Arbalest Infantry
"It is not drawn with the right hand, ... but by placing the feet upon the weapon itself, and pulling with the whole force of the body; and it despatches arrows called bolts, of hard wood pointed with iron, which the strength of the bow can send through the strongest breastplates, and even through stone walls, where not of uncommon thickness."
— Walter Scott, Count Robