5 weapons that fantasy gets wrong

[paranoid marvin]

There was no need to hold back and wait, nor to aim. You pulled back, loosed and picked up your next arrow until either you were ordered to stop, you were overrun by the enemy or you ran out.

It was like the machine-gun of the Middle Ages, and it was very effectively used by the English, until armour and crossbows improved and archery started to go out of fashion.

"If you want to train a longbowman, start with his grandfather," is apparently what Edward III said. If you want to train a crossbowman, give a peasant a crossbow in the morning, let him shoot at some bales of hay for a couple of hours, and by lunchtime you have a crossbowman.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Also the lighting of arrows. Unless your intention is to set alight buildings within a fortified area, you would not use them. Not only is it a real faff to use tarred arrows and attempt to light them whilst trying to loose them without setting fire to yourself, you give your opponent an opportunity to see and try to dodge them.

Also the main way for an archer to resupply his stock of arrows was to pluck them from the ground/dead bodies after the battle. Not so easy if the arrows have become ash.

 

[Foxbat]

I always thought that a phial was a bottle about the size of a decanter, and was somewhat surprised when Frodo tucks the one given to him by Galadriel inside his jacket.

The phial (or vial for the more modern term) similar to the one I used to use at work (the picture is 30mm, I used 20mm)

 

[Foxbat]

And on the subject of archery, these guys and gals are amazing