Lein Ranged Warfare

The Lein Army, as did all its predecessors, made use of high-quality ranged weapons, and ranged warfare - showering an enemy with missiles before actually closing in for combat - has always been an integral part of Tranon war tactics. The Lein Dynasty, by tightly organising the army and introducing extensive training for all bowmen in its ranks, refined the system tremendously, creating a fearsome force that could strike the enemy with near impunity.

The archers and bowmen of the army are mixed amongst the units of the army, though in battle they tend to operate as a single mass, raining arrows down on the enemy. Disciplined and hardy, they are often also equipped with light armour, and most of them purchase their own shortswords or knives in case they should be caught by an enemy.

Though horse archers also use bows, and were a new and powerful fixture in the army of the Lein, they are discussed in the page Lein Cavalry.

Weapons

Bows

The arsenal available to the Lein archers are the result of centuries of invention and innovation as the Tranon refined their methods of warmaking to the broad plains, where the use of massed archers instead of individual bowmen in the forests allowed them to wreak havoc en masse. To enhance this devastating capability they have put in much effort, improving the firepower of the ranged weapons greatly.

The primary weapons of the Lein bowmen were the fearsome composite foot-bows, known as bursang, as well as the crossbows, known as tushup. The foot-bows were symmetrical recurve bows, which could be up to 1.4 metres long, and which were derived from truly ancient Tranon designs; the crossbows, on the other hand, were a relative innovation introduced during the century of civil strife known as the Foreign Kingdoms and Warring States period. The strength required to draw many of these weapons is quite amazing, especially the bursangnon, most of which have a draw strength of around 180 pounds.

Arrows

Long experience with arrows gives the Tranon great expertise in their manufacture and design, and the normal bowman sets out for battle with several types of arrows in his quivers.

Three main types of arrows are used. The first is a broad-headed sort, meant for slicing through the flesh of unprotected targets or of animals; the broadness of the head makes it very difficult to extract, and it can provoke massive internal bleeding. The second sort, known as the haspeya or "one-point", is akin to the English bodkin arrow; long, narrow-headed, it was enhanced by the use of a long metal point to increase the weight and penetrative power of the arrow, as well as the tiny notches and barbs all along the arrow point that make extraction almost impossible.