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Warmatrix

War Matrix - Self bow

Prehistory 35000 BCE - 3500 BCE, Weapons and technology

Hadza nomads
Hadza nomads
The handbow is the oldest type of bow, at least 60,000 years old. The simplest handbow is the self bow, made of a single piece of wood bent and tensed by a string. The bow is held vertically and gripped in the center by one hand and the arrow and string by the other. The first bows were 'shortbows'. There were held in front of the archer and stretched up to the chest. As time progressed, medium and long bows were made, which could shoot harder and further. But the length of an archer's arms puts a limit on the length of bows and with that, on the the firepower. To increase shooting power beyond the maximum of a self bow, fletchers developed backed and fully composite bows.
Bows were and still are used for hunting. They were also used in warfare, prized for their long range and high rate of fire. Some armies used large numbers of archers that would fire volleys of arrows, thick as clouds, which would rain down upon the ranks of the enemy. Others shot individual arrows at selected targets, which requires a lot more skill. Horse archers like the Scythians shot from horseback, which is even more difficult, but has the advantage of keeping the archers out of range of heavy infantry, which is always a threat to them.
A shortbow is about 1 meter long and can shoot close to 200 meters, though effective range is about 50. Longbows are about as long as the archer stands tall and can shoot 20% further. A trained archer can shoot about 6 arrows per minute, or double that rate without taking proper aim. However such high rates of fire tend to deplete the archer's supply of arrows very fast.
Arrows from self bows can take out hunting game and lightly armored enemies, but have trouble with heavier armor. Hunting arrows have broadhead arrows, which are good at piercing and causing heavy bleeding, but perform poorly against armored opponents. War arrows are heavier, more narrow and sometimes even blunt. These cause less damage, but are better for penetrating armor. They may cause secondary blunt damage and so are overall more effective in war.