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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreyLord" data-source="post: 9860235" data-attributes="member: 4348">Depends on the Mounted Archer.  During the Crusades one of the better groups of mounted archers (not on the Crusader's side...by the way) had a new type of recurve bow with laminate.  This gave them stronger strength and pull than other bows used from horseback.That said, the Crusades are replete with stories of these arrows failing to penetrate armor (and we are not talking even about plate, we are talking about Chainmail in the beginning), or getting stuck in the mail but failing to hurt the individual underneath (with some of the targetted warriors ending up looking similar to a porcupine with all the arrows sticking out of them while they were unhurt and continued to battle mostly unhindered).In these engagements it was absolutely MORE effective the closer and lighter armored your enemy was if your bows were going to have a chance to actually hurt them (and hurt the Crusaders they did, but it really was dependent on how close they could get and how heavily or lightly armored their target was).That said, the composite bows were also useful, but none of them were similar to the English Longbow (which is a different story).  Modern tests have shown that the Longbow has great power, but even the Longbow has trouble penetrating a fully plated warrior (which is where firearms eventually get very popular).</blockquote>