Thanks for providing a proper describtion of the battle of Crécy. People tend to cite it as ultimate proof that english longbowmen were superior to crossbowmen, ignoring the fact that in this battle the crossbowmen were basically rendered useless by incompetent leadership forcing them to engage an enemy who had a superior position without their proper equipment. The genoese crossbowmen at their worst got beaten by english longbowmen at their best, which doesn't say all that much.
@maniak942 Marching is designed to not be that tiring and they had a good few hours from their arrival in the morning to late afternoon when the attack started to freshen up. The English too had been marching, were starving and suffered from dysentery. I don't think that sort of comparison serves the crossbowmen particularly well. The incompetence of the French leadership and their arrogant disdain for the English (lowborn) longbowman probably had more relevance.
Bruh my horse ran these guys flat into the ground lmao. Medival II general body guards were also stupidly strong, I remeber sending 4 units of Genoese crossbowmen to fire on one unit of body guards, 2 volleys killed only 2 guys.
@Robert Paulson It's less cheesing than you might think as Medieval 2 AI receives very little bonuses even at the highest difficulty setting, probably one of the last three Total War game (others being Empire, Napoleon, and Shogun 2) where AI don't shamelessly cheats you. Consider that even at the highest difficulty, one good cavalry/infantry charge from the flank will rout most units in the AI's army. While in Warhammer series onward your cavalry will be the one getting routed if you played on Legendary, or the AI can rout your braced pike wall by simply charging his cavalry head on into those pointy sticks, something that wouldn't work in Shogun 2, let alone in Medieval 2! But back to original discussion, yes, I won't deny that morale has impacts on the game, but it's not the end all be all. tactics and how you use your units matters more. As even in Shogun 2 where AI receives more bonuses than Med 2 AI, the peasant spearmen (Ashigaru) is still the bread and butter of your armies and can carry you up to the end game if you so choose. In the end it's up to the preference of the players I'd say.
Morale is the best overall stat, and the easiest one to manipulate for victories. I'm sure that dude with peasants did plenty of cheesing of morale. Because 10 units of peasants can still make 1 elite unit run if they are completely surrounded, even though if the morale was turned off, they would win. I bet if he played a game with morale turned off, he wouldn't be able to win with peasants, because every unit could cheese grate them. It is the determining factor in so many close fights, and can turn impossible victories into easy ones. A general with five stars, but with a +2 morale bonus will be far superior to a general with just five stars. To put it into perspective, a peasant has 1 morale, a spear militia unit 4, an italian spear miltia unit 6, and the average unit with good morale in their description has at least 8. Every single point matters. Every single point lets you push your troops into more awkward positions and win. I'd trade 3 points of any other combat stat for a half a point of morale. And a city gen xbow has 3 morale, the cast version 5. It's a big difference, that pairs well with their better melee stats. Huge.
@Robert Paulson I don't think it's that necessary to use the castle version Xbow though. Consider that some KZclipr has beaten Medieval 2 on hardest difficulty with nothing but Peasants. And I meant it; as he did that without general leading those peasants too. About Longbowmen, stake are not even necessary if you know how to exploit the AI. I mean, I saw one let's play on KZclip, where the same KZclipr who beat Medieval 2 with peasants simply parked two spear militias in schilthorn slightly ahead and to the flank of the mercenary Xbow, and the AI stupidly charged the cavalry into said spear instead of running straight through the wide open gap between those two to get at the Xbow. But about Xbow being cheaper than longbow, it's actually make sense historically, since longbow takes the entire childhood to train (muscle and bodybuilding in particular), while Xbow can be wielded by random peasant practice using it for a few months tops.
@machaiping the castle version is way better. They have 14 missile attack, the same as a musket. Any morale difference is a big difference, esp playing on very hard. They also have one more armor. Both versions are also dirt cheap for upkeep. For every 10 basic longbowmen, you can have fifteen basic city crossbowmen. And the cheaper ones can be maintained for free in a city. The longbow has a few advantages though, fire rate, stakes, and better firing arcs. This means the are easier to use defensively, and work better against low armor/shield units. Crossbows are cheaper, but more lethal against fancier units. Personally I prefer Italian xbows because of their cost and better melee stats. Stakes are tricky to use, and situational, and being better against weak troops isn't a big selling point for me. Even the wall dynamic can be remedied by letting them in, or up the walls, and shooting them from the other side. Which is kind of ironic, considering that xbows were better wall weapons, as they are easier to shoot through gaps and down steep inclines.
Using crossbow and shield might not look like a huge leap of logic in hindsight, but back in the day it was so groundbreaking that regular infantry might as well fought Elites with energy shielding.
An interesting thing about the Genova's "contract culture". Contracts were everything and ruled every working Activity in Genova, and were of 2 tipes. With, or without, the "mugugno" wich Is a genovese Word translated as "complaining, in a annoing way, that NEVER stop". So how It works: you can be offered the contract with the mugugno, lover pay BUT the ability to complain about... Everything you was ordered to do, or without the mugugno: pay was Better but you cannot complain about anything. Now, people from Liguria and Genova expecially are famous for theyr greedynes, so the contracts were almost exclusivly with the mugugno, and still are today :)
I worked somewhere for the lowest possible pay whilst there whole business depending on you giving customers a good happy experience/interaction, and you weren't allowed to complain despite the awful working conditions whilst they profited £700,000 a week.
The discussion of Genoa, and by extension the Genoese Crossbowman is really fascinating, especially compared to the much more researched history of Venice for example
As a Genoese, I deeply appreciate your comment. People thinks only to Florence and Venice with respect to Medieval and Renaissance Italy, but the city of Embriaco (who made first Crusade "successful"), Columbus, Andrea Doria, Mazzini (father of "Young Italy" and "Young Europe"), Mameli (writing the anthem), Novaro (giving music to anthem), the land of Bonaparte and Garibaldi families is not exactly a side note of History. Of course we have pride but we are still self-critical with Crimes commited in wars, values luckily have changed for the better, but our city was really the Republican (and Socialist) hearth of unified Italy 🏴😎🇮🇹
2:22 I suspect that they formed specifically to meet the requirements of the Genoese Naval wars against the saracen pirates. The crossbow is the preffered method in Italy due to the high number of sieges, and was particularly preferabble in Naval Battles, which the Sea repubblics fought a LOT, since accuracy and strength and more importantly timing were more crucial than speed or quantity in that enviroment. 2:53 The funny thing is that Genoese came to be known as a catch all term for Italian Mercenary outside of italy. So if you met a mercenary of Italian origin in germany for example, he'd be called a genoese even if he never even seen the sea. Similarly "Lombard" was the catch all term for Italian merchants outside of italy, even though a lot came from genoa and tuscany and not necessarily lombardy. (This is similar how the term viking was a catch all term for scandinavians pillaging europe, regardless if the were swedes, norwegians or danes). 4:36 whilst it is true to some extent that Longbows required training to be used (One needed to build up special muscles to use the longbow properly), It is a bit of a misnomer to say that the crossbow required little training. Sure for the average militia maybe an hour or two could have sufficed. But that could also have sufficed to get a "good enough" result also for regular bowmen. It's like comparing conscripts to professional soldiers in modern armies since they both use guns. Reload speed, accuracy, battle effectiveness increased with skill and time. 10:43 it is unfortunate that this is their most famous battle. It makes sense since this battle is known in the Anglosphere because it involved the english. But if you asked a Genoese, they might say that the battles of Curzola and Meloria at 7:28 were far more indicative (especially Curzola) and the various sieges of the Fondachi (Merchant quarters) all over the mediterranean show them off in a better light. Like the famous siege of Kaffa where the Genoese beat the Mongols during the siege (later plague not withstanding). In fact the mongols used the Genoese themselves against the Russians at Kulikovo Field.
Modern historians don't believe that there were Genoese at Kulikovo in any meaningful quantity. First there was relatively few of them in Crimea to begin with. Second Kulikovo was a eastern cavalry battle, ill suited for the European warfare. Third, the account mentioning Genoese was written much later and describes the warfare tactics from the next century.
I understand that at one point Englishmen were required by law to spend Sunday afternoons training with the bow. The game of football was even banned at one time because it interfered with bow training. This contributed to their proficiency with the bow.
Crece was a battle where the Noble Knights managed to "Snatch defeat from the Jaws of Victory". Had they just waited for the gear and infantry to catch up - as well as the ground to dry - they could probably have defeated that position. Other examples include the "Battle of the Golden Spurs". And I think there was a similar one during a northern crusade?
@Joshua Paschal As if the Knights would care about that. Their stuff was save in fortifications that had been avoided. If anything, it was that infantry that would be motivated by revenge.
Important to keep in mind that this was after the English had burnt, looted, and murdered their way across France. Hardly shocking the French might be eager to face them after that.
