advantage of composite bows?

[henyo10]

They seem inferior against heavy infantry. I guess they should have some alternate use?

[Point Blank]

Bows become less useful when the targets have heavy mail or better.

[Scorpius_Brutii]

In a real life, composite bows were used mainly by horse archers. They had a slightly shorter range than longbows[250 meters instead of 300 of a longbow].Also composite bows fired lighter and shorter arrows[250 gram,up to 1m length] They weren't so accurate but it wasn't important, as they were used in fast, mass attacks.
Main advance of composite bow was their smaller size than longbows, but offering the same tensile strenght.

Really? The yew was incredibly tensile, just that it took someone with malformed arms (like the English archers) to pull them to their full potential, or atleast that's what I understand.

Bows become less useful when the targets have heavy mail or better.

Well in your mod yes, but IRL the bodkin penetrated full plate and mail with ease - just look at what happened to the French at Crecy and Poitiers. By the 15th century however, Plate became tougher and though the bodkin still penetrated it, it didn't go through the mail underneath.

[Point Blank]

Well in your mod yes, but IRL the bodkin penetrated full plate and mail with ease - just look at what happened to the French at Crecy and Poitiers. By the 15th century however, Plate became tougher and though the bodkin still penetrated it, it didn't go through the mail underneath.

As delra said, at what range?

Mail + padded jack underneath were quite adequate to stop bodkin points at longer range.

Maybe at 10m-30m, there might be some penetration of plate, and that was before metallury improvements. Metallurgy started to improve around this time yes, but not in time for such battles as Agincourt etc.

Such battles were more an example of poorly judged and executed French attacks, in unfavourable tactical circumstances, than examples of the longbow's killing power, though of course horses were more vulnerable.

Longbows reliably penetrating full plate is simply not supported by the evidence. Still the armor was different thicknesses over different areas of the body so that was a factor.

However, due to the M2TW engine, bows are still able to kill armored knights etc probably too well, even with attack values like 4 and 5.

Composite bows were about 20% more energy efficient (ie would impart that much extra energy to the arrow) for a given draw poundage than longbows.

[Piotrburz]

In a real life, composite bows were used mainly by horse archers. They had a slightly shorter range than longbows[250 meters instead of 300 of a longbow].Also composite bows fired lighter and shorter arrows[250 gram,up to 1m length] They weren't so accurate but it wasn't important, as they were used in fast, mass attacks.
Main advance of composite bow was their smaller size than longbows, but offering the same tensile strenght.

[delra]

Penetrated at what range?

[Piotrburz]

Scorpius_Brutti
Yes Longbow have a great tensile force, but the purpose of making composite bows, was exactly:
-high tensile force, compared to longbows
-and small size which is their greatest advantage