Keep in mind bows are more powerful at close range (both of you). A bow from a short distance could definately punch through armor.

No the historical source doesn't "mistake" anything. It states that the Parthian arrows penetrated the scutum and proceeded all the way through pinning the feet of Roman Legionnaires to the earth. And in TES there are contradicting sources concerning all sorts of things. In that aspect TES is more realistic than other fantasy games.





Okay well show what that glue is.

Bosmer wouldn't grow wood around metal cores. For one they don't use wood unless imported (which actually I think refers only to a sect of Bosmer and not ALL of them. Probably the northern populations.) and how would you grow wood around a metal? Do you realize that those metal crossbows use rope, not string? And you need to use a crank to draw those metal crossbows?




You're just being silly here. And that story is most likely mythical. In any case it has nothing to do with cartoonish over sized war hammers.

This is a case of disregarding the difference between realism and verisimilitude. Is TES (or Middle Earth, or Greyhawk, or Dragonlance) realistic? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. There are wizards, dragons, elves, etc, and those aren't in the real world. But there's no reason for consistency and common sense to fly out the window just because magic and magical creatures exist. The Pankratosword is a magical technique that takes a master Ansei to pull off; it's specifically part of the carefully crafted Redguard lore. But that doesn't mean hammers have to be cartoonish in size.

Any sources contradicting Heart of Annequine?






Glue. Humidity-resistant glue. The kind that would be made by bosmer to work in a high-humidity environment because that's the only environment they know.

First two questions: Wood Elf racial magic - the same way they make their shelters in Valenwood. They don't harm the tree to do it. And for those metal crossbows - Well, it certainly increases Draw Strength, doesn't it? Actual strength needed is disputable, but possession of "superhuman" strength (As we know it) isn't out of the question for the inhabitants of Tamriel. To make the metal more flexible, it needs to be longer and thinner.

Yes, yes I am. That's why I italicized Techniques. Redguards have a Technique for EVERYTHING!

Any source that exists by that name? Because I can't find it. Maybe Khajiit armor is just really really bad rather than Bosmer being super strong. And did you know in Morrowind the attribute related to Archery was strength? Not Agility? So did the physics of Tamriel change in a few years?




Source? Show it to me.




So their bows that they shoot attached to the trees? Because you're going to have to hurt a tree if you want to make a bow simply because you need to detach wood to do it. Metal crossbows increase the strength of the bow...not the archer. A person who can draw 80 pounds isn't going to magically draw a 120 pound bow simply because it is 120 pounds.







Nothing to do with the topic.

I do think the fact that infection and disease spread amogst troops engaged in a long-term battle should be somewhere included.

In fact, I do believe that there should be many ammendments. Make it to where it's like Art of War with commentary of both sides.
It would be badass.

It's actually Nordic armor that Bosmer Arrows penetrate.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Cherim%27s_Heart_of_Anequina - It's an interview with a famous Khajiit Tapestry artist and soldier during the Five Years War.

Actually it states that it may go through all the way of medium armor, not heavy. Heavy at times can be penetrated. So i'm not seeing where your point is made.

With alchemy's effects in the TES universe, developping some sort of glue that's able to whistand a jungle environment doesn't seem far fetched. Also, when you have a tree that walks depite being large enough to hold a city, finding some with a wood better suited for bows than the historic yew is a far cry from impossible.

It's in my opinion about certain that the bosmers have developed ways to make materials like leather or fabric fairly resistant to rot and mold - otehrwise they'd have a hard time maintaining a fairly civilized life amongst Valenwood's jungle. Whether it's special tanning agents and preservatives, a careful selection of the base materials or a specialized kind of enchantment or some mix and match of the three, they have a way to protect their gear from the weather.

About archery penetration, no matte what sort of arrows are used, plate armor, even the mere iron, is going to be a bit of problem : even if the arrowhead is made with ebony, it still has to widen the initlal puncture enough to pass though. At that stage, what matters is the geometry and weight of the arrow : it's the arrowhead's flat side who will act as a wedge rather than the sharp edge.

It goes through Heavy Armor frequently enough and deeply enough to cause injury. And their medium armor is still a form of Plate, which the arrows can go all the way through.

No, I did not. Possibly because the attribute related to Marksman in Morrowind was agility:http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Marksman

I just don't see how exactly a Bosmer, who doesn't even need to shoot far in their setting, would have more upper body strength than a Nord.

Yeah I was thinking of Acrobatics/Strength instead. My mistake.

They just need Arm strength, because while they don't need to shoot "Far", they DO hunt creatures that require tremendous force to penetrate the hides to a lethal distance. They don't have "more" upper body strength than Nords, but what strength they do have is optimized for Archery.

No you don't "just need" arm strength. It's chest, back, it's pretty much everything from the waist up that you can imagine.

A more mundane explanation can be that the nords have little to no archery tradition - bows are viewed as a hunting tool, bringing them to battle is cowardly. The feeling is probably reinforced by the perception that bows, like magic, are elven tricks no self-respecting nord should touch. The Thu'hum offered them a counter so there was little incentive do go for archery.
Another point may be the lack of suitable wood in Skyrim for high-powered self bows. The rugged lanscape means little cavalry, there's no incentive to develop composite bows - those are closely linked with mounted archery, something that's completely absent of the nord traditions. Note that the high value attached by nordic culture to repute and bravery will reinforce that cultural bias against the bows.


In my opinion it means that a nord going all out on archery will probably be able to out-draw a bosmer - more draw length, more upper body strength, but wwon't be as accurate. But that will be as an individual. Taken as a culture, the bosmer excel at archery while the nords don't. Just like IRL there was no biological reason for the english to consistenly leave the french in the dust when it came to archery.

I doubt there is such a notion against bows by the Nords. Skyrim is pretty frozen, most of the food would come from hunting. Nobody is hunting deer with maces. They're doing it with a bow. The bow would probably be very popular in Skyrim and especially heavier set warbows (rather than composites) used to take down lions and bears and mammoths oh my.

The notion wouldn't be against bows in genral, but versus bows as a weapon of war. As far as taking down bears, sabrecats and their ilk go, spears would probanly be the weapons of choice as they were IRL. Like boar hunting, you brace the spear and let the critter impale itself on it. Boar hunting was considered as a good balls-o-meter (measuring how large your set is) and that aspect is likely to be popular amongst the nords who gives a high value to a big brass pair.

For the mammoths, javelins and traps can do the job. The mammoth-hunting crew we seen in Oblivion used just that method, even if they used a natural pit rather than bother with digging their own. Another viable option could be to do it plain indians style : move around on horseback and poke at the vulnerable points until it dies from blood loss. And make sure there are no giants around.

I don't really see any evidence against that. Especially when you have Dragurs (whatever) also armed with bows since ancient times etc.

Good guide, definitely got me thinking in a different way. Really worth a read.

You do realize that the price of the armor would be five times as high for an enchanted version of a plate-armor? I honestly think that only a general should have enchanted plate armor.

Knights also have enchanted Plate armor, at least in High Rock, but that's a side-effect of the Quest-culture they have (They end up being the equivalent of Adventurers in terms of power, value, and gear). They also tend to be highly non-uniform in appearance. Magic arms and armor are more common in places where they're allowed to be hundreds of years old, instead of being gauged on how Uniform and Fashionable they are.