@Osvath97 Well, that probably means that I misremembered it, and it was that the French knights managed to reach English lines with no deaths or major injuries caused by longbows. I was also a bit afraid that I might have the results of Crecy and Agincourt confused, but I probably just messed up on the cavalry charge and the unmounted-knights-with-only-dead-horses charge.
@deektedrgg I am sorry, but that is not true at all. In fact, Crécy is known for having very few prisoners. The English reported 1542 dead knights on the French side. While it is true that fewer French knights may have died from being outright shot by the longbows than what is commonly held (though during Crécy full plate armour was still a bit rarer). What the longbows did was to disrupt the formation, especially by killing the horses, which is also dangerous for the riders. The ones who reached the frontline were locked in a vicious melee with dismounted English knights holding the frontlines, where many of the out-of-formation battered French knights died. Despite that, the French almost broke through in some places.
To be fair, as far as I know, based of English reports on how many knights were captured, *every knight* that attacked the English lines survived the longbow fire without major wounds and was able to reach, fight and eventually surrender to the English. So really, the French knights didn't really suffer much except the literal defeat that day.
The military has always been a way for the lower classes to improve their standing. From crossbow men, roman legionaries, and even today in the American military. I myself joined to do just that
@Cegesh 98 percent of all military will never see combat. However it does take a toll on your mental health even being state side but everything in life has pros and cons
@Cormano I'm 32 and it was the best thing I could have done. It gave me pride, confidence, and sense of self worth. It made me a strong worker and help me develop leadership skills. Also I seen much of east asia, lived in japan outside tokyo for 3 years and women love the uniform
@🐐👽🐏 Pharaohs Magician You are correct about the Roman Empire having too many soldiers which caused the downfall. The legions basically bankrupted the Empire and caused inflation. Each successive Emperor had to debase the currency to provide pay that would keep soldiers happy. Not only that the Patrician class caused a severe rot. Rich land owners who enacted the Latifunda system and illegally confiscated farmland from the middle class (who served in the army during the republic era) caused the downfall and birth of Feudalism. You suddenly had many former middle class men and their families who were forced into urban centres. Because their new social status prevented them from joining the republican legions the Roman state had a manpower shortage and Marius later reformed the legions and allowed more poorer men to fight by as legionaries. Now the state had to arm their soldiers which caused more spending. The Roman state now fought wars to acquire more resources. The requirement to give veterans land after their service was unsustainable in the long term as well.
Btw, "corps" is pronounced the same as "core." It's a French word and my general rule for French origin words is just not to say the last sound as it's spelled. It's usually correct 95% of the time.
It is pronounce core which is what has caused me so much hell in my younger years, especially as even college educated military officers would spell it as core.
This was fascinating. I became acquainted with Genoese crossbowmen recently in reading Iris Origo's "The Merchant of Prato," a biography of Francesco Di Marco Datini, 1335-1410 (published in New York by Knopf, 1957). Datini had a very long career as a merchandiser of various goods, first from Avignon, then from his home in Prato, and finally from Florence. Depending upon the destination, goods went either overland or by sea - and if by sea, there are frequent references to Genoese crossbowmen as protection on the ships, with the note that these warriors were highly regarded - and generally feared. Thanks so much for providing the background.
Turaglas I don't remember if the Genoese required it or not, but if Datini shipped by sea, he usually used Genoa, so possibly that was a requirement of the Republic.
I knew crossbows where placed on the ground to reload, but I never realised they used a hook for it. Holy cow that's genius, using your hands you're still limited by the muscles in your forearm that need to grip the string, but with the hook you can use the full force of our body's strongest muscles in our upper legs.
i have seen similar methods to really tighten a knot, but this is really stupid simple and stupid effective. If only gunpowder hadn't been developed crossbows would probably have dominated wars to this day
The Grimaldi and Doria families still hold a great deal of importance to this day here. Why, I can just now peer out of the window and see a giant cruise ship with the name "Grimaldi" painted on it. xD
Yeah, and in the Hussite armies crossbows caused most ranged damage, with firearms responsible for sowing confusion and visible gruesome carnage. Jan Zizka knew his people and weapons well and used them to their best advantage, which is sign of competent commander
once again a very good video. good info, good presentation, good research, and most importantly: a good example how history should be presented on KZclip.
7:00 - That might explain why crossbows weren't mixed in with pikes very early in history. The pavisse carriers already had their own long spears? That would make it a sort of mixed formation of 50/50 crossbow/spears already.
the crossbows were first used to defend from static protected positions like walls and ships so they werent threatened by kngihts. the pavise were mainly vs enemy projectile fire they werent really spears that would threaten armoured knights. But the Crossbowbolts already did that so they werent sitting ducks like normal archers.
Ah yes; that was a question that I was asking for a long time, many theories but little to no real explanation of the reason of not incorporating crossbows abd spears. But you had archer with infantry already i guess it is similar.
Roman Seige Ballista huge with a draw weight of 4000-4500lbs. Steel Prod Windlass crossbows could have draw weights up to 4900lbs but only put 1250lb draw weights to increase reload or spanning speed as it was overkill. Steel was cheap enough for wealthy peasants of Geonese to finally afford them in the 13th century medieval era.
The Persian Achemanids were some of the first professional army to use organized large shield bearing soldiers in combination with rows of archers behind them . The large shields provided cover while rows of archers switched continually to fire their arrows towards enemy lines
It's always a good thing to see a new SandRhoman upload in my feed. Without a doubt your's is one of the best researched and presented history channels on youtube.
I frequently see people claiming that crossbowmen were superior to longbowmen, or that longbowmen were superior to crossbowmen. The simple fact is that which is "better" depends entirely on the battlefield conditions and the overall composition and leadership of the armies involved. In some circumstances longbowmen are clearly more effective than crossbowmen, and in some circumstances crossbowmen are clearly more effective than longbowmen. Anyone who tells you differently is an idiot who has no idea what they're talking about.
@Ailius crossbow required more training that an longbow Longbow required strenght which could be learn in peace time, crossbow required military drilling which was harder to provide unless you could sustain a professional army
The difference is the soldier. The yeoman trained on the bow since childhood and thus had big beefy arms that could pull back big bows. But if you're a nation that doesn't have a militia culture and furthermore are hiring mercenaries for contracts that are a couple years, you don't have time to train them on a war bow. So you have to give them a machine that will draw the bow back for them - aka a crossbow. In our modern world we like to focus on weapons. But back then the man was far more important than the tool.
@Alessandro Mazzini if an army's leadership is very familiar with the capabilities and shortcomings of crossbowmen, but not very familiar with the capabilities of longbowmen, then crossbowmen are a better choice because the leaders will be more able to use them effectively (and vice versa). Conversely, if the enemy army's leaders have never faced longbowmen and are unaware of their effective maximum range or rate of fire, but are very familiar with the range and rate of fire of crossbowmen, then longbowmen would be more effective against them. Context matters, and familiarity with specific weapons by commanders is part of that context. A weapon that is novel to the enemy leaders will be more effective than one that is not, because they will be less familiar with the best ways to counter it. That's part of the pros and cons of the weapons.
I tend to think that Longbows were more versatile Battlefield weapons (main advantage probably being rate of fire and range) - but required a lot more investment and training (pretty much a lifetime) for the Archer. Crossbows on the other hand, you could train troops to use them pretty competently (not necessarily master) in weeks, but you would be able to get get a pretty effective Crossbow unit in a pretty short amount of time. However, where I think the Crossbow would be superior to the Longbow would be in Siege Warfare (which tended to be log and drawn out in comparison to field battles) due to the nature of being able to have a Crossbow in a 'ready' position pretty much indefinitely and ready to fire at any time a suitable opportunity appears because the mechanism takes all the strain at this point - Whereas a Longbow can't do that because the man takes all the strain and no-one is strong enough to hold the Longbow in that 'ready' position for any reasonable length of time (despite what films may show) :)
Exactly: genoese pavise crossbowman with crossbow expert and sharpshooter are one of best ways to play warrior. Just imagine: BBEG: "What's your powers" Mage: "I cast spell" Druid: "Nature power" Cleric: "I am perfect healer" You: "I AM GENOESE MOTHAFAKKA" (starts placing tower shield for +2AC and blasting everything with hand crossbow) 😂
Wow this is good timing I've been watching loads that involved the Geonese crossbow men, and here's a new video to describe exactly who they were, thanks.
At 8:28 you said Mamluks. However, In 1099 Jerusalem was governed by the Fatimi, they just conquered the city a few years ago. Maybe you want to use it instead of Slave soldier but The area of the Levant was mostly under the hegemony of Seljuks and Seljuks was not use Mamluks. They have their own soldier which called Gulam(slave soldier).
Could you do a video on the White Company? I remember reading a little about them working with Coucy in Italy at one point and they seemed to be a respected group of mercenaries as well.
