History Main / BowsVersusCrossbows

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 with high draw weights closer to historical crossbows, as their spanning devices allow virtually anyone to draw them. Prop bows, on the other hand, tend to be of low draw weight like most beginner and target shooting bows, as they have to be usable by actors who lack the specific muscle development and training in form to draw heavy bows. As such, bows seen in movies tend to be a lot less powerful than most historical hunting and war bows were. Also keep in mind that medieval European crossbows were less mechanically efficient than longbows of the time because of factors such as their short powerstroke (~6 in. compared to ~24 in. for a longbow) and the energy wasted moving their heavy limbs and strings instead of just the bolt; in particular, crossbow prods made out of steel made manufacturing of heavy crossbows easier compared to horn and sinew composites, but the high density of steel caused loss of efficiency, and steel prods couldn’t flex as far as wood or composite without risk of breakage. Thus, in order to achieve as much projectile energy as a longbow of a given draw weight, a crossbow needed to have a draw weight many times greater.[[note]]These energy comparisons don't necessarily apply to all non-European crossbows. For instance, Chinese crossbows were more similar to a normal bow mounted to a frame and had a long powerstroke.[[/note]] Modern crossbows are much more efficient than their medieval ancestors thanks to improved materials and design,[[note]]such as a long powerstroke, compound or reverse draw mechanisms, and lightweight bolts, strings, and limbs[[/note]] so they achieve higher projectile energy than crossbows of old despite having lower draw weights.

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 with high draw weights closer to historical crossbows, as their spanning devices allow virtually anyone to draw them. Prop bows, on the other hand, tend to be of low draw weight like most beginner and target shooting bows, as they have to be usable by actors who lack the specific muscle development and training in form to draw heavy bows. As such, bows seen in movies tend to be a lot less powerful than most historical hunting and war bows were. Also keep in mind that medieval European crossbows were less mechanically efficient than longbows of the time because of factors such as their short powerstroke (~6 in. compared to ~24 in. for a longbow) and the energy wasted moving their heavy limbs and strings instead of just the bolt; in particular, crossbow prods made out of steel made manufacturing of heavy crossbows easier, but their high density caused loss of efficiency, and they couldn’t flex as far as wood or composite without risk of breakage. Thus, in order to achieve as much projectile energy as a longbow of a given draw weight, a crossbow needed to have a draw weight many times greater.[[note]]These energy comparisons don't necessarily apply to all non-European crossbows. For instance, Chinese crossbows were more similar to a normal bow mounted to a frame and had a long powerstroke.[[/note]] Modern crossbows are much more efficient than their medieval ancestors thanks to improved materials and design,[[note]]such as a long powerstroke, compound or reverse draw mechanisms, and lightweight bolts, strings, and limbs[[/note]] so they achieve higher projectile energy than crossbows of old despite having lower draw weights.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' are the only two ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games to feature crossbows in addition to the usual bows. While ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' is practically the same like other bows, ''Radiant Dawn'' has different qualities compared to other bows. Compared to bows, crossbows do not add the user's strength to their overall attack, meaning all of the damage comes from the weapon alone. To compensate, crossbows can attack adjacent enemies unlike most bows, and their attack is much higher than bows, making them much more dangerous against flying units, which are weak to bows and crossbows, since the extra damage is based on the weapon's power. In addition, only Archers, Snipers, Marksman, Warriors, and Reavers can use crossbows.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' is the first (and currently only) game in the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series to have crossbows in addition to the usual bows. Compared to bows, crossbows do not add the user's strength to their overall attack, meaning all of the damage comes from the weapon alone. To compensate, crossbows can attack adjacent enemies unlike most bows, and their attack is much higher than bows, making them much more dangerous against flying units, which are weak to bows and crossbows, since the extra damage is based on the weapon's power.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Despite theoretically being together to help their allies WonderWoman Franchise/{{Batman}}, ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy and ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} when ComicBook/{{Artemis}} (who uses a tall drawn bow) and ComicBook/{{Huntress}} (who uses a crossbow) first meet they can't stop arguing, insult each other's weapon of choice and repeatedly nearly come to shooting at each other despite the enemies they could be focusing on. They finally start truly working together once [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]] and [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie]] show up.

