I'm a little confused about damage caused by bows and crossbows. Table on page 9.3 seems to base both on "punch damage" but "Military Innovation" paragraph on page 7.2 suggests some constant damage for crossbows. There are also some references for minimal strength needed to draw both weapons, is it the same as the one listed in notes in weapon table? Last thing is the time needed to draw a crossbow, page 7.2 explains how is it adjusted by cranequin but I can't find what is the "base time" anywhere. I'd be very grateful if you could explain it here or point me to some page in the rules (though I searched the document multiple times and believe it is not there).

I've got a few minutes to deal with posts this morning, and then it is back to the grind.

Bows and crossbows have as "strength" which is the minimum strength needed to pull a bow or crossbow. The damage is constant, regardless of your strength. You cannot pull it back further or harder to get extra damage.

But since it uses a person's strength to pull it back, I use strength as the way of describing its damage.

Thanks for clearing this out. May I nag you a little more about rules for bow and crossbow reload times?

It is subjective, but similar to reloading a bullet or clip.

1) grab arrow (grab clip)
2) load arrow (load clip)
3) draw back bow (cock weapon)

The last step is the one where time is a factor, especially for crossbows, and it will vary. A crossbow can have a Strength greater than yours, which usually implies something to help you get a strength multiple, like both hands, a foot brace, a winch, etc. You can usually just add a time level or some function of a time level to your strength to get the extra bonus as a quick and dirty game mechanic. I have not determined the exact method yet.

example: You have Strength 6. You can spend +3 time to cock a Strength 9 crossbow after you have loaded an arrow into it.

This abstracts the various leverage advantages without having to write up a special case for each one.

admin wrote:

And this is exactly the time I'm looking for I can find guidelines about reloading standard clip weapon, a black powder one and there is a discussion in the rules about speeding up reloading a crossbow but I can't find no mention how quick can you do it if you are simply strong enough. I can of course assume something on my own but I'm too lazy not to want (and request from you ) having it in the book. Going back to being serious: I think it is missing from the rules.

This game is pretty detailed, and it is odd that there are no hard and fast rules for this.

LT. XBow - 1 second (round) to reload - fires every other round
Hvy. XBow - 2 seconds (rounds) to reload - fires every 3rd round

It may not be very accurate but it's pretty consistent with numerous other games.

I think that the "hard & fast" rules would be genre-dependent and outside the scope of the main rules. After all, there are crossbows you can pull with once hand or with a built-in lever, those that require two hands and a footrest, those that use a gear-driven crank and those that use a windlass and pulleys. It is going to be a differential between the strength of the user, whether you are using one or both hands (Strength -1d or Strength) the strength of the bow and the leverage of the cocking mechanism, which will end up giving you some amount of time.

Does anyone feel like tackling the subject in a way that can be generalized into:

your adjusted strength + factor based on time level = strength for cocking the bow

If it is short and elegant enough I might find space to cram it into the EABA v2 main book.

I think that's one thing where the telescoping timescale makes things tricky. In the initial rounds, it matters as to how long it takes to load and fire a crossbow. After the first couple of rounds, it isn't really an issue.