It's worth mentioning that while a crossbow has vastly higher draw weight in comparison to a longbow, it is also vastly less effective at actually delivering power to the projectile, that being caused by shorter draw length. The same effect is known from modern firearms where longer barrel accelerates a projectile more before it leaves it. So, it's important to note that crossbows were not necessarily some armor piercing unstoppable knght killing monster in comparison with bows. The advantage of a crossbow is that it's more accurate, easier to aim, one can hold it on target and wait for ideal opportunity to shoot (keeping a war bow drawn for extentended duration may be physically impossible, dependiong on the weight and your strength), and does not need extensive physical strength (war bows required up to years of regular training for one to be strong enough to draw them). You can also lean over battlements with crossbows, while using bows from them can be cumbersome at best. The main disadvantage of a crossbow is way lower rate of "fire" (not a historical term) and possibly cost (a steel-armed crossbow would be, I imagine, more expensive than most longbows). It's fairly clear that both brought different compromises and as such, were preferred by different armies and in different contexts. About the crossbow string argument... I find it incredibly silly. Rain HAPPENS. If it was able to disable your main weapon, wouldn't you have means of protecting it on you? Either the rain didn't affect the strings, or they had means of protecting them. Medieval people had less knowledge about the world, but they weren't impractical morons. What is well known is that whenever crossbowmen/bowmen have high ground, they have a massive advantage. They can shoot further, shoot over shields, and if they miss their target by overshooting, they stand chance of hitting the guy behind their target. Neither of that is the case when archers stand under their target.
Great video as always. I though thte St. George's cross was an English thing. Obviously another Sought-After Mercenaries you should do is the Gallowglass. If you need research material I have quite a few sources.
It’s used today by the Republic of Georgia, which is of course named after St George and has a history of interaction with Genoa itself in the Black Sea, where Genoa had extensive colonial holdings
Talking about the teams of Crossbow men and Pavise holder, I wonder if you could get some kind of medieval drill going on. I mean like having ranks of crossbowmen, who fire, then start reloading, and the one behind comes forward to fire. Have enough ranks so that the first rank has reloaded by the time it comes around to them again. Another alternative is to have one crossbowman, and 2-3 helpers who reload crossbows for him, so that he can keep up a steady stream of fire.
Crossbowmen were required to "shoot between ranks" we don't really knows what this mean tho, prob manovring and shooting between 2 group of friendly units Also what are you saying is not that useful because they did arch their fire a bit
As an archer i can tell you that bowstring wax defeats rain handily. No doubt these people had access to beeswax and coated their string liberally. Also, even thought composite bows were naturally more sensitive to weather again, they were usually covered with a linen cover infused with wax to protect them. Obviously the prod of the crossbow became less of a variable whe the switch to steel was made.
Actually, considering we know precisely that 1,542 French knights were killed at Crécy, that the Genoese crossbowmen probably numbered around 2,000, certainly not more than 4,000, and that the French infantry didn't take part in the battle, it is obviously completely impossible that the French suffered more casualties than these numbers added, let alone "15,000 casualties", which is the estimate of a pro-English contemporary source, and not at all the one of most historians. And Clifford Rogers is strange because he claims the English were 15,000 and the French at least twice and maybe thrice larger, which would make between 30,000 and 45,000, which is highly unlikely.
Genoese Luigi Giribetto (Louis Giribaut) invented rotating carriages to better maneuver culverins, really helping Jean Bureau in creating the poweful french artillery which won french war (despite the french vile massacre of genoese crossbowmen). France: "I never said thank you". Genoa: "And you'll never have to" (proceeds jumping into the void to defend Constantinople and discover America) 😎🏴
Oh don't get me started on those bloody Genoese crossbowmen 😁😁 !!! Since vanilla Medieval 2 Total War through literally every mod they're a pain to deal with. Great killing power against nearly every unit and pretty tough in melee too.
Turaglas There are limits to usefulness with wide bows, though if you have a pavise to put the mini ballista on, it could work, but there is probably a reason why people did what they did, there often is.
@Carlos Valle important to know that draw weight means little if you don't know the length of the bow. A wide crossbow with less draw weight could send a bolt further and harder than a tiny bow with an insane draw weight. :)
Roman Seige Ballista huge with a draw weight of 4000-4500lbs. Steel Prod Windlass crossbows could have draw weights up to 4900lbs but only put 1250lb draw weights to increase reload or spanning speed as it was overkill. Steel was cheap enough for wealthy peasants of Geonese to finally afford them in the 13th century medieval era.
Excellent defensive unit, they should have been armed with a falcata and deployed as a stealth unit near the tree lines. Also what was Phillip thinking by not deploying artillery. Superior numbers does not convey advantage
It surprises me how often medieval battles were lost because the French knights were too overconfident and charged before everyone was ready. Off the top of my head I believe I can think of three times including this one.
It also happened at the Battle of Halmyros, the Duke of Athens, Walter of Brienne (by birth, culture and arrogance very much a french nobleman) and most of his mounted knights were slaughtered when they recklessly charged against the defensive position set-up by the mercenaries of the Catalan Company, in hindsight it would had been cheaper to Walter to actually pay his mercenaries instead of trying to expel them by force of his dominions.
Tod's Workshop have produced a video regarding the longbow and medieval knight armor. The longbow have some difficulties to penetrate the Knight's armor. Look at the video: kzclip.org/video/DBxdTkddHaE/бейне.html Well-made and well worth the time.
I low my hat for the genoese crossbowmen,but i think you should also make a video on the Venicians Marines that conquers Constantinople end were the first to have some squads of knight that charge directly from the ship,thanks to special navy project.thanks to this forces Venice conquer all the Dalmatian coast city, a lot of Grece s islands,Cyprus and a big part of black sea s land!!!!!
knights, they're the meme of fighting a battle to lose the war. ignore commands, need a squad's upkeep, mutiny's and tantrum prone, insufferably pompous, and stupid. they're lucky they were in the same hierarchy as the guys writing to give them hype and downplay their losses.
Patay, Ascalon, Antioch, Cerami, Mohi, Kressenbrunn, and many other battles saw the devastating effects of a heavy shock charges by knights. It's rather ridiculous to say that the finest troops in medieval Europe and the closest thing they had to a professional soldier was somehow ineffective... these tactics were so common because of how successful they were.
I agree with all of that, and yet, when they were good, they were really good. I think of the Normans conquering Southern Italy with often sub 1000 knights in their armies, more like 200-300. Even going to far as to invade the Byzantine Empire. And knights in the Crusades made an outsized difference, in limited numbers. If they could act rationally and pragmatically, then they were a force multiplier that could decide battles on their own. IF... :D
Were there any repercussions to the French actions against the Genoese in Crécy? To my surprise, the Genoese kept serving under French after that battle...
Genoese Luigi Giribetto (Louis Giribaut) invented rotating carriages to better maneuver culverins, really helping Jean Bureau in creating the poweful french artillery which won french war (despite the french vile massacre of genoese crossbowmen). France: "I never said thank you". Genoa: "And you'll never have to" (proceeds jumping into the void to defend Constantinople and discover America) 😎🏴
The palio is a crossbow contest still in place in most of Liguria and Toscana. In the Comunal time The palio where you best chance to show to a recruiter from Genova u had skin for the job.
At 4:43 you talk about pope urban banning the use of the crossbow in 1139. But by then he had been dead for 40 years. Just wanted to point that out. Great video!
Yup. Unfortunately there's weird little pockets of misinformation in these videos. Like the misconception that archers fired arrows up in an arc in volleys, which simply isn't true. The arrows/bolts would be useless shot that way.
You couldn't have the Common Man piercing the armor of a Noble Knight. These Mercenaries were well drill and I think it would surprise us how efficient they were. But it shouldn't. The Human mind is a deadly weapon
One thing confuses me about these foreign armies in different lands How often was a language barrier a major issue? If you need to give complex orders, how do you communicate to peoples from far lands and different languages?
You need to remember that commanders and officers in those days happen to mostly be noble men, as such educated men in most cases. Most of them spoke many languages including Latin and whatever “in” language of the time was in use.
8:27 Small correction, they would be fighting the Fatimids during the First Crusades. The Mamluks wouldn't emerge into history until the 13th century, after they overthrew the Ayyubids, who in turn got rid of the Fatimids. Other than that, superb video as always.