* 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.

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 with high draw weights closer to historical crossbows, as their spanning devices allow virtually anyone to draw them. Prop bows, on the other hand, tend to be of low draw weight like most beginner and target shooting bows, as they have to be usable by actors who lack the specific muscle development and training in form to draw heavy bows. As such, bows seen in movies tend to be a lot less powerful than most historical hunting and war bows were. Also keep in mind that medieval European crossbows were less mechanically efficient than longbows of the time because of factors such as their short powerstroke (~6 in. compared to ~24 in. for a longbow) and the energy lost moving their heavy limbs and strings along with the bolt, so in order to achieve as much projectile energy as a longbow of a given draw weight, a crossbow needed to have a draw weight several times greater.[[note]]These energy comparisons don't necessarily apply to all non-European crossbows. For instance, Chinese crossbows tended to have a long powerstroke.[[/note]] Modern crossbows are much more efficient than their medieval ancestors thanks to improved materials and design,[[note]]such as a long powerstroke, compound or reverse draw mechanisms, and lightweight bolts, strings, and limbs[[/note]] so they achieve much higher projectile energy than crossbows of old despite having lower draw weights.

* In ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers]]'', the heroic humans and Elves use bows while the evil Uruk-hai use crossbows (never mentioned in [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings the original book]]) at the siege of Helm's Deep.

* In ''Literature/{{Azincourt}}'' by Creator/BernardCornwell, the protagonist is a young archer named Nicholas Hook who joins King Henry V's expedition to France. In addition to having good aim, Nicholas is very strong because of how he was raised from boyhood to bend progressively heavier longbows, and the book shows many oft-neglected facts about English archery such as the craft of making arrows and how the archers were also expected to fight at close quarters. Accompanying Nicholas is his lover, Melisandre, whom he rescued in Soissons. Being a waifish girl who was living in a convent when he met her, Nick has to think of how she can defend herself when he's not by her side. Soon he finds just the thing for her: a little crossbow confiscated from a French noble's boy. One time he notices that she keeps it drawn in her bag, and worries that the prod will lose power if she stores it like that, but he realizes that wouldn't be such a bad thing because she needs all the help she can get to be able to draw it. [[spoiler:Eventually this weapon enables her to save herself from AttemptedRape by SinisterMinister Father Martin, when she secretly reaches for it while pinned underneath her attacker and [[GroinAttack shoots him in the groin]] with the already loaded bolt]].

* Apparently, the crossobow was, at first, considered "vile" and unfair compared to the bow. The Church also had a dim view of ranged weapons at certain points in history. In a bit of a subversion, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Council_of_the_Lateran Second Council of the Lateran, Canon 29]] decreeted the ban of missile weapons - such as ''bows and crossbows'' - in battles between Christian armies. They were [[LoopholeAbuse still permitted against Muslim or pagan armies, though]]. The oft-repeated myth that "the Papacy banned crossbows, specifically crossbows" is ''[[ThemeParkVersion just that]]'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH431Lguuis a misconception]]. Medieval polities and armies being what they were, military crossbow usage continued unhindered...
* As shown in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HagCuGXJgUs this video]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW4lYh8Yg38 this one]], the often compared advantages and drawbacks of bows and crossbows, such as rate of fire and reload times, weren't absolute. It very much depends on the exact type of weapon you're using. Many hand-spanned crossbows could be reloaded rather quickly, almost capable of competing with longbow rate of reload and fire, but the rub is that such crossbows had much lower poundage. This made them [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-8DQYLjHJE more limited]] as military weapons (especially in later eras), compared to higher-poundage crossbows that required [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMoL_SBD6gw spanning]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoGI6tRt6ho tools]] for reloading, but were preferred as battlefield weapons. Even with later fast-reloading improvements, such as the invention of the latchet crossbow in the late-medieval and early modern era, civilian crossbows and hunting crossbows kept their lower poundage disadvantage. Higher-poundage crossbows continued to be the opposite: Favoured for heavy-duty combat roles [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdB470lo6nM due to the kinetic energy they could transfer]] into a shot (and impacting) bolt, but taking a lot longer to reload due to their more demanding draw weight and the mechanisms that necessitated. Mind you, modern crossbows generally outcompete historical examples in terms of poundage and bolt energy transfer efficiency, due to the technological advances they can afford to include in the design of the bow (e.g. a compound bow with pulleys, longer starting distance offered for the bolt, etc.), the design of the bolt (much lighter materials), and so on. Of course, centuries back, people designed crossbows with the best technology of their day. The progress can be really seen if you closely study crossbows, from century to century.
* One popculture cliché surrounding crossbows is that they could only be constructed by advanced cultures knowledgeable about metallurgy. Historically, crossbows were used and invented independently by a wide array of cultures, including ones with little to no knowledge of metalworking. These crossbows tended to be all-wooden in construction, with the bowstring the only non-wooden part. They also had simplified trigger and release mechanisms, most lacking a nut altogether. However, as a consequence of that simpler design from more readily available materials, they were usually relegated to the role of hunting weapons, or self-defence weapons for use against unarmoured opponents, and were not military crossbows. Good for hunting birds, quadrupeds or even smaller water-dwelling animals, or protecting your home, but not weapons of war. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk5drua6sK4 An early medieval]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWiZpenRGx8 European example]], [[http://www.bestcrossbowsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/arms_and_armour_-_africa_20101126_1888203229.jpg West]] [[http://www.bestcrossbowsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/fan-crossbow.jpg African]] examples, and an [[http://www.inuitcontact.ca/index.php/en/artifact/312 Inuit]] [[http://www.bestcrossbowsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tools_crossbow.jpg example]].

