Is this a meme weapon?

As some wise man said, arrows are for cowards.

first we must dissect what really is a meme

>>1206640

>>>/k/

>>1206646
Fuck off Socrates

>>1206640
The longbow in itself isn't an incredible weapon that totally owned knights and all. The french also had longbows with their mercenary companies, and later, the franc-archers.
The longbow is a really powerful weapon in land battles, but land battles were pretty rare. During the Hundred Years War, there were 10 sieges for every battle. Yet, during siege warfare or a naval battle, the crossbow is much, much superior to the longbow.

Still, where the english kings were pretty smart, is that they managed to arm a whole class of their society, the yeomen, and train them regularily, so that the King of England could always rely on large armies of loyal longbowmen. The King of France, on the contrary, had to pay mercenaries, who could be a real plague for the countryside once their contracts ran out or when they weren't paid anymore (It isn't until 1445 that the King of France finally could rely on a permanent army, who was indeed made of longbowmen).
Also, much of the crushing victories won by the english (Crécy, Poitiers, Verneuil, Agincourt...) can't be explained simply because of the effectiveness of the longbow. Yes, the longbow was used effectively during those battles, but only because the french knights were complete morons obsessed with their personnal glory, their charge, and their élan. At the battle of Formigny, because the french commanders refused to charge like idiots and actively tried to work together, they managed to overcome the english host.

Also, the longbow is only effective when the archers are under their stakes, ready, and see the enemy coming. A long longbowman is useless. At the battle of Patay, because the french front-guard charged early when the longbowmen were not ready, they managed to utterly massacre the longbowmen.

>tl;dr : The longbow is an effective weapon. But it doesn't explain victory alone. It's just a weapon.

>>1206713
Wow that is a very insightful post, thank you

>>1206674
From where did it's memeness emanate?

>>1206713
>but only because the french knights were complete morons obsessed with their personnal glory, their charge, and their élan
You forgot to mention a very important factor, though overall you're right.

That factor is who ruled France at the time: Charles IV. Also known as Charles the Mad, and not because of his impressive nuclear arsenal. France was a mess, its ruler legitimately insane and the highest nobles were too busy squabbling among eachother for power and/or switching sides in the conflict.

The French recovery in the war coincided with, among others, Charles V taking the trone and offering something resembling leadership that's not totally retarded.

>>1206713
That's it. I'm sick of all this "Masterwork Longbow" bullshit that's going on in the d20 system right now. English Longbows deserve much better than that. Much, much better than that.
I should know what I'm talking about. I myself commissioned a genuine English Longbow in England for £ 13220 (that's about $20,000) and have been practicing with it for almost 2 years now. I can even shoot through slabs of solid steel with my English Longbow.
English Bowyers spend years working on a single English Longbow and recurving it up to a million times to produce the finest bows known to mankind.
English Longbows have thrice the draw weight of Eastern bows and penetrate thrice as deep for that matter too. Anything a Yumi can pierce through, an English Longbow can pierce through better. I'm pretty sure an English Longbow could easily pierce several samurai wearing full O-yoroi with a single shot.
Ever wonder why Sengoku Japan never bothered conquering England? That's right, they were too scared to fight the disciplined Englishmen and their English Longbows of destruction. Even in World War II, German soldiers targeted the men with the English Longbows first because their killing power was feared and respected.
So what am I saying? English Longbows are simply the best bow that the world has ever seen, and thus, require better stats in the d20 system. Here is the stat block I propose for English Longbows:
(Range Exotic Weapon)
1d12 Damage
19-20 x4 Crit
Range 180 ft.
+2 to hit and damage
Counts as Masterwork
Now that seems a lot more representative of the piercing power of English Longbows in real life, don't you think?
tl;dr = English Longbows need to do more damage in d20, see my new stat block.

>>1208291
Kek'd