Orc Archers - NEED HELP QUICKLY!

[erulisse]

I'm calling on my fellow lizards on behalf of one of my beta authors. She has a story where some Mirkwood elves are going against a larger orc band and is claiming that the orc band had "many" archers with them. I am certainly familiar with Uruk-Hai having some archers, but I didn't think that bows were their weapon of choice or that there ever were many archers among orc bands. Since we try to have a chapter a week published, I would appreciate your comments on this question of orc archers.

Do they have archers? What percentage of orc warriors would you think would be archers? She said to check with my "experts" and you are my experts. (I couldn't find anything specific in HoME, but I may not have checked the correct section/volume.)

- Erulisse (one L)

[Morthoron]

Orcs used bows and arrows in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs (Thrain II lost an eye), and Sauron's forces assailed the armies of the Last Alliance with 'bolts and darts' during the siege of Mordor. They might not have been pretty Elvish bows, and certainly not long bows perhaps, but Orkish archers would certainly be used whenever possible to halt an enemy charge at a distance.

Archers as a percentage of Orkish warriors? There is no real precedent to define such a percentage.

[russandol]

I don't see whay Orcs could not have bows, even if they might not reach the height of "technology" of those from Lorien. If I can make arrows I am sure an Orc could too!

Even poor archers can cause a lot of damage if there are lots of them roughly aiming arrows at a particular spot.

Unfortunately I haven't got the time this morning to search for references, I will this evening if I can. But I would say Sauron and his minions would not be as stupid as to forgo long-rage, cheap, almost diy weapons. ;D

[erulisse]

Thank you, your comments make a great deal of sense. I'll tell her that Orcs most probably would use short bows and not have the accuracy that Elves and Men would tend to have. It's just a small part of a battle that has the Orcs using arrows, before the Elves have to return to ground level and fight with blades, but I didn't want to be incorrect if we said that they were using bows.

- Erulisse (one L)

[thelauderdale]

Poking around the old threads, and randomly,

"I'll tell her that Orcs most probably would use short bows and not have the accuracy that Elves and Men would tend to have."

Okay, so I guess I can understand why they wouldn't have the accuracy of Elves (because Elves are so superior and all of that) but why wouldn't they have the accuracy of Men? Certainly I imagine that goblin archers would be better in the dark.