A quick look on the web suggests crossbows were developed in Roman times (and earlier in China) and came into wide use by 1000 CE; that plate armor was in use by 1250; that there was an arms race between mail and bow (cross and long), lost by armor; that the middle age crossbow range was 200-400 meters; that the Chinese developed self-loading repeating crossbows circa 1800; that javelins, used in part because a javelined shield was unwieldy, had a range of 10-15 meters. I imagine that Dragaerans, being stronger than Easterners, would use the longbow until a gatling crossbow was developed. But swords are more exciting to read about. - Philip On Tue, 14 Jan 2003 rone at ennui.org wrote: > Philip Hart writes: > Look, I could have made this entire argument with crossbows. > The fighting in _Dragon_ would have made no sense if one side had them. > Who cares? > > I thought crossbows were developed to defeat plate armor. Since > sorcery has already defeated plate armor, why develop crossbows? > > rone > -- > "Alan Alda's all we are." > - Kurt Cobain >