History Main / BowsVersusCrossbows

Men also tend to get crossbows and women get bow. This is completely counterintuitive, since with women having less upper body strength on average than men, a crossbow would realistically be a better fit for women, allowing them to fire powerful bolts repeatedly without tiring even if they have less raw upper body strength.

In RealLife, the main advantage of a drawn bow was rate of fire - a decent archer could fire much faster than a crossbowman. However, crossbows had advantages in that they are less tiring to use, can be more powerful (as they are not limited by the arm strength of the wielder - the mechanical advantage given by levers and windlasses means you can cock a crossbow you'd have no hope of drawing normally), and on a GameBreaker level, training a crossbowman only took a few weeks whereas it took years to become a competent archer.

!Examples

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* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Elves are divided into three factions; the "good" and "neutral" (in that they're merely insular, xenophobic, and hugely obnoxious) High and Wood Elves, and the evil (in that they're murder-worshipping psychopathic slavers; no [[GreyAndGrayMorality grey]] here) Dark Elves. The first two have bows and longbows as their primary ranged weapons, while the Dark Elves favour AutomaticCrossbows.

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* Both crossbows and bows exist in ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila''. Crossbows are generally superior weapons for their greater damage, range and [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor-piercing damage]], but cannot fire in an arc and at a minimum have greater requirements to obtain to use. Bows by contrast are units that are cheaper and available sooner, can fire in an arc, and their greater fire-rate makes them easier to fire off while skirmishing from enemy units...and there are a good amount of {{Horse Archer}}s available in the game while there's literally one horse crossbowmen unit available to one faction.

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* Richard I of England was a crossbow fan, and loved to shoot at the enemy when he wasn't fighting hand-to-hand. His armies also used discipined crossbowmen to help mitigate the threat of Saladin's {{horse archer}}s. Ironically he was mortally wounded by a crossbow bolt while besieging the Château de Chalus-Chabrol in France. Crossbows were popular in seiges because of their opportunity fire capability. While a bow has a much higher rate of fire you can't draw and hold for minutes on end hoping something to shoot at will turn up - on a crossbow the weapon itself takes the strain.

* Both crossbows and bows exist in ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila''. Crossbows are generally superior weapons for their greater damage, range and [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor-piercing damage]], but cannot fire in an arc and at a minimum have greater requirements to obtain to use. Bows by contrast are units that are cheaper and available sooner, can fire in an arc, and their greater fire-rate makes them easier to fire off while skirmishing from enemy units...and there is no such thing as a horse crossbowman in the game, but there ''are'' {{Horse Archer}}s.

* [[CurbStompBattle The battle of Crecy]] during UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar undoubtedly did much to give rise to some of the common assumptions about the two weapons. Earlier in the day before the battle, the French had slogged through rain and mud to reach the area where the English had set up position. The Genoese crossbowmen mercenaries who fought on the French side were ordered forward to begin firing a first wave against the English position, despite the fact that their bowstrings were wet from the rain and the large shields called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavise Pavises]] that the crossbowmen would duck behind while reloading were stuck in the army's baggage train. Predictably, the crossbowmen could barely even reach the English lines with their shots due to the bowstrings being weakened, while [[RainOfArrows the return fire from the English longbows]] cut the exposed crossbowmen (and the French knights who tried charging the English afterwards, trampling the survivors) down like grass. The page image is a cropped version of a 15th century illustration that accompanied a chronicle compiled by a contemporary who fought on the English side, available in its entirely as the leading image for the page about the battle on TheOtherWiki.

Despite being very different weapons, each built with a different purpose in mind, in many {{Fantasy}} setting, standard bows and crossbows seem to be at odds with each other. For instance, Mooks are more likely to have crossbows, while heroes get regular bows, and less graceful more 'brutish' or 'brute force' characters get crossbows while the graceful characters get arrows.

* Richard I of England was a crossbow fan, and loved to shoot at the enemy when he wasn't fighting hand-to-hand. His armies also used discipined crossbowmen to help mitigate the threat of Saladin's {{horse archer}}s. Ironically he was mortally wounded by a crossbow bolt while besieging the Château de Chalus-Chabrol in France.

* Richard I of England was a crossbow fan, and loved to shoot at the enemy when he wasn't fighting hand-to-hand. His armies also used discipined crossbowmen to help mitigate the threat of Saladin's {{HorseArcher}}s. Ironically he was mortally wounded by a crossbow bolt while besieging the Château de Chalus-Chabrol in France.

* Richard I of England was a crossbow fan, and loved to shoot at the enemy when he wasn't fighting hand-to-hand. His armies also used discipined crossbowmen to help mitigate the threat of Saladin's HorseArchers. Ironically he was mortally wounded by a crossbow bolt while besieging the Château de Chalus-Chabrol in France.

