You should check other games own versions of history Channel like world of warships, war thunder and world of tanks that have a lot of own videos made, made by their devs too like age of empires devs, this three games are mostly about the first half of the XX century warfare (you know first world War, second world War and the cold War) also check other sources like the Chieftain something like that I don't remember the name of this military expert youtuber about tanks and some ships
Always thought it strange the video didn't begin with the origin on crossbows. They were invented and mass manufactured in China during the late Spring Autumn but especially during the Warring States period. They also pioneered the technique of using the legs to load very stiff crossbows. These were in use 1500 years before appearing in Europe. Heck, even the self reloading crossbow was pioneered in China that allowed semiautomatic fire at the expense of accuracy.
@@slslbbn4096 Who ever told you that info must've been paid by China or something. The earliest confirmed crossbows in the west came from the Greeks in 399 B.C. Not so far from the Chinese Spring and Autumn period.
If they are talking about the history of crossbows, at least more should be talked about Chinese crossbows, with the earliest archeological evidence in 650 B.C. The chinese were still using crossbows during the medieval period, along with early firearms
I think they chose to focus on English history for convenience reasons, it can be a bit overwhelming to try to cover all of the World History and may lead to lots of inaccuracies. Especially when your aimed public is of Anglo-Saxon culture and doesn't necessarily have foreign references. Because speaking of crossbow even in Europe they could have talked about Genoese and Bohemian ones, let alone the Chinese Chu-ko-nu that made my childhood in AoE2.
The crossbow was a great equalizer. You didn't need years of training to use it (unlike the bow) ¡Y durante el siglo de Oro español se siguió utilizando! Aunque poco a poco fue perdiendo preeminencia frente a las armas de fuego
That just isn't the case historically. Crossbows in Europe were used by very expensive and skilled mercenaries. That's it. It was never a weapon of militias or untrained people in Europe
@@MarcRitzMD What about proper Norman (or French in general) armies? I'm guessing at least lords and kings could afford to arm their men with crossbows
@@AR-xs8ym Norman is very different from French or the Hundred Years War. Normans used composite crossbows and they were pathetic. Not s game changer in any way. During the Hundred Years War, the French hired Genoese Crossbowmen. Expensive, highly trained mercenaries
Why I love this novelty history shorts, it's interesting AoE4 is taking a "historical accuracy" approach when boiling oil defense is a upgrade in the game when it is largely just a myth kept alive by tv and Hollywood, as well as the other liberties they have taken
I think it’s just meant to simulate the fact that people defending a keep would throw all kinds of things at attackers. I view the in-game “boiling oil” as a catch-all term including hot sand, water, etc.
@@daniellipko710 I think that's a fair way to think about it. AoE has admitted over their history that their focus isn't to be completely historically precise, but to be close enough to be realistic and still fun.
They were probably cheaper when they had wooden fletchings, and plenty, if not most bolts in late Medieval period had wooden fletching. With feather fletching they would be about as laborious to make. I can't see any reason why they would need "less craftsmanship due to being shorter.
Every Bow that is used with mediterranean relese needs arrows with correct stiffnes to it. Arrows aren't in line with the bow centre, so they need to flex to fly straight. In case of crossbows, a bolt is guided by groove, so it's spine is not important. Also it's easyer to find optimaly grained and knotless piece of wood if it can be shorter.
Can we just appreciate how badass both these gentlemen look, specially while walking away with their crossbows on their shoulders?! They handle their weapons like seasoned warriors
I love how you just place some really random item to get shot at, I saw the Mongol one and they were shooting at sack of potatoes. This time we are shooting at jelly, completely shocking to me. May I suggest roasted whole chicken for the next target?
The composite bow on crossbows was also much more powerfull than a steel bow with the same draw weight as the limbs were much lighter and you could have a longer powerstroke as you wouldnt have such a risk of the bow breaking which was a major concern with steel crossbows. Essentially the steel crossbows big advantage was that it could be more powerful than a wooden crossbow yet still be a lot cheaper than a composite crossbow.