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 with high draw weights closer to historical crossbows, as their spanning devices allow virtually anyone to draw them. Prop bows, on the other hand, tend to be of low draw weight like most beginner and target shooting bows, as they have to be usable by actors who lack the specific muscle development and training in form to draw heavy bows. As such, bows seen in movies tend to be a lot less powerful than most historical hunting and war bows were. Also keep in mind that medieval European crossbows were less mechanically efficient than longbows of the time because of factors such as their short powerstroke (~6 in. compared to ~30 in. for a longbow) and the energy lost moving their heavy limbs and strings along with the bolt, so in order to achieve as much projectile energy as a longbow of a given draw weight, a crossbow needed to have a draw weight several times greater.[[note]]These energy comparisons don't necessarily apply to all non-European crossbows. For instance, Chinese crossbows tended to have a long powerstroke.[[/note]] Modern crossbows are much more efficient than their medieval ancestors thanks to improved materials and design,[[note]]such as a long powerstroke, compound or reverse draw mechanisms, and lightweight bolts, strings, and limbs[[/note]] so they achieve much higher projectile energy than crossbows of old despite having lower draw weights.

In RealLife, the main advantage of a drawn bow was rate of fire: a decent archer could loose arrows much faster than a crossbowman could shoot bolts. This disparity was somewhat mitigated by the fact that an archer would try not to use up his limited supply of arrows too quickly, while a crossbowman could speed up his rate if he had spare crossbows and assistants to span them for him while he was shooting. The ability to shoot rapidly was most important in horseback archery--a hit-and-run art in which the rider has a short window of opportunity to shoot as many arrows as possible before retreating out of range--and least important in sieges, during which the archer or crossbowman could take his time reloading behind cover without having to worry about his position being charged.

Meanwhile, crossbows had advantages in that they are less tiring to use, less strength is required to use one compared to a longbow with similar projectile energy (as they are not limited by the strength of the wielder's back and shoulders, the mechanical advantage given by levers and windlasses means you can cock a crossbow you'd have no hope of drawing manually, and thus compensate for the lesser efficiency), and on a GameBreaker level, that training a crossbowman only took a few weeks whereas it took years to become a competent archer.

* Inverted in ''Film/TheMessengerTheStoryOfJoanOfArc'', since the protagonists are French and their enemies English.

Despite being very different weapons, each built with a different purpose in mind, in many {{Fantasy}} settings, 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.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' has both bows and crossbows. While both weapons have similar attack power, crossbows tend to have slightly longer range than bows, but are treated like guns where shots can only go straight and are stopped by terrain obstacles and height differences if the target is above you. Bows can't be shot quite as far as crossbows, but their shots arc, which makes them not suffer the problem of obstacles and terrain issues most of the time. Later games would drop the crossbow.

One other aspect often seen in fiction treats crossbows as being "sneaky" weapons because they're marginally more concealable than bows, and because of lingering cultural ideas that the possibility of large numbers of serfs armed with crossbows being able to perforate aristocratic, land-owning knights is somehow unfair and against the natural order of things. Miniature, concealable versions may appear as assassin's weapons and be shot with one hand like a pistol, though in real life these weren't popular or effective. [[note]]miniature crossbows have a very short powerstroke and the projectile is very small, so that even with a relatively high draw weight, the number of joules that can be imparted to the projectile will be disappointing. So-called ''ballestrinos'' or "assassin's crossbows" that survive today are suspected to have been expensive toys more than practical weapons, and it's possible that the only way you could reliably kill someone with a ''ballestrino'' is if the bolts were poisoned.[[/note]]

* In ''Azincourt'' by Creator/BernardCornwell, the protagonist is a young archer named Nicholas Hook who joins King Henry V's expedition to France. In addition to having good aim, Nicholas is very strong because of how he was raised from boyhood to bend progressively heavier longbows, and the book shows many oft-neglected facts about English archery such as the craft of making arrows and how the archers were also expected to fight at close quarters. Accompanying Nicholas is his lover, Melisande, whom he rescued in Soissons. Being a waifish girl who was living in a convent when he met her, Nick has to think of how she can defend herself when he's not by her side. Soon he finds just the thing for her: a little crossbow confiscated from a French noble's boy. One time he notices that she keeps it drawn in her bag, and worries that the prod will lose power if she stores it like that, but he realizes that wouldn't be such a bad thing because she needs all the help she can get to be able to draw it. [[spoiler:Eventually this weapon enables her to save herself from AttemptedRape by a SinisterMinister, as she secretly reaches for it while pinned underneath her attacker and shoots him with the already loaded bolt]].

* In ''Azincourt'' by Creator/BernardCornwell, the protagonist is a young archer named Nicholas Hook who joins King Henry V's expedition to France. In addition to having good aim, Nicholas is very strong because of how he was raised from boyhood to bend progressively heavier longbows, and the book shows many oft-neglected facts about English archery such as the craft of making arrows and how the archers were also expected to fight at close quarters. Accompanying Nicholas is his lover, Melisande, whom he rescued in Soissons. Being a waifish girl who was living in a convent when he met her, Nick has to think of how she can defend herself when he's not by her side. Soon he finds just the thing for her: a little crossbow confiscated from a French noble's boy. One time he notices that she keeps it drawn in her bag, and worries that the prod will lose power if she stores it like that, but he realizes that wouldn't be such a bad thing because she needs all the help she can get to be able to draw it. [[spoiler:Eventually this weapon enables her to save herself from AttemptedRape by a SinisterMinister]], as she secretly reaches for it while pinned underneath her attacker and shoots him with the already loaded bolt]].

Based on the fact that men are stronger than women on average, fictional stories sometimes portray men using crossbows and women using bows, the notion being that crossbows are utilitarian and brutal while bows are elegant and rely on finesse rather than brute strength. In reality, if you were going to give men and women different weapons it should be the other way around: crossbows with spanning devices would allow women to repeatedly shoot powerful bolts without tiring even if they have less raw upper body strength, while a man (or indeed any person) with greater strength could handle a bow with a heavy enough draw to yield respectable range and penetrating power, and use it to shoot more rapidly than if you gave them crossbow.

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 with high draw weights closer to historical crossbows, as their spanning devices allow virtually anyone to draw them. Prop bows, on the other hand, tend to be of low draw weight like most beginner and target shooting bows, as they have to be usable by actors who lack the specific muscle development and training in form to draw heavy bows. As such, bows seen in movies tend to be a lot less powerful than most historical hunting and war bows were. Also keep in mind that medieval European crossbows were less mechanically efficient than longbows of the time because of factors such as their short powerstroke (~6 in. compared to ~30 in. for a longbow) and their heavy limbs and strings, so in order to achieve as much projectile energy as a longbow of a given power, a crossbow needed to have a draw weight several times greater. Modern crossbows are much more efficient than their medieval ancestors thanks to improved materials and engineering, with lighter strings and limbs as well as a long powerstroke, so they achieve much higher projectile energy than crossbows of old despite having lower draw weights.

