Thursday, December 17, 2009

Arrowstorm: A Social History of English Military Bowmen


When I saw this available through Amazon,s I decided I "needed" it. I believe there is a great lack of clarity about the practice and effectiveness of longbowmen during the Hundred Years War. Was the longbow a death dealer to armored and unarmored foes alike? Or did the longbow simply slaughter the unarmored and inflict a certain misery on armored knights. The rain of arrows disordered their dense formations, perhaps knocking some off their feet and providing an opportunity the nimble archers to attack the blind and disordered knights from their flanks, virtually unable to protect themselves, let alone fight back.

The author, Richard Wadge, is an archer, but goes beyond his own experiences to provide a social history of the medieval longbowman. Interesting stuff. I've only begun reading the book, so I'll report back.

A couple of interesting events on the painting front. Last night I finished all of the thirty crossbowmen for my St. Jean scenario. I plan to run this game at Game Matrix on Tuesday December 29th. It leaves me 15 bowmen I need to finish.

Recently I've noticed my eyes tiring after about an hour. Things just sort of blur and I can't get much more done. I tried using reading glasses last night-I borrowed them from Lorri. They were a bit strong-1.5 magnification, but it really did make a difference. I'm thinking 1.15-1.25 magnification would probably work fine.

2 comments:

DeanM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeanM said...

Kevin:

I started wearing glasses for close-up painting a couple of years ago. I don't know how I could see the stuff before without them. I can't see the power of the lens on the frame anymore, but I think it was something like .5 or .05. I recall I got the lowest power I could find. I have pretty much 20-20 uncorrected (had laser surgery about 8 years ago). I also use AOL glasses for when I'm on the computer - they're actually made by AOL - not sure if they're sold anymore, mine are about 8 years old. The doc who did the laser surgery recommended using them to reduce eye strain. Again, pretty low power. I have two pairs - one for home & one for work. I get noticeable eye strain if I don't use them. Dean