Wood crossbows can be very powerful, they allow for a further draw than a steel crossbow would and the limbs can hold up to over 100lbs of draw weight. Wood crossbows seem to typically be a bit larger and bulkier than light steel crossbows, but they are probably just as powerful. All though they wouldn't compare much to the windlass style 1000+lbs crossbows. Firmly I believe wood crossbows were very good weapons and in some ways better than many steel kind. In the norman period they had to penetrate or atleast cause significant damage to maille and gambeson and I believe they'd have been used at long range somewhat effectively.
They should have also covered? Chinese crossbows since China has been using them since before the Qin Dynasty. The first Emperor of China had a massive army built off using powerful crossbows.
Yeah I'm surprised china didn't get a shout out for literally inventing the damn thing. Good fun video regardless.The thing was shooting around the middle kingdom almost a thousand years before it became prolific in Europe.
Okay what's the difference between crossbow man and archer in aoe4? They both use arrow, They both trained in archery range. Did archer better than crossbow? Or archer good vs something that crossbow didn't? Or vice versa?
@@Mochido89 thanks for answering. Those heavy /light armored units can be infantry, cavalry, archery and siege units? How do I know if the unit heavy /light armored?
@@am3nnet The spear line is light, the sword and shield line is heavy, similar light and heavy units among cavalry and archers. You can check the armor type of the unit by clicking on it and seeing its stats. Eventually you will recognize visually.
Surely something like this wont be annoying in a video game because its actually slow to shoot because you need to draw it first therefore making it impossible to shoot fast at the speed of 0.3 second right ?
alot of people dont know that the chinese invented the crossbow. Many people mislead others by saying that the europeans invented them first which is false given that the chinese invented them during the bc period. More people should know this.
recently iv seen limbs out of wood and horn, which looked pretty high quality and would handle 190 pounds edit: the commentator just speaks about them now
Crossbows: easy to build, easy to use, longer range, more stopping power, slow reload time, cumbersome Bow: harder to produce, years of training, shorter range, rapid fire, light weight
It's interesting that so many people think that bows were generally easier/cheaper than crossbow. It was absolutely not the case. Crossbow is basically bow + many additional parts. It's going to require more work than bare bow kind of by definition. Particularly when some more complicated spanning device is added into equation.
@@124akshat Crossbows were developed independantly in China and Greece. The later medieval crossbow is likely a rediscovery of the ancient European crossbow and unrelated to the Chinese one.
@@stsk1061 the earlest crossbows are likely stone age africa. the chinese mass produced crossbows during the bronze-iron age while the greeks used them as niche artillery weapons
I wish you guys would stop faffing us with this stuff and focus more on fixing up the game itself, which is hardly ready for release. Being unable to select individual units in the task bar, missing stances, ditto formations, having to hover over the market to see the price, being unable to ungarrison individual units, not having a patrol option, hotkey customization, zoom customization, unit responsiveness and the multiple missing critical features (no ranked play or scenario editor on launch, really?!!) are all hugely important. Homing projectiles is more of a balance issue that I'm willing to cut you some slack on, albeit not so much on siege. And mind that I've said nothing about the art style or UI here, since I get that opinions would differ on those, and even mostly accepted your decision on how projectiles ought to work in this game. But there's just so much that's undercooked right now it's not even funny.
@@Zapnl Those same PR people have been choosing to highlight these mini-documentary bits over actual gameplay, and now are continuing to do so rather than highlighting responses to feedback - cos all of things mentioned have already been pointed out by many others before, with nary a response (save for a minute adjustment to zoom that's more of a slap in the face than an actual change). In PR terms, even if they aren't going to change any of these things, they can very well be upfront about that by uploading a video talking about them and explaining why.
It didn't dominate more than any other. Norman period, wth. Even 1500 lbs siege crossbows were only as powerful as warbows. Everyone who has done the least bit of research knows it.