In case people don't realize, it takes actual years to train a longbow user, a crossbow has a much more simply point and shoot mechanism which takes up some of the work the actual archer would do. You don't have to hold a drawn bowstring, your front arm or supporting arm can be stabilized such as resting the elbow along the top of a wall which helps increase accuracy. You have a much more direct flight which means less aiming vertically and more bolts on target since you have an easier time working out your drop and that also presents less time in the air for the arrows or bolts to be shifted off course. War bows are cool and have had some great success but let's not turn smooth brains here are start screaming how amazing a longbow is. It's not even the best of the war bows. What made the English longbow (not actually English) so useful was the fact that the English started cultural trends around how archery was a gentlemens sport which got more English men into practicing consistently with the longbow. Besides 3 to 6 months of training vs 2 years at minimum and you can see how good crossbows actually are as weapons. Though I suspect that maintaining them was probably a bit more stressful than a bow. I mean the catholics ban crossbows and so did a few kingdoms because 6 month trained crossbow men can kill a knight pretty easy and losing a knight who spent years of training to a farmer simply because of the weapon made many high ranking people worried.
@C Z you didnt need perfect aim in war and "volley" is a Hollywood myth in the middle ages. It existed in china but even there It was conditional (like crossbowmen were taught to shot as fast as they could when cavalry was approaching)
@Artyom Arty longbows were peasant weapons, every one could stand still and shot Arrow from afar Crossbowmen required drilling and professionalism which was rarer in europe (meanwhile It was the norm in china) The problem is the same as early firearms, people that werent trained werent able to shoot at close distance without breaking nor new how to move so they dont shot friendly units in the back
My only thing with this video is that the pavise shield wasn’t introduced until the 14th century so the Genoese Crossbowmen would have been without this for at least half if not most of their history.
Genoese Luigi Giribetto (Louis Giribaut) invented rotating carriages to better maneuver culverins, really helping Jean Bureau in creating the poweful french artillery which won french war (despite the french vile massacre of genoese crossbowmen). France: "I never said thank you". Genoa: "And you'll never have to" (proceeds jumping into the void to defend Constantinople and discover America) 😎🏴
I'm looking everywhere but I can't seen to find the following information: how were medieval crossbows transported? did they had bandoliers? did they held the crossbows like spearmen were expected to carry their weapons? I've read in a game that it can be carried on hooks on the belt, but, well... game...
Me: S…see your honor, I’ve always been into medieval stuff… Concerned Family Members: Uh huh Me: And, watching this AND hiring Genoese Crossbowmen to besiege our noisy neighbor is just a natural progression of my interest Concerned Family Members: what
Any yet almost 6 centuries later in the same general area of Crecy armies made the same mistake where instead of long bows, machine guns and heavy artillery creates 100x the carnage.
6:30 wearing a breastplate in the 13th century?? Is that accurate. I thought that would be more toward the mid 14th century and 15th century. In the 13th century they would be most likely wearing a helmet with chainmail or a gambeson.
Turaglas agincourt was in 1415 so 15th century and common soldiers would have access to better armour but not in the 13th century. Plate armour didn’t really start to get made and used by nobility/knight until late 13th century early 14th century during the transitory armour phase.
It is not correct. The longbow was usless against the french armor (even you said so). The dismounted knighs of the english army could handle very easy the mounted knights in the defenses of Crecy
Armour penetration isn't the thing, at least plate armour, vs chain and gambesons maybe. When shot, even biggest ones with pulleys are about as strong as warbows, most of the power goes to the steel bow of the system, not the shot, even if the power needed to pull it is a lot bigger than the warbow. Also the bolts are generally lighter than the arrows, so the momentum of the bolt vs the arrow were about the same when comparing the strongest ones. The "armour piercing" thing comes mostly from role playing games, and if a crossbow bolts are characterized armour piercing, so should the warbow arrows.
Piercing force of average crossbow bolt is rather debatable. Especially statement that bolt was better than arrow in any way (of course you can use f ballista after all its crossbow like. But on battlefield usually were used rather fast reloud range weapons, for example "small" crossbows with draw just like war bows had). Another popular claim, that bolt has better shape to pierce is also not exactly true. Guess what? There were many different types of arrowheads and boltheads for different uses. But yeah bowman need to be trained much longer than crossbowmen just because needed muscles strength. Also crossbow is more handy. You can carry it loaded and drawn all the time. But is harder to shoot it in rain. You need to keep strings dry. And bowstring is much easier to hide under big brimmed hat than that crossbow one.
*Crossbowmen when the firearms becomes popular* « Il will not be replaced by a musketman, neither my crossbow will be replaced by these new weapons, its temporary » Quite ironically, the Cretan Archers will last a bit longer, if i remember
Curiousity stream looks great, but I am looking for some kind of resource for my stepfather who is rapidly losing his eyesight. He has many interests such as history and science. He may not be able to get the most out of curiosity stream, but maybe one of you all knows of a similar service that would work better for very limited eyesight. Thanks for your suggestions in advance
I‘d say audible (for e-books) and podcasts (pretty much all apps work, i use Spotify and the apple podcast app). Also, youtube itself is good for podcasts / discussion based formats. I found myself listening to the Hoover institute in the last couple of months.
Get a 25% discount for CuriosityStream with code sandrhoman! It's just $14,99 for one year! curiositystream.com/SandRhoman
@Laonch no, it's spelled Wilhelmo
Just a tip. In Italian, Guglielmo is spelled with the first G hard, like "Gucci"
more merc videos pls
Of course they were the most sought after. After all they have +5 bonus damage against cavalry, camels and elephants and +7 with the Elite upgrade.
111111
Dang it somebody beat me to the AOE2 joke
@Fan Zhang He is talking about the genoese crossbowman, the unique unit of the Italians, not the ordinary crossbowman
@mildly infuriated bird AOE2
Thanks for providing a proper describtion of the battle of Crécy. People tend to cite it as ultimate proof that english longbowmen were superior to crossbowmen, ignoring the fact that in this battle the crossbowmen were basically rendered useless by incompetent leadership forcing them to engage an enemy who had a superior position without their proper equipment. The genoese crossbowmen at their worst got beaten by english longbowmen at their best, which doesn't say all that much.
@maniak942 Marching is designed to not be that tiring and they had a good few hours from their arrival in the morning to late afternoon when the attack started to freshen up. The English too had been marching, were starving and suffered from dysentery. I don't think that sort of comparison serves the crossbowmen particularly well. The incompetence of the French leadership and their arrogant disdain for the English (lowborn) longbowman probably had more relevance.
@Michele what a great rebuttal. Go and play with your crayons kid.
@Facts don’t care about your feelings Someone famous once said 'Opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has them, and most of them stink'.
@Michele what facts did i get wrong ?
@Facts don’t care about your feelings Now who is ignoring the facts? You should change your name to: My opinions don't care about your feelings.
Man, this brings back memorys.
I so hated going against these guys in Medival II: Total War.
Bruh my horse ran these guys flat into the ground lmao.
Medival II general body guards were also stupidly strong, I remeber sending 4 units of Genoese crossbowmen to fire on one unit of body guards, 2 volleys killed only 2 guys.
@Robert Paulson It's less cheesing than you might think as Medieval 2 AI receives very little bonuses even at the highest difficulty setting, probably one of the last three Total War game (others being Empire, Napoleon, and Shogun 2) where AI don't shamelessly cheats you.
Consider that even at the highest difficulty, one good cavalry/infantry charge from the flank will rout most units in the AI's army. While in Warhammer series onward your cavalry will be the one getting routed if you played on Legendary, or the AI can rout your braced pike wall by simply charging his cavalry head on into those pointy sticks, something that wouldn't work in Shogun 2, let alone in Medieval 2!
But back to original discussion, yes, I won't deny that morale has impacts on the game, but it's not the end all be all. tactics and how you use your units matters more. As even in Shogun 2 where AI receives more bonuses than Med 2 AI, the peasant spearmen (Ashigaru) is still the bread and butter of your armies and can carry you up to the end game if you so choose. In the end it's up to the preference of the players I'd say.
Morale is the best overall stat, and the easiest one to manipulate for victories. I'm sure that dude with peasants did plenty of cheesing of morale. Because 10 units of peasants can still make 1 elite unit run if they are completely surrounded, even though if the morale was turned off, they would win. I bet if he played a game with morale turned off, he wouldn't be able to win with peasants, because every unit could cheese grate them.
It is the determining factor in so many close fights, and can turn impossible victories into easy ones. A general with five stars, but with a +2 morale bonus will be far superior to a general with just five stars. To put it into perspective, a peasant has 1 morale, a spear militia unit 4, an italian spear miltia unit 6, and the average unit with good morale in their description has at least 8. Every single point matters. Every single point lets you push your troops into more awkward positions and win. I'd trade 3 points of any other combat stat for a half a point of morale.
And a city gen xbow has 3 morale, the cast version 5. It's a big difference, that pairs well with their better melee stats. Huge.
@Robert Paulson
I don't think it's that necessary to use the castle version Xbow though. Consider that some KZclipr has beaten Medieval 2 on hardest difficulty with nothing but Peasants. And I meant it; as he did that without general leading those peasants too.