* [[CurbStompBattle The battle of Crecy]] during UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar undoubtedly did much to give rise to some of the common assumptions about the two weapons. Earlier in the day before the battle, the French had slogged through rain and mud to reach the area where the English had set up position. The Genoese crossbowmen mercenaries who fought on the French side were ordered forward to begin firing a first wave against the English position, despite the fact that their bowstrings were wet from the rain and the large shields called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavise Pavises]] that the crossbowmen would duck behind while reloading were stuck in the army's baggage train. Predictably, the crossbowmen could barely even reach the English lines with their shots due to the bowstrings being weakened, while [[RainOfArrows the return fire from the English longbows]] cut the exposed crossbowmen (and the French knights who tried charging the English afterwards, trampling the survivors) down like grass.

[[caption-width-right:300:Genoese crossbows versus English longows.[[note]]Cut off on the right: a retreating Genoese crossbowman [[ShotInTheAss with an arrow stuck in his arse]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:300:Genoese crossbows versus English longows.]]

* [[CurbStompBattle The battle of Crecy]] during UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar undoubtedly did much to give rise to some of the common assumptions about the two weapons. Earlier in the day before the battle, the French had slogged through rain and mud to reach the area where the English had set up position. The Genoese crossbowmen mercenaries who fought on the French side were ordered forward to begin firing a first wave against the English position, despite the fact that their bowstrings were wet from the rain and the large shields called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavise Pavises]] that the crossbowmen would duck behind while reloading were stuck in the army's baggage train. Predictably, the crossbowmen could barely even reach the English lines with their shots due to the bowstrings being weakened, while [[RainOfArrows the return fire from the English longbows]] cut the exposed crossbowmen (and the French knights who tried charging the English afterwards, trampling the survivors) down like grass.

* ''Manga/VinlandSaga'' treats crossbows somewhat like {{BFG}}s compared to bows, as they can [[ArtisticLiceensePhysics shatter shields.]]

* ''Manga/VinlandSaga'' treats crossbows somewhat like {{BFG}}s compared to bows, as they can shatter shields.

Bows are usually treated as much less powerful than crossbows and thus are more likely to get the AnnoyingArrows treatment. In contrast, crossbow bolts tend to be shown as having proper stopping power when they hit and are generally shown being more lethal. One reason for this disparity likely has to do with movie props. Prop crossbows can be made to be historically accurate, as the level allows virtually anyone to draw them. Prop bows, on the other hand, cannot be made historically accurate, as they have to be usable by actors, who generally are not the strongest people on the planet. As such, bows seen in movies tend to be a lot less powerful than real life bows are.

Bows are usually treated as much less powerful than crossbows and thus are more likely to get the AnnoyingArrows treatment. In contrast, crossbow bolts tend to be shown as having proper stopping power when they hit and are generally shown being more lethal.

Bows also carry an air of elitism about them, in a manner of speaking. While crossbows could be given to anyone, and as such large masses of people with less training were equipped with them, a bow requires many years of practice to be truly good at. Thus anyone using a bow in a fight is likely to have far more years of training, and potentially be more of a carrier fighter. Going along with that, a truly great archer with a bow generally can be more lethal than a great archer with a crossbow, due to how much faster their rate of fire could be.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''
** Crossbows lack stat scaling, so regular bows outclass any build that puts more stats than the minimum levels to use. They also cannot be aimed without using the binoculars, an item that lacks a sight for precision aiming.
** The game also will not let the player move until the crossbow is reloaded, which takes a frustratingly long time.
** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' shortens this gap somewhat, by buffing the crossbows' base damage to the level of the high end bows, and aiming is helped by being able to attack with the binoculars raised, and being able to aim by two-handing a crossbow.

* [[CurbStompBattle The battle of Crecy]] during UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar undoubtedly did much to give rise to some of the common assumptions about the two weapons. Earlier in the day before the battle, the French had slogged through rain and mud to reach the area where the English had set up position. The Genoese crossbowmen mercenaries who fought on the French side were ordered forward to begin firing a first wave against the English position, despite the fact that their bowstrings were wet from the rain and the large shields called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavise Pavises]] that the crossbowmen would duck behind while reloading were stuck in the army's baggage train. Predictably, the crossbowmen could barely even reach the English lines with their shots due to the bowstrings being weakened, while [[RainOfArrows the return fire from the English longbows]] cut the exposed crossbowmen (and the French knights who tried charging the English afterwards) down like grass.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Unless they're playing a SquishyWizard, most players will never even touch a crossbow. Bows allow you to add your Strength bonus to your ranged attacks, while crossbows can only use a single die roll. Also, when at higher levels, bows can be fired multiple times per round, while crossbows can still only be fired once.