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      CommentAuthorsanguine
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2013
     
    I've done a good amount of research on this question, but I never found a definitive answer. I figured some of you guys would know a lot about stuff like this, and i really couldn't think of anyone else to ask.

    I'm writing about a structure that's extremely tall, and it features crenel-less walls because arrows can't reach the top of it. I want to know 1) how high an arrow from a bow in the middle ages can feasibly travel if shot by a strong, well-trained archer, and 2) if the concept of having a building too tall for arrows to reach the top is horrendously far-fetched and unrealistic.

    Thanks in advance :)
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      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2013
     

    The generally accepted effective distance for an English longbow was about 200 yards, which is equal to about 182 metres, or twice as high as the Statue of Liberty (about the same height as the proposed Statue of Unity in India). In 1549 the tallest tower in the world was Lincoln’s Cathedral, at 159 metres, but when that fell down St Mary’s Church tower, at 151, became the tallest until 1647.

    It is interesting to note that until the Eiffel Tower in 1889, the tallest tower in the world was never more than 159 metres. And you can hardly use the Eiffel as a fortified defensive structure.

    Hope that helps, but I’ve been assuming a medieval setting. More details about available technology in your world, especially with regard to meterials (e.g. do they have access to steel support beams?), would be great.

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      CommentAuthorsanguine
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2013
     
    Available technology is similar to what was available in the middle ages (though I do stretch some things, for instance a lot of interior imagery describes later eras like renaissance and baroque). They do not have access to steel support beams. The building I have in mind is made of sandstone, and I was thinking of making it around nine hundred feet high and sixty feet wide (it's a wall that covers the gap between two mountains). I don't mind stretching reality a little bit to render the top of it unreachable for arrows.
    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2013
     

    maybe they have really pathetic bows? That would be a believable fault.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPryotra
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2013 edited
     

    It could be before the longbow was made, and there could be the kind of stigma against archery that some people had about it being a ‘coward’s weapon’. I think it matters what part of the middle ages that you’re talking about. Like, the 1200’s or the 1500’s? There’s a world of difference between how the two fought.

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      CommentAuthorsanguine
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2013
     
    Well I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but my world does feature battering rams, trebuchets, and catapults. I'm not sure at what year that would put it. I actually do like the idea of the 'coward's weapon' thing. In the area where the wall is, the people certainly do have a deep reverence for swordfighting, so I could definitely put that concept into the story. Thanks a lot for the input!
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      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2013
     

    The 200 yards thing is over flat ground, though, right? Wouldn’t shooting upward shorten the distance somewhat, due to the effects of gravity?

    And English longbows were pretty much the top as far as bows went in Europe at the time, so an inferior type of bow could have a shorter distance (but it’d still go pretty far).

    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2013
     

    True, it wouldn’t be 200 yards directly upwards, but against real historical towers it would only need to go 160 feet upwards. Or into the nearest window, covered in flaming pitch-soaked rags.

  1.  

    As far as I know, historically, there was no real stigma about archery. It just wasn’t as effective as many people like to make it sound. Crossbows could be far more powerful than bows, especially ones made for sieges.