How were archers employed in battle?

by [deleted]
MI13

Archers might do all of these things or none of them, depending on the time period, region, army, and conflict in question. "Archers" is a term that could encompass ancient Egyptian chariot bowmen, Achaemenid Persian archer levies, Parthian cavalry archers, Hunnic nomads, Genoese mercenary crossbowmen, English longbowmen, etc. All of these groups behaved differently in combat and were used for different purposes on the battlefield. I'm afraid that I can't really answer your question without narrowing it down at least a little.

SteemDRIce

As a supplementary question, do trends involving archers/crossbows remain constant, or do they vary depending on the region in question? E.g. would a Japanese bowman be employed in the same way as a British longbowman?

[deleted]

During the hundred years war with France, the English used their archers in bulk (it sometimes amounted to more than 50% of the army). They had a system where every peasant had to own and be proficient with a long bow. It made sure England always a ready to draft force of archers.

In combat their positions would vary but would be as protected as possible as they were the main asset of the English army and the French were well aware of that. They would send volley after volley, litterally showering the French with arrows and more specifically their heave cavalry (knights) which were the big asset of the French.

English knights would often be used as a screen to protect the archers, it is a big sign of how important they were : the most elite troops the English army had was to protect them from the French cavalry.

The English archers would rout before the French cavalry arrived in melee generally, remember they were peasant levies and not equipped or trained for hand to hand combat. So when 9000 French knights charged them they would generally rout before contact and be picked up by the French on the way. The goal for the British was therefore to break the momentum of the French cavalry before they came into contact.

Georgy_K_Zhukov

Do you think you could resubmit this with a specific time period in mind? Right now it is far to broad, as we don't allow "throughout history" questions.