Age of Strategy Forums

An elf stole dwarve's tech and fused it with elven tech to create a crossbow that works for eleves. Yey!

Active effects: Ignore Armor (works both melee and range armor.)
Health:11
Dmg: 5
Range: 5
Turn: 4 (or 3)
Armor:0
Bonus damage: works like normal archers

Since humans and orcs have anti armor mages, why not an elf with ignore armor effect.

elves already ignore armor with powerrange techs (precision shot and fencing techs)

anyway I wouldn't think a crossbow will be good for elves (in terms of flavor), maybe for rising sun elves later.

Nope even samurai were proficient in bows and arrows (unless the eastern theme is related to china)

Ohhh, I didn't know that. Ty.

Did it say that in the description. I feel like it doesn't say anything, last time I check it.

I believe it was only mentioned in the forum and not in game.

Going by normal fantasy Elves and dwarves

Elves would never do that due to pride and hatred for dwarves ( Dwarves dislike Elves also )

Actually not because of that but because elves are superior masters of bows (supposed to be at least). And their bows are usually better than sometimes others crossbows.

Not everyone is getting crossbowmen anyway, for example scaledfolks can't because it's 1. Too sophisticated, 2. Difficult to use based on their body structure, 3. They prefer the weapons they have currently which are more quicker to use. Same goes for elves sort of except for elves it is too slow, difficult to load, heavy, and limiting. The bow is more ideal.

Races that could use crossbows despite those downfalls would be races that aren't bent on agility and nimbleness. Basically:
Dwarves who use them because bows are difficult for them to wield.
Humans who use them to deal with armoured enemies and the such.
Orcs (this is were it gets finicky) though it would be sub races that use them like hobgoblins (more inginuitive and stronger then common goblins) and uruks (mordor and especially isengard were very industrial, and making unique contraptions such as these was their specialty)
Undead (also has its restrictions) phantoms (who being ghosts could simply make the crossbow auto load itself without much struggle while the phantom gets the bolt ready) and some undead that aren't skeletons (skeletons lack muscle, making it impossible to load such contraptions or even carry them).

Elves do have the means of creating crossbows without the need of dwarves blueprints but elves eye sight are good enough to the point were they can just see the openings in ones armour and pierce it, might try looking into different styles of bows though because elves are sure to have those.

well I believe that the bow have always been given to the elves as it was considered a weapon used out of finesse than strength (that's why many female characters were often equipped with bows).

In truth bows aren't a great weapon unless you are actyally strong and thus able to use that strength to pull a bow made from a material with a high resistance. Elves are, in the best cases, described to be strong like humans with a light to average build and they shouldn't really be better than the average man in using those kind of weapons.

Of course we use their accuracy as a way to justify the fact they are great archers but that wold be the same if they went for crossbows.

In general I consider the crossbow a weapon more fit for those races who relies on technology or can't use bows for some reasons (e.g. dwarves' heigh would not allow to use easily a big bow and thus a crossbow is a far better option).

I think that a race of big/strong creatures (e.g. orcs or lizardmen) wouldn't mind using a crossbow as they can use a bow pretty efficiently (at least in terms of damage) while smaller creatures might benefit more from it (goblins or hobbits, for example).

As for undeads I think that a crossbow requires more manteinance than a bow and since their basic units are mostly reanimated I wouldn't give it to them (phantoms, of course, are a different kindof unit).

Agreed.