About Longbowmen, stake are not even necessary if you know how to exploit the AI. I mean, I saw one let's play on KZclip, where the same KZclipr who beat Medieval 2 with peasants simply parked two spear militias in schilthorn slightly ahead and to the flank of the mercenary Xbow, and the AI stupidly charged the cavalry into said spear instead of running straight through the wide open gap between those two to get at the Xbow.
But about Xbow being cheaper than longbow, it's actually make sense historically, since longbow takes the entire childhood to train (muscle and bodybuilding in particular), while Xbow can be wielded by random peasant practice using it for a few months tops.
@machaiping the castle version is way better. They have 14 missile attack, the same as a musket. Any morale difference is a big difference, esp playing on very hard. They also have one more armor.
Both versions are also dirt cheap for upkeep. For every 10 basic longbowmen, you can have fifteen basic city crossbowmen. And the cheaper ones can be maintained for free in a city. The longbow has a few advantages though, fire rate, stakes, and better firing arcs. This means the are easier to use defensively, and work better against low armor/shield units.
Crossbows are cheaper, but more lethal against fancier units. Personally I prefer Italian xbows because of their cost and better melee stats. Stakes are tricky to use, and situational, and being better against weak troops isn't a big selling point for me. Even the wall dynamic can be remedied by letting them in, or up the walls, and shooting them from the other side.
Which is kind of ironic, considering that xbows were better wall weapons, as they are easier to shoot through gaps and down steep inclines.
The most dedicated Rhodok cosplayers I've ever seen
Rhodok stands
Using crossbow and shield might not look like a huge leap of logic in hindsight, but back in the day it was so groundbreaking that regular infantry might as well fought Elites with energy shielding.
@XxAe-ChaaxX It's an analogy, not a comparison.
Comparing a halo game to real life. Logic
Sad plasma noises 🤭🤭
An interesting thing about the Genova's "contract culture". Contracts were everything and ruled every working Activity in Genova, and were of 2 tipes. With, or without, the "mugugno" wich Is a genovese Word translated as "complaining, in a annoing way, that NEVER stop". So how It works: you can be offered the contract with the mugugno, lover pay BUT the ability to complain about... Everything you was ordered to do, or without the mugugno: pay was Better but you cannot complain about anything. Now, people from Liguria and Genova expecially are famous for theyr greedynes, so the contracts were almost exclusivly with the mugugno, and still are today :)
@ParadoxicalPanda Can you think of any red flags there might have been, in hindsight?
I worked somewhere for the lowest possible pay whilst there whole business depending on you giving customers a good happy experience/interaction, and you weren't allowed to complain despite the awful working conditions whilst they profited £700,000 a week.
haha
The discussion of Genoa, and by extension the Genoese Crossbowman is really fascinating, especially compared to the much more researched history of Venice for example
As a Genoese, I deeply appreciate your comment. People thinks only to Florence and Venice with respect to Medieval and Renaissance Italy, but the city of Embriaco (who made first Crusade "successful"), Columbus, Andrea Doria, Mazzini (father of "Young Italy" and "Young Europe"), Mameli (writing the anthem), Novaro (giving music to anthem), the land of Bonaparte and Garibaldi families is not exactly a side note of History. Of course we have pride but we are still self-critical with Crimes commited in wars, values luckily have changed for the better, but our city was really the Republican (and Socialist) hearth of unified Italy 🏴😎🇮🇹
2:22 I suspect that they formed specifically to meet the requirements of the Genoese Naval wars against the saracen pirates. The crossbow is the preffered method in Italy due to the high number of sieges, and was particularly preferabble in Naval Battles, which the Sea repubblics fought a LOT, since accuracy and strength and more importantly timing were more crucial than speed or quantity in that enviroment.
2:53 The funny thing is that Genoese came to be known as a catch all term for Italian Mercenary outside of italy. So if you met a mercenary of Italian origin in germany for example, he'd be called a genoese even if he never even seen the sea. Similarly "Lombard" was the catch all term for Italian merchants outside of italy, even though a lot came from genoa and tuscany and not necessarily lombardy. (This is similar how the term viking was a catch all term for scandinavians pillaging europe, regardless if the were swedes, norwegians or danes).
4:36 whilst it is true to some extent that Longbows required training to be used (One needed to build up special muscles to use the longbow properly), It is a bit of a misnomer to say that the crossbow required little training. Sure for the average militia maybe an hour or two could have sufficed. But that could also have sufficed to get a "good enough" result also for regular bowmen. It's like comparing conscripts to professional soldiers in modern armies since they both use guns. Reload speed, accuracy, battle effectiveness increased with skill and time.
10:43 it is unfortunate that this is their most famous battle. It makes sense since this battle is known in the Anglosphere because it involved the english. But if you asked a Genoese, they might say that the battles of Curzola and Meloria at 7:28 were far more indicative (especially Curzola) and the various sieges of the Fondachi (Merchant quarters) all over the mediterranean show them off in a better light. Like the famous siege of Kaffa where the Genoese beat the Mongols during the siege (later plague not withstanding). In fact the mongols used the Genoese themselves against the Russians at Kulikovo Field.
Turaglas How did the arabs learn that the hard way exactly?
Modern historians don't believe that there were Genoese at Kulikovo in any meaningful quantity. First there was relatively few of them in Crimea to begin with. Second Kulikovo was a eastern cavalry battle, ill suited for the European warfare. Third, the account mentioning Genoese was written much later and describes the warfare tactics from the next century.
@Luis Aymerich *lonbow
Not all bows are the same
I understand that at one point Englishmen were required by law to spend Sunday afternoons training with the bow. The game of football was even banned at one time because it interfered with bow training. This contributed to their proficiency with the bow.
@Matti O watched them. That's why I wasnt talking about longbows.
Crece was a battle where the Noble Knights managed to "Snatch defeat from the Jaws of Victory".
Had they just waited for the gear and infantry to catch up - as well as the ground to dry - they could probably have defeated that position. Other examples include the "Battle of the Golden Spurs". And I think there was a similar one during a northern crusade?
@Joshua Paschal As if the Knights would care about that. Their stuff was save in fortifications that had been avoided.
If anything, it was that infantry that would be motivated by revenge.
Important to keep in mind that this was after the English had burnt, looted, and murdered their way across France. Hardly shocking the French might be eager to face them after that.
@Osvath97 Well, that probably means that I misremembered it, and it was that the French knights managed to reach English lines with no deaths or major injuries caused by longbows. I was also a bit afraid that I might have the results of Crecy and Agincourt confused, but I probably just messed up on the cavalry charge and the unmounted-knights-with-only-dead-horses charge.
@deektedrgg I am sorry, but that is not true at all. In fact, Crécy is known for having very few prisoners. The English reported 1542 dead knights on the French side. While it is true that fewer French knights may have died from being outright shot by the longbows than what is commonly held (though during Crécy full plate armour was still a bit rarer). What the longbows did was to disrupt the formation, especially by killing the horses, which is also dangerous for the riders. The ones who reached the frontline were locked in a vicious melee with dismounted English knights holding the frontlines, where many of the out-of-formation battered French knights died. Despite that, the French almost broke through in some places.
To be fair, as far as I know, based of English reports on how many knights were captured, *every knight* that attacked the English lines survived the longbow fire without major wounds and was able to reach, fight and eventually surrender to the English. So really, the French knights didn't really suffer much except the literal defeat that day.
The military has always been a way for the lower classes to improve their standing. From crossbow men, roman legionaries, and even today in the American military. I myself joined to do just that
You're right, sir.
@Cegesh 98 percent of all military will never see combat. However it does take a toll on your mental health even being state side but everything in life has pros and cons
@Cormano I'm 32 and it was the best thing I could have done. It gave me pride, confidence, and sense of self worth. It made me a strong worker and help me develop leadership skills. Also I seen much of east asia, lived in japan outside tokyo for 3 years and women love the uniform
Until you are wounded, crippled, or have ptsd. Quite a lot of U.S. veterans are now homless.
@🐐👽🐏 Pharaohs Magician You are correct about the Roman Empire having too many soldiers which caused the downfall. The legions basically bankrupted the Empire and caused inflation. Each successive Emperor had to debase the currency to provide pay that would keep soldiers happy. Not only that the Patrician class caused a severe rot. Rich land owners who enacted the Latifunda system and illegally confiscated farmland from the middle class (who served in the army during the republic era) caused the downfall and birth of Feudalism. You suddenly had many former middle class men and their families who were forced into urban centres. Because their new social status prevented them from joining the republican legions the Roman state had a manpower shortage and Marius later reformed the legions and allowed more poorer men to fight by as legionaries. Now the state had to arm their soldiers which caused more spending. The Roman state now fought wars to acquire more resources. The requirement to give veterans land after their service was unsustainable in the long term as well.
1:52 Origins
5:12 Mechanism & battle strategies
8:11 Battles
10:27 Battle of Crecy (1346)
Btw, "corps" is pronounced the same as "core."
