Longbowmen.

[Soulghast]

In the battle of Agincourt,the English Longbowmen are called Yeoman Archers.Why?

[chewietobbacca]

Because the yeoman archers of england in the day did have longbows...

They might distinguish longbowmen and yeoman archers in game as one being professional soldiers, the other being militia soldiers

[Soulghast]

And what does Yeoman mean?

[Fondor_Yards]

"In the Fifteenth Century, a ‘yeoman’ was also a farmer of middling social status who owned his own land and often farmed it himself into prosperity."

[Uhd]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeoman

[Markas]

Having donned my deerstalker and pipe, I have come to the shocking conclusion that Yeoman archers are NOT the Longbowmen unit. My evidence is small yet telling-

In the unit profiles on the official site, the description of armoured Longbowmen clearly says they are armed with a Sword-

These troops, armed with the famous longbow, favour greater protection over
mobility. When engaged in melee, their heavy armour provides protection that
allows them to hold out quite a bit longer than their unarmoured
counterparts. The swords they carry provide a handy fallback weapon in close
combat.

The yeoman archers are armed with a mallet, and I think upgraded weapons don't change the weapon type, just the size so.... draw your own conclusions.

[Kalos]

An example of professional longbowmen are Scots Guard! PWNAGE

[Uhd]

According to *link removed* polish site, there seems to be a several different types of english archers... peasent archers, archer militia, yeoman archers, sherwood archers and three types of longbowmen.

Edit: Wee! I just made it to yeoman myself

[Markas]

According to polish site, there seems to be a several different types of english archers... peasent archers, archer militia, yeoman archers, sherwood archers and three types of longbowmen.

Edit: Wee! I just made it to yeoman myself

Dammit I bought that Deerstalker hat for nothing!?! Tehe anyway England gets SIX bow units? thats excellent I don't even care that most will be the same...

[Korinthos Hoplites]

According to polish site, there seems to be a several different types of english archers... peasent archers, archer militia, yeoman archers, sherwood archers and three types of longbowmen.

Thanks for the link. EDIT: Can anyone tell me which are the best? (obviously excluding peasant and militia ones)

Edit: Wee! I just made it to yeoman myself

Congratulations Keep up the good posts!

[AlfonsoVIII]

I would think that a unit called "Armoured Longbowmen" from the TW site would not change to "Yeoman Archers" in the game. It seems the Yeoman are the precursor to the Longbowmen.

[Korinthos Hoplites]

Yeoman archers are, IMO, longbowmen without experience.

[Kalos]

And that arent rich enough to buy good armor

[Anaximander]

I seem to recall an time when all able english yeomans of a certain age had to practise with a longbow for a statutory amount of time every day. The old myth is that the law was never removed from the books and still stands now, not sure about the accuracy of that though.

[chewietobbacca]

I think it goes that after church every sunday, all men were required to practise with the longbow for hours under penalty of a fine, a low which supposedly stands to this day (but has never been enforced).

[ruberkaiser]

Ok, this is getting a bit muddled here.

The English do not have 6 archers, and the order goes like this:

Peasant Archers
Longbowmen
Yeoman Archers
Retinue Longbowmen/Armoured Longbowmen (same unit just at different builds)
+ Sherwood Archers (special "elite" unit trainable with a Woodcutter's Guild rather than the Bowyer)

Also, the Yeoman Archers should not be thought of as poor peasant variants of the longbow. This unit represents the initiative taken by English Kings to establish manditory practice with the longbow by "Yeoman" or commoners so as to create a highly skilled and well trained pool of archers to draw from.

I understand your confusion though, there is a great deal of poor information traveling around, largely because of certain sites that don't seem to have the common sense to filter the information they recieve, they just throw it all up on thier pages.

[Markas]

Ok, this is getting a bit muddled here.

The English do not have 6 archers, and the order goes like this:

Peasant Archers
Longbowmen
Yeoman Archers
Retinue Longbowmen/Armoured Longbowmen (same unit just at different builds)
+ Sherwood Archers (special "elite" unit trainable with a Woodcutter's Guild rather than the Bowyer)

So they get five Bow units? thats still pretty good.

[ruberkaiser]

So they get five Bow units? thats still pretty good.

It's not unusual.

Sherwood Archers are in small groups, and peasant archers are well...peasants. That makes 3 regular bow units, or 5 all up yes, but because of the English's complete lack of missile militia, they end up pretty much the same as everyone else.

For example, the French get Peasant Archers, Peasant Crossbowmen, Crossbow Militia, Crossbowmen, Aventuriers and Scott's Guard. Because of Militia, most cultures have at least 4 missile units. Those races that have more than 4 tend to be those that have both peasant archers and peasant crossbowmen as well as some kind of militia bowman or crossbowmen.

I do take your point however that the english have a heck of a lot of longbowmen, or unique archer units for that matter. What I'd like to propose is whether or not Genoese Crossbowmen will take out Longbowmen because of thier pavises, and equal range (most likely). Any thoughts?

[Korinthos Hoplites]

It's not unusual.

Sherwood Archers are in small groups, and peasant archers are well...peasants. That makes 3 regular bow units, or 5 all up yes, but because of the English's complete lack of missile militia, they end up pretty much the same as everyone else.

For example, the French get Peasant Archers, Peasant Crossbowmen, Crossbow Militia, Crossbowmen, Aventuriers and Scott's Guard. Because of Militia, most cultures have at least 4 missile units. Those races that have more than 4 tend to be those that have both peasant archers and peasant crossbowmen as well as some kind of militia bowman or crossbowmen.

I do take your point however that the english have a heck of a lot of longbowmen, or unique archer units for that matter. What I'd like to propose is whether or not Genoese Crossbowmen will take out Longbowmen because of thier pavises, and equal range (most likely). Any thoughts?

The English have archer militia as well.

So now a crossbow has more range than a bow? Even more than a longbow? Go inform yourself.
CA did the same mistake in Medieval 1. The disadvantages of the crossbow are the long reload time and the short range when compared to a bow. Source: History Channel, The Crossbow.

[Aether]

there was also a tactical advantage to a longbowmen, the weakest and the stronghest would shoot from out of the group with their longbow and then every enemy between the arrow of the weakest and the stronghest would feel the wrath of the arrows that came down!