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

One other aspect often seen in fiction treats crossbows as being "sneaky" weapons because they're marginally more concealable than bows, and because of lingering cultural ideas that the possibility of large numbers of serfs armed with crossbows being able to perforate aristocratic, land-owning knights is somehow unfair and against the natural order of things. Miniature, concealable versions may appear as assassin's weapons, and be fired with one hand like a pistol.[[note]]miniature crossbows are not considered practical weapons in reality because the powerstroke is very short and the projectile very small, so that even with a relatively high draw weight, the number of joules that can be imparted to the projectile will be disappointing. So-called ''ballestrinos'' or "assassin's crossbows" that survive today are suspected to have been expensive toys more than practical weapons, and it's possible that the only way you could reliably kill someone with a ''ballestrino'' is if the bolts were poisoned.[[/note]]

In RealLife, the main advantage of a drawn bow was rate of fire: a decent archer could loose arrows much faster than a crossbowman could shoot bolts. This disparity was somewhat mitigated by the fact that an archer would try not to use up his limited supply of arrows too quickly, while a crossbowman could speed up his rate if he had spare crossbows and assistants to span them for him while he was shooting. The ability to shoot rapidly was most important in horseback archery--a hit-and-run situation in which the rider has a short window of opportunity to get off multiple shots before retreating out of range--and least important in sieges, in which the archer or crossbowman could take his time reloading behind cover.

Since the arquebus basically filled the same military role as the crossbow, and did it better, crossbows disappeared from warfare first. The English tried to keep units of longbowmen in service for a while longer because they could still beat the arquebus in shooting speed, but the greater ease of equipping and training soldiers with guns eventually sent the bow to the same fate.

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 career 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/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'': Unlike drawn bows, crossbows do the same damage with every hit, but drawn bows go all the way up to [[FantasyMetals Daedric]] in quality, whereas crossbows only come in Steel and Dwarven in the vanilla game (the ''Bloodmoon'' [[ExpansionPack expansion]] adds a Huntsman Crossbow which is between Steel and Dwarven in quality). Drawn bows are also faster to fire, arrows are more commonly found than crossbow bolts, and drawn bows have to "[[LegendaryWeapon legendary]]" options - Auriel's Bow and the Bow of Shadows. There are no "legendary" crossbows to be had. Drawn bows are the better all-around option.

* Shows up in ''Literature/TheRangersApprentice'' with surprising historical accuracy. The FavoredWeapon of the rangers is the bow because they have the time and training to become experts at using it. The bow allows them to fire off many shots very quickly while their training means they rarely miss. On the other hand, crossbows tend to show up in the hands of guardsmen and villains who need to be able to kill things at a distance without needing to master a weapon.

* One popculture cliché surrounding crossbows is that they could only be constructed by advanced cultures knowledgeable about metallurgy. Historically, crossbows were invented independently and used by a wide array of cultures, including ones without little to no knowledge of metalworking. These tended to be all-wooden in construction, with the bowstring the only non-wooden part. They also had simplified trigger and nut mechanisms. However, as a consequence of that simpler design from more readily available materials, they were usually relegated to the role of hunting weapons, or self-defence weapons for use against unarmoured opponents, and were not military crossbows. Good for hunting birds, quadrupeds or even smaller water-dwelling animals, or protecting your home, but not weapons of war. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk5drua6sK4 An early medieval]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWiZpenRGx8 European example]], [[http://www.bestcrossbowsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/arms_and_armour_-_africa_20101126_1888203229.jpg West]] [[http://www.bestcrossbowsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/fan-crossbow.jpg African]] examples, and an [[http://www.inuitcontact.ca/index.php/en/artifact/312 Inuit]] [[http://www.bestcrossbowsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tools_crossbow.jpg example]].