It's a French word and my general rule for French origin words is just not to say the last sound as it's spelled. It's usually correct 95% of the time.
You nail it. Consonants are usually silent at the end of a word when preceded by another consonant.
It is pronounce core which is what has caused me so much hell in my younger years, especially as even college educated military officers would spell it as core.
@Cyberwar
Fine, but both are words whose pronunciation do not match their spelling.
I wonder how he pronounces colonel. 😄
This was fascinating. I became acquainted with Genoese crossbowmen recently in reading Iris Origo's "The Merchant of Prato," a biography of Francesco Di Marco Datini, 1335-1410 (published in New York by Knopf, 1957). Datini had a very long career as a merchandiser of various goods, first from Avignon, then from his home in Prato, and finally from Florence. Depending upon the destination, goods went either overland or by sea - and if by sea, there are frequent references to Genoese crossbowmen as protection on the ships, with the note that these warriors were highly regarded - and generally feared. Thanks so much for providing the background.
Turaglas And Origo reports Datini as writing that he hired Genoese crossbowmen.
Turaglas I don't remember if the Genoese required it or not, but if Datini shipped by sea, he usually used Genoa, so possibly that was a requirement of the Republic.
I knew crossbows where placed on the ground to reload, but I never realised they used a hook for it. Holy cow that's genius, using your hands you're still limited by the muscles in your forearm that need to grip the string, but with the hook you can use the full force of our body's strongest muscles in our upper legs.
i have seen similar methods to really tighten a knot, but this is really stupid simple and stupid effective. If only gunpowder hadn't been developed crossbows would probably have dominated wars to this day
The Grimaldi and Doria families still hold a great deal of importance to this day here. Why, I can just now peer out of the window and see a giant cruise ship with the name "Grimaldi" painted on it. xD
Well, the Grimaldi are still the ruling house of the Principality of Monaco
Yeah, and in the Hussite armies crossbows caused most ranged damage, with firearms responsible for sowing confusion and visible gruesome carnage. Jan Zizka knew his people and weapons well and used them to their best advantage, which is sign of competent commander
once again a very good video. good info, good presentation, good research, and most importantly: a good example how history should be presented on KZclip.
7:00 - That might explain why crossbows weren't mixed in with pikes very early in history. The pavisse carriers already had their own long spears? That would make it a sort of mixed formation of 50/50 crossbow/spears already.
the crossbows were first used to defend from static protected positions like walls and ships so they werent threatened by kngihts. the pavise were mainly vs enemy projectile fire they werent really spears that would threaten armoured knights. But the Crossbowbolts already did that so they werent sitting ducks like normal archers.
Ah yes; that was a question that I was asking for a long time, many theories but little to no real explanation of the reason of not incorporating crossbows abd spears. But you had archer with infantry already i guess it is similar.
Roman Seige Ballista huge with a draw weight of 4000-4500lbs. Steel Prod Windlass crossbows could have draw weights up to 4900lbs but only put 1250lb draw weights to increase reload or spanning speed as it was overkill. Steel was cheap enough for wealthy peasants of Geonese to finally afford them in the 13th century medieval era.
Ah finally Genoesse crossobowman. Despite their title i'm pretty sure they also serve as infantry due to their heavy armor. Will watch this eagerly.
The Persian Achemanids were some of the first professional army to use organized large shield bearing soldiers in combination with rows of archers behind them . The large shields provided cover while rows of archers switched continually to fire their arrows towards enemy lines
One thing to note is that the stirrup did not start to appear on crossbows until the early-mid 13th century, same with belt hooks.
It's always a good thing to see a new SandRhoman upload in my feed. Without a doubt your's is one of the best researched and presented history channels on youtube.
I frequently see people claiming that crossbowmen were superior to longbowmen, or that longbowmen were superior to crossbowmen. The simple fact is that which is "better" depends entirely on the battlefield conditions and the overall composition and leadership of the armies involved. In some circumstances longbowmen are clearly more effective than crossbowmen, and in some circumstances crossbowmen are clearly more effective than longbowmen. Anyone who tells you differently is an idiot who has no idea what they're talking about.
@Ailius crossbow required more training that an longbow
Longbow required strenght which could be learn in peace time, crossbow required military drilling which was harder to provide unless you could sustain a professional army
Anyone being playing age of empires 4 knows longbow counters cross bow, knights/men at arm counters longbow, and cross bow counters knights.
The difference is the soldier. The yeoman trained on the bow since childhood and thus had big beefy arms that could pull back big bows. But if you're a nation that doesn't have a militia culture and furthermore are hiring mercenaries for contracts that are a couple years, you don't have time to train them on a war bow. So you have to give them a machine that will draw the bow back for them - aka a crossbow.
In our modern world we like to focus on weapons. But back then the man was far more important than the tool.
@Alessandro Mazzini if an army's leadership is very familiar with the capabilities and shortcomings of crossbowmen, but not very familiar with the capabilities of longbowmen, then crossbowmen are a better choice because the leaders will be more able to use them effectively (and vice versa). Conversely, if the enemy army's leaders have never faced longbowmen and are unaware of their effective maximum range or rate of fire, but are very familiar with the range and rate of fire of crossbowmen, then longbowmen would be more effective against them. Context matters, and familiarity with specific weapons by commanders is part of that context. A weapon that is novel to the enemy leaders will be more effective than one that is not, because they will be less familiar with the best ways to counter it. That's part of the pros and cons of the weapons.
I tend to think that Longbows were more versatile Battlefield weapons (main advantage probably being rate of fire and range) - but required a lot more investment and training (pretty much a lifetime) for the Archer. Crossbows on the other hand, you could train troops to use them pretty competently (not necessarily master) in weeks, but you would be able to get get a pretty effective Crossbow unit in a pretty short amount of time.
However, where I think the Crossbow would be superior to the Longbow would be in Siege Warfare (which tended to be log and drawn out in comparison to field battles) due to the nature of being able to have a Crossbow in a 'ready' position pretty much indefinitely and ready to fire at any time a suitable opportunity appears because the mechanism takes all the strain at this point - Whereas a Longbow can't do that because the man takes all the strain and no-one is strong enough to hold the Longbow in that 'ready' position for any reasonable length of time (despite what films may show) :)
I never knew about Genoese crossbowmen before! That is awesome :D Thank you for sharing this. I'm gonna have to do some research now
This series is great for inspiring groups to use in D&D-campaigns
Exactly: genoese pavise crossbowman with crossbow expert and sharpshooter are one of best ways to play warrior.
Just imagine:
BBEG: "What's your powers"
Mage: "I cast spell"
Druid: "Nature power"
Cleric: "I am perfect healer"
You: "I AM GENOESE MOTHAFAKKA" (starts placing tower shield for +2AC and blasting everything with hand crossbow) 😂
Excellent video. One small note though. Corps is pronounced as "core" not "coreps". It is French so there are silent letters!
Neeeeeerrrrd
"Core" is pronounced "cor" not "core" no? English is rife with silent letters.
@SandRhoman History no worries, man. We all love your work, keep it up!
@Corner Carton i dunno where he is from but I think he is prolly Dutch or other European country. Definitely not English native speaker.
@michimatsch
Thank you for catching that! Correction made.
Wow this is good timing I've been watching loads that involved the Geonese crossbow men, and here's a new video to describe exactly who they were, thanks.
Possibly my favorite unique unit in Age of Empires II 😁
Unless you were fighting them.
At 8:28 you said Mamluks. However, In 1099 Jerusalem was governed by the Fatimi, they just conquered the city a few years ago. Maybe you want to use it instead of Slave soldier but The area of the Levant was mostly under the hegemony of Seljuks and Seljuks was not use Mamluks. They have their own soldier which called Gulam(slave soldier).
Could you do a video on the White Company? I remember reading a little about them working with Coucy in Italy at one point and they seemed to be a respected group of mercenaries as well.
It's worth mentioning that while a crossbow has vastly higher draw weight in comparison to a longbow, it is also vastly less effective at actually delivering power to the projectile, that being caused by shorter draw length. The same effect is known from modern firearms where longer barrel accelerates a projectile more before it leaves it. So, it's important to note that crossbows were not necessarily some armor piercing unstoppable knght killing monster in comparison with bows. The advantage of a crossbow is that it's more accurate, easier to aim, one can hold it on target and wait for ideal opportunity to shoot (keeping a war bow drawn for extentended duration may be physically impossible, dependiong on the weight and your strength), and does not need extensive physical strength (war bows required up to years of regular training for one to be strong enough to draw them). You can also lean over battlements with crossbows, while using bows from them can be cumbersome at best. The main disadvantage of a crossbow is way lower rate of "fire" (not a historical term) and possibly cost (a steel-armed crossbow would be, I imagine, more expensive than most longbows). It's fairly clear that both brought different compromises and as such, were preferred by different armies and in different contexts.
