Bow users in Glorantha. All that follows is IMG and YGMV.
I find it amusing that the main "model" cultures for Carmania are Bow users (the persians, the assirians and the ottomans), but they are pictured in Gloranthan literary as more western than that. My gloranthan Brass Cataphracts master lance, sword and bow, and once they do, they begin with darts, maces and fighting dismounted with long spears. And the feudal levies, although of lesser quality, manage lance, bow and their choice of sidearm.
Now, a RW culture I would love to see in Glorantha are the Khazars, but we don't have several monotheist religions to choose. So we miss a bunch of "civilized" archers. I still toy with a Carmanian Khagan, after the fall of the Red Empire...
The Pentans, if they resemble Central Asia nomads at all (not only mongols, but scythians, sarmathians, huns, pechenegs, avars, bulgars, magyars...), should be great archers. On earth, nomads armies have always been the hardest to beat, and missile power at the skirmish level is one of their advantages. So all riders have a bow, usually a couple of javelins, a lasso (great against enemy riders) and a sidearm (mace, yathagan, axe...). The nobles are equipped similarly, but they wear armour (more or less), ride bigger ponies, and charge to finish off the enemy, after the warriors have softened, demoralized and disordered them with a continuous pelting of arrows. When the enemy runs, you cut them down.
If they refuse to run, you keep shooting them up, burn their supplies, annihilate their reinforcements, until fatigue and hunger do them in.
Unless you have MMDW (magical mass destruction weapons), tough luck.
I suspect one of the reason the Impalas are the biggest Animal Tribe in Prax/the Wastes is that everyone wants their help against the Pentans, as they are the most succesful.
The Pavis Royal Guard merits a short mention, as they are shown as missile troops. IMO, until the War Zebras were developed, they were elite bowmen/spearmen, as other elite troops in the EWF (like the persian Inmortals). They kept some forgotten traditions of Solar Archery (even some cavalry ones as Kuschile archery) mostly lost in the Dragonkill. When the Zebras were available, they turned their spears in lances, and they showed they could beat all the animal nomads in turn. Unfortunately they could not beat them together...
Depending on how far you want to take the chinese parallel, Kralorelan levies could have thousands of bows (or perhaps, crossbows) of low quality. I stay with the bows, restricting crossbows to dwarfs and the West. Some standing regiments will have however a good quality, and probably will use composite bows of nomad design. They should be units created after the time of Sheng Seleris.
If Vormain is Nippon, the bow must be a fundamental weapon. Indeed, in battle it will be more deadly than the famous swords. As concerns the only Vorumaini that foreigners meet (pirates), they should have less firepower, as Great Bows are a prerrogative of nobility.
Rathori officially have longbows. This just means, probably, that only they have the yews and the technique to craft adequate six feet bows. Small units of Rathori mercenaries are probably widespread in Fronela.
Many orlanthi hunt with bows, but hunting bows are poor weapons of war, so only a few are used in battle. They are more likely to be used in ambush/guerilla actions.
The Lunar army is severely lacking in bows, as its more usual RW models (greek and roman) did. The Roman Empire used auxilia and client troops to compensate, but the only known compensation available to the Lunars are the Char Un and the Thunder Delta Slingers. With the Pentans as neighbours, or their magic is capable of overcoming their missile superiority, or their missile troops are posted on that border and they are little known to us. I use the Carmanians on that role. They hit harder in melee, but their armour and dark magics enable them to trade shots with the Pentans advantageously. And being a mounted force, they are less vulnerable to the flanking and isolating maneuvers of the Pentan clans. Of course, with the Carmanian heavy cavalry watching Chargg, who will stop the nomads?
In the West, bows are a controlled commodity, but more to restrict hunting than as a measure against revolt. Ten-twenty pounds bows are useless against armour, and quite pathetic even against a leather coat. Bows are below the dignity of the knight caste, the only one with the free time to become proficient in them as a weapon of war.
However, in Ralios the mercenaries use a transplanted dwarven invention, the crossbow. The sophisticated artisans around lake Safelster build many of this weapons for hunting and war, and crossbowmen are one of the mainstays of the mercenary bands. Most bands use pavises, to reduce casualties. Citizen militias also have crossbows, but they are usually weaker, civilian made for the hunt. Their lack of protection and limited discipline makes them the main casualties in any battle.
A great exception in everything is the Kingdom of War. They will use any weapon to its greatest potential. Both crossbowmen and longbowmen will be found, together with many other missile weapons.
I won't consider the non human races, nor the weapons outside
Genertela. Perhaps at another time.
Jose Ramos
"Both for its objective and subjective nature, war becomes a game" Karl von Clausewitz
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