess shooting for volume is very different than shooting for accuracy (which is what modern archery contests do).

[JohnViril]

Though the thing we fantasy authors have to remember is that archers were a support arm in ancient warfare, they were only the decisive arm in only a few battles under special circumstances like Agincourt.

Yet, what Lars does would be very significant for a small party on a quest, because small groups can't mass shields against an archery attack like formations could.

[Joseph]

K. J. Parker's Fencer trilogy (Colours in the Steel et al.) had a memorable sequence (although I don't remember which book) where a company of archers was trying to hold off a mass of infantry. It basically became a problem in math -- can we put enough arrows into the air (and the enemy soldiers) to stop their advance before they reach us?

[AndrewP]

JohnViril wrote: "Wow, great catch. I'm going to have to look at this.

I guess shooting for volume is very different than shooting for accuracy (which is what modern archery contests do)."

A bit like the role of a medium or heavy machine gun compared with a sniper rifle.

[James]

Nice catch, very interesting to watch.