History Main / BowAndSwordInAccord

* Heavy Horse Archers are usually this. Cataphracts (Parthian, Sassanid and Byzantine) as well as Mamluk and Spahi elites carried bows as well as their maces or swords while wearing not too heavy but still considerable armour. One wonders what would have happened if the [[LeeroyJenkins Western European knight]] had picked up on this approach.
** Then you basically get Russian Boyars. They started off as heavy cavalry armed primarily with spears, but somewhere around the 9th century learned to use the bow to counter steppe nomads they usually fought. In effect becoming either heavy horse archers who were well armored and extremely good in melee, often surprising the more Western armies like Polish and Germans.

* The Vikings weren't averse to using archery to open battle, not to mention chucking spears, despite their {{Blood Knight}} reputation.
* Even though [[YourMileageMayVary they believe]] KatanasAreJustBetter, the Samurai were just as skilled at shooting a bow from horseback before entering the fray with their better-known swords.
** Samurai were originally mounted archers. The katanas came later in history; their legendary code of honor, "Bushido" or "Way of the Warrior", was originally known as "Kyuba No Michi", or "Way of the Horse and Bow".
** For all that they were a signature weapon, and almost a holy relic. The Katana was not even the Samurai's primary battle weapon (it was used predominantly for duelling); that honour went to the Naginata. So the samurai are best described as Bow and {{Polearm}} In Accord.
*** And even the Naginata went out of fashion as Yari pike formations became more popular--just as in Europe, rows of men with pikes became more important than an individual skilled warrior.
* The modern rifleman is essentially this. He is taught to dominate the enemy with ranged fire (from his rifle) but simultaneously to close in on said enemy. When he gets within close range, he is then taught to throw grenades, rush in and end the fight at close quarters. (Usually by this point, the other guys are either dead or gone...)
** This has been true of infantry since the invention of the bayonet, especially once the socket bayonet allowed the soldier to seamlessly switch from ranged combat to direct combat and back without interruption.

[[quoteright:330:[[WarhammerFantasy http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Shade_2_1451.jpg]]]]

[[caption-width:307: [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Isn't that a crossbow?]]]]]]

* Link carries a slingshot, then an actual bow, in ''{{Legend Of Zelda}}'' games. Of course, that's [[HyperspaceArsenal hardly the only weaponry combination he's capable of]], but his sword and bow are generally his most powerful weapons and required to defeat the FinalBoss.
** DidNotDoTheResearch. There are only a few games where he upgrades from the slingshot to the bow. In almost all of them, he simply gets the bow.

** Actually, that is not quite true. They had a variety of weapons of this sort. The ''veruta'' were shorter and lighter and used for skirmishing and the ''spicula'' replaced the ''pila'' later in the Empire. Also, iron is soft by nature. The bending action would be caused by the replacement of one of the iron pins with a wooden pin (which held the point onto the wooden haft). This made it easy to fix after the battle, but useless (especially if it were embedding in your shield or armour) after its first use. Roman legionaries did carry quite a bit of weaponry though. [[WalkingArmory A]] ''[[WalkingArmory gladius, pugio]]'', [[WalkingArmory set of]] ''[[WalkingArmory pila]]'', [[WalkingArmory possibly another sort of javelin, possibly up to five]] ''[[WalkingArmory plumbatae]]'' [[WalkingArmory(large weighted darts) plus the formidable]] ''[[WalkingArmory scutum]]'' [[WalkingArmory (shield) would possibly be carried.]]

** Actually, that is not quite true. They had a variety of weapons of this sort. The ''veruta'' were shorter and lighter and used for skirmishing and the ''spicula'' replaced the ''pila'' later in the Empire. Also, iron is soft by nature. The bending action would be caused by the replacement of one of the iron pins with a wooden pin (which held the point onto the wooden haft). This made it easy to fix after the battle, but useless (especially if it were embedding in your shield or armour) after its first use. Roman legionaries did carry quite a bit of weaponry though. [[WalkingArmoury A]] ''[[WalkingArmoury gladius, pugio]]'', [[WalkingArmoury set of]] ''[[WalkingArmoury pila]]'', [[WalkingArmoury possibly another sort of javelin, possibly up to five]] ''[[WalkingArmoury plumbatae]]'' [[WalkingArmoury(large weighted darts) plus the formidable]] ''[[WalkingArmoury scutum]]'' [[WalkingArmoury (shield) would possibly be carried.]]

** Actually, that is not quite true. They had a variety of weapons of this sort. The ''veruta'' were shorter and lighter and used for skirmishing and the ''spicula'' replaced the ''pila'' later in the Empire. Also, iron is soft by nature. The bending action would be caused by the replacement of one of the iron pins with a wooden pin (which held the point onto the wooden haft). This made it easy to fix after the battle, but useless (especially if it were embedding in your shield or armour) after its first use. Roman legionaries did carry quite a bit of weaponry though. A ''gladius, pugio'', set of ''pila'', possibly another sort of javelin, possibly up to five ''plumbatae'' (large weighted darts) plus the formidable ''scutum'' (shield) would possibly be carried.

It's worth noting that this trope used to be called The Ranger, from the LordOfTheRings rangers. Any references to rangers on this page are likely from when the trope was in YKTTW.

* An AwesomeYetPractical tactic in Assassain'sCreedBrotherhood. Angry up some guards, crossbow half of them, chainkill the rest, finish up with crossbowing any cowards.

* Guts of ''{{Berserk}}'' also fits the ranger profile, using a repeating crossbow along with his {{BFS}}. He deviates from the general profile by being heavily armoured (since he's a mercenary who mainly favours melee) and by having a ''third'' weapon (a [[ArmCannon gunpowder cannon built into his arm]]) as a nasty surprise for any demons who think they have him beat.

*** The Knights in the same game gain the ability to use bows upon promotion to the General class.

* In ''Team Fortress 2'', The Sniper can pull this off if you use the Huntsman, since his melee weapon is a kukiri. You can even include a shield, albeit an almost unusable one.

[[quoteright:328:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BowAndSword.gif]]

[[quoteright:328:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BowAndSword.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:328:A [[TheLateMiddleAges Fifteenth Century]] Woodcut of RobinHood]]

* As of the Dawn Solution, Solars in ''{{Exalted}}'' have a Charm that specifically facilitates this combat style: Elegant Dance of Bow and Blade.