About the crossbow string argument... I find it incredibly silly. Rain HAPPENS. If it was able to disable your main weapon, wouldn't you have means of protecting it on you? Either the rain didn't affect the strings, or they had means of protecting them. Medieval people had less knowledge about the world, but they weren't impractical morons. What is well known is that whenever crossbowmen/bowmen have high ground, they have a massive advantage. They can shoot further, shoot over shields, and if they miss their target by overshooting, they stand chance of hitting the guy behind their target. Neither of that is the case when archers stand under their target.
Great video as always. I though thte St. George's cross was an English thing. Obviously another Sought-After Mercenaries you should do is the Gallowglass. If you need research material I have quite a few sources.
@Gallowglass not the English the plantagenets.
@Adora Based on what exactly?
@Monty Casper there is a 0% chance St George was a turk
It’s used today by the Republic of Georgia, which is of course named after St George and has a history of interaction with Genoa itself in the Black Sea, where Genoa had extensive colonial holdings
Talking about the teams of Crossbow men and Pavise holder, I wonder if you could get some kind of medieval drill going on.
I mean like having ranks of crossbowmen, who fire, then start reloading, and the one behind comes forward to fire. Have enough ranks so that the first rank has reloaded by the time it comes around to them again.
Another alternative is to have one crossbowman, and 2-3 helpers who reload crossbows for him, so that he can keep up a steady stream of fire.
Crossbowmen were required to "shoot between ranks" we don't really knows what this mean tho, prob manovring and shooting between 2 group of friendly units
Also what are you saying is not that useful because they did arch their fire a bit
I think most of the times were the shildbarer, the shooter and the charger, so you Need only 1 skilled men (the shooter) and have a High rate of fire
most interesting about them for me is the fact that they fought for the Golden Horde
As an archer i can tell you that bowstring wax defeats rain handily. No doubt these people had access to beeswax and coated their string liberally. Also, even thought composite bows were naturally more sensitive to weather again, they were usually covered with a linen cover infused with wax to protect them. Obviously the prod of the crossbow became less of a variable whe the switch to steel was made.
Actually, considering we know precisely that 1,542 French knights were killed at Crécy, that the Genoese crossbowmen probably numbered around 2,000, certainly not more than 4,000, and that the French infantry didn't take part in the battle, it is obviously completely impossible that the French suffered more casualties than these numbers added, let alone "15,000 casualties", which is the estimate of a pro-English contemporary source, and not at all the one of most historians.
And Clifford Rogers is strange because he claims the English were 15,000 and the French at least twice and maybe thrice larger, which would make between 30,000 and 45,000, which is highly unlikely.
@Andrea Scovano I wouldn't say I am a nationalist but I do indeed love my country’s history
@La Hire We can continue if you want lol
@Andrea Scovano I am u/DeRuyter67. Funny to see that we have become so (in)famous ;)
Nah
*Genoese crossbowmen* : take some steps back
*French knights* : « And I took that personally »
Genoese Luigi Giribetto (Louis Giribaut) invented rotating carriages to better maneuver culverins, really helping Jean Bureau in creating the poweful french artillery which won french war (despite the french vile massacre of genoese crossbowmen).
France: "I never said thank you".
Genoa: "And you'll never have to" (proceeds jumping into the void to defend Constantinople and discover America) 😎🏴
Loving your videos! Thanks so much for your work
Oh don't get me started on those bloody Genoese crossbowmen 😁😁 !!! Since vanilla Medieval 2 Total War through literally every mod they're a pain to deal with. Great killing power against nearly every unit and pretty tough in melee too.
Turaglas There are limits to usefulness with wide bows, though if you have a pavise to put the mini ballista on, it could work, but there is probably a reason why people did what they did, there often is.
@Carlos Valle important to know that draw weight means little if you don't know the length of the bow. A wide crossbow with less draw weight could send a bolt further and harder than a tiny bow with an insane draw weight. :)
Roman Seige Ballista huge with a draw weight of 4000-4500lbs. Steel Prod Windlass crossbows could have draw weights up to 4900lbs but only put 1250lb draw weights to increase reload or spanning speed as it was overkill. Steel was cheap enough for wealthy peasants of Geonese to finally afford them in the 13th century medieval era.
Excellent defensive unit, they should have been armed with a falcata and deployed as a stealth unit near the tree lines. Also what was Phillip thinking by not deploying artillery. Superior numbers does not convey advantage
It surprises me how often medieval battles were lost because the French knights were too overconfident and charged before everyone was ready.
Off the top of my head I believe I can think of three times including this one.
It also happened at the Battle of Halmyros, the Duke of Athens, Walter of Brienne (by birth, culture and arrogance very much a french nobleman) and most of his mounted knights were slaughtered when they recklessly charged against the defensive position set-up by the mercenaries of the Catalan Company, in hindsight it would had been cheaper to Walter to actually pay his mercenaries instead of trying to expel them by force of his dominions.
Virgin longbowmen hiding behind pallisades VS Chad mounted knight charging into certain death because it looks cool.
A famous unit...and a fantastic video, beautiful illustrations, maps and most interesting write up!👍👍😍😍😍
The fact that these were only 100 florins upkeep in Med II was completely broken. You could melt entire ranks of knights for pennies on the dollar.
Tod's Workshop have produced a video regarding the longbow and medieval knight armor. The longbow have some difficulties to penetrate the Knight's armor. Look at the video:
kzclip.org/video/DBxdTkddHaE/бейне.html
Well-made and well worth the time.
"The Pope has banned Crossbows against Christians!"
"The Pope? How many divisions does he have?"
Obvious joke is obvious but fitting.
In this time period...he had plenty of real world pull. Not so much in 1945
”The Pope: Many”🤌🇻🇦
I low my hat for the genoese crossbowmen,but i think you should also make a video on the Venicians Marines that conquers Constantinople end were the first to have some squads of knight that charge directly from the ship,thanks to special navy project.thanks to this forces Venice conquer all the Dalmatian coast city, a lot of Grece s islands,Cyprus and a big part of black sea s land!!!!!
Being considered a valuable enough soldier that I'm allowed to run away any time the enemy gets near enough to threaten me, sounds pretty good to me!
Where did you find your primary sources on the battle of Crecy? I am trying to research the hundred years war, particularly the lesser known battles.
knights, they're the meme of fighting a battle to lose the war. ignore commands, need a squad's upkeep, mutiny's and tantrum prone, insufferably pompous, and stupid. they're lucky they were in the same hierarchy as the guys writing to give them hype and downplay their losses.
Patay, Ascalon, Antioch, Cerami, Mohi, Kressenbrunn, and many other battles saw the devastating effects of a heavy shock charges by knights. It's rather ridiculous to say that the finest troops in medieval Europe and the closest thing they had to a professional soldier was somehow ineffective... these tactics were so common because of how successful they were.
I agree with all of that, and yet, when they were good, they were really good. I think of the Normans conquering Southern Italy with often sub 1000 knights in their armies, more like 200-300. Even going to far as to invade the Byzantine Empire. And knights in the Crusades made an outsized difference, in limited numbers.
If they could act rationally and pragmatically, then they were a force multiplier that could decide battles on their own. IF... :D
Were there any repercussions to the French actions against the Genoese in Crécy? To my surprise, the Genoese kept serving under French after that battle...
Genoese Luigi Giribetto (Louis Giribaut) invented rotating carriages to better maneuver culverins, really helping Jean Bureau in creating the poweful french artillery which won french war (despite the french vile massacre of genoese crossbowmen).
France: "I never said thank you".
Genoa: "And you'll never have to" (proceeds jumping into the void to defend Constantinople and discover America) 😎🏴
They were mercenaries. It's a tough job, for exactly such reasons.
The palio is a crossbow contest still in place in most of Liguria and Toscana.
In the Comunal time The palio where you best chance to show to a recruiter from Genova u had skin for the job.
Seeing this wonderful video makes me very proud about carrying brave Ligurian blood in my veins. Scignorîa!
At 4:43 you talk about pope urban banning the use of the crossbow in 1139. But by then he had been dead for 40 years. Just wanted to point that out. Great video!
Yup. Unfortunately there's weird little pockets of misinformation in these videos. Like the misconception that archers fired arrows up in an arc in volleys, which simply isn't true. The arrows/bolts would be useless shot that way.
Pope Urban II literally went “OMG crossbows OP plz nerf!”
Ah yes the bane if every archer in the early game of M2TW. the pavise genoese crossbowmen.
You couldn't have the Common Man piercing the armor of a Noble Knight.
These Mercenaries were well drill and I think it would surprise us how efficient they were.
But it shouldn't.
The Human mind is a deadly weapon
Another excellent video, informative and entertaining
One thing confuses me about these foreign armies in different lands
How often was a language barrier a major issue?
If you need to give complex orders, how do you communicate to peoples from far lands and different languages?
You need to remember that commanders and officers in those days happen to mostly be noble men, as such educated men in most cases. Most of them spoke many languages including Latin and whatever “in” language of the time was in use.
Maybe trasleters?
The commanders spoke different languages
8:27 Small correction, they would be fighting the Fatimids during the First Crusades. The Mamluks wouldn't emerge into history until the 13th century, after they overthrew the Ayyubids, who in turn got rid of the Fatimids.
Other than that, superb video as always.
Do not get confused! The fatamids used Mameluks as soldiers.
The use of these "slave-soldiers" was a stable of most muslim rulers.
What a coincidence, I just closed Medieval 2 playing Milan campaign, those guys wreck everything
So basically these guys were early musketeers. Also 14:08. . they have the high ground Anakin!
Great video, very interesting. Only unpleasant aspect was the butchering of all Italian names :D
If you made a video on military tents, I would watch it.
In case people don't realize, it takes actual years to train a longbow user, a crossbow has a much more simply point and shoot mechanism which takes up some of the work the actual archer would do. You don't have to hold a drawn bowstring, your front arm or supporting arm can be stabilized such as resting the elbow along the top of a wall which helps increase accuracy. You have a much more direct flight which means less aiming vertically and more bolts on target since you have an easier time working out your drop and that also presents less time in the air for the arrows or bolts to be shifted off course. War bows are cool and have had some great success but let's not turn smooth brains here are start screaming how amazing a longbow is. It's not even the best of the war bows. What made the English longbow (not actually English) so useful was the fact that the English started cultural trends around how archery was a gentlemens sport which got more English men into practicing consistently with the longbow. Besides 3 to 6 months of training vs 2 years at minimum and you can see how good crossbows actually are as weapons. Though I suspect that maintaining them was probably a bit more stressful than a bow. I mean the catholics ban crossbows and so did a few kingdoms because 6 month trained crossbow men can kill a knight pretty easy and losing a knight who spent years of training to a farmer simply because of the weapon made many high ranking people worried.
@Artyom Arty your comments riddled with ignorance and misinformation.
@Stylesheet RA thats a good point. So you're saying it takes long to train to shoot a crossbow because you train discipline and tactics?
@C Z you didnt need perfect aim in war and "volley" is a Hollywood myth in the middle ages.
It existed in china but even there It was conditional (like crossbowmen were taught to shot as fast as they could when cavalry was approaching)
@Artyom Arty longbows were peasant weapons, every one could stand still and shot Arrow from afar
Crossbowmen required drilling and professionalism which was rarer in europe (meanwhile It was the norm in china)
The problem is the same as early firearms, people that werent trained werent able to shoot at close distance without breaking nor new how to move so they dont shot friendly units in the back
what mapping software did you use to make the map at the 13 min mark? Thanks!
Nice, also do you guys plan to cover sling weapons and their famous wealders any time soon. Since it's really underapreatiated weapon....
Maybe rodian slingers
not anytime soon, I think. Invicta has done a video on the Balearic slingers (ancient Rome).
Balearic slingers anyone... 🤔
“We believe in crossbows in this household!”
Turaglas “Only polearms and crossbows are believed under my roof!”
Good job. Enjoyed it. Thank you.
Yesterday I was searching infromation about pavise and discovered Genoese crossbowmen so it's perfect timing
Try playing Medieval 2 Total War and you can control 1000's of them on a battlefield !
My only thing with this video is that the pavise shield wasn’t introduced until the 14th century so the Genoese Crossbowmen would have been without this for at least half if not most of their history.
This was unexpected yet very interesting
They were present in Siege of Constantinople by Mehmed II I belive and fought incredibly well!
@Hop On pop lol
The Byzantines and Genoese where allied for years they both shared a hatred of Venice.
Great video, very intresting topic and nice illustrations.
Genoese Crossbowmen: To victory of death! For the Republic!
Genoese Luigi Giribetto (Louis Giribaut) invented rotating carriages to better maneuver culverins, really helping Jean Bureau in creating the poweful french artillery which won french war (despite the french vile massacre of genoese crossbowmen).
France: "I never said thank you".
Genoa: "And you'll never have to" (proceeds jumping into the void to defend Constantinople and discover America) 😎🏴
@lerneanlion and in the Principality of Monaco, Corsica (Bonifacio), Sardinia (Carloforte), Gibraltar
@Brainy Skeleton of doom Thanks for the information!
@lerneanlion a romance language used in liguria, historical language of the republic
@Brainy Skeleton of doom This is the first time I heard of this language. What is it?
I'm looking everywhere but I can't seen to find the following information:
how were medieval crossbows transported? did they had bandoliers? did they held the crossbows like spearmen were expected to carry their weapons? I've read in a game that it can be carried on hooks on the belt, but, well... game...
something something Total War
something something pronounced "core"
something something love your videos, please make more!
Me: S…see your honor, I’ve always been into medieval stuff…
Concerned Family Members: Uh huh
Me: And, watching this AND hiring Genoese Crossbowmen to besiege our noisy neighbor is just a natural progression of my interest
Concerned Family Members: what
Going against these dudes in MII:TW when they had the high ground was an absolute PITA.
Pepperidge Farm remembers...
Very interesting video, thank you!
Any yet almost 6 centuries later in the same general area of Crecy armies made the same mistake where instead of long bows, machine guns and heavy artillery creates 100x the carnage.
In my M2TW games, they're my most sought after arrow targets because they're so annoying.
6:30 wearing a breastplate in the 13th century?? Is that accurate. I thought that would be more toward the mid 14th century and 15th century. In the 13th century they would be most likely wearing a helmet with chainmail or a gambeson.
Unfortunately there's tons of misinformation in sandrhoman videos. Idk who does the research before the videos, but they're not good at it.
Turaglas agincourt was in 1415 so 15th century and common soldiers would have access to better armour but not in the 13th century. Plate armour didn’t really start to get made and used by nobility/knight until late 13th century early 14th century during the transitory armour phase.
It is not correct. The longbow was usless against the french armor (even you said so). The dismounted knighs of the english army could handle very easy the mounted knights in the defenses of Crecy
Made me think about how a mounted crossbowman operates I mean you're in a horse with a crossbow.
Those suckers saved a lot of my medieval 2 campaigns.
Armour penetration isn't the thing, at least plate armour, vs chain and gambesons maybe. When shot, even biggest ones with pulleys are about as strong as warbows, most of the power goes to the steel bow of the system, not the shot, even if the power needed to pull it is a lot bigger than the warbow. Also the bolts are generally lighter than the arrows, so the momentum of the bolt vs the arrow were about the same when comparing the strongest ones. The "armour piercing" thing comes mostly from role playing games, and if a crossbow bolts are characterized armour piercing, so should the warbow arrows.
The short limbs of crossbow limit the acceleration given to the bolt
Piercing force of average crossbow bolt is rather debatable. Especially statement that bolt was better than arrow in any way (of course you can use f ballista after all its crossbow like. But on battlefield usually were used rather fast reloud range weapons, for example "small" crossbows with draw just like war bows had). Another popular claim, that bolt has better shape to pierce is also not exactly true. Guess what? There were many different types of arrowheads and boltheads for different uses. But yeah bowman need to be trained much longer than crossbowmen just because needed muscles strength. Also crossbow is more handy. You can carry it loaded and drawn all the time. But is harder to shoot it in rain. You need to keep strings dry. And bowstring is much easier to hide under big brimmed hat than that crossbow one.
*Crossbowmen when the firearms becomes popular*
« Il will not be replaced by a musketman, neither my crossbow will be replaced by these new weapons, its temporary »
Quite ironically, the Cretan Archers will last a bit longer, if i remember
Cbman can shoot further than muskets
4:44 Pope Innocent II presided over the ban in 1193. Urban II (the First Crusade guy) died in 1099.
I believe "corps" is pronounced the same way as "core," not "corpse" :)
What i understand from this video is that English culture has a very powerful PR office.
I need to learn how to properly use these units in MTW2
Loving these videos!
Me too ! Especially as many of these historical units show up in the Total War series of games which i play all the time.
Is there good sources of information about the cost of a crossbow versus a musquet?
They STILL have Awesome skills, even at night, when you invade Genoa you get pinned..LOL
Curiousity stream looks great, but I am looking for some kind of resource for my stepfather who is rapidly losing his eyesight. He has many interests such as history and science. He may not be able to get the most out of curiosity stream, but maybe one of you all knows of a similar service that would work better for very limited eyesight. Thanks for your suggestions in advance
I‘d say audible (for e-books) and podcasts (pretty much all apps work, i use Spotify and the apple podcast app). Also, youtube itself is good for podcasts / discussion based formats. I found myself listening to the Hoover institute in the last couple of months.
Another great one!
You can’t be sponsored by curiosity stream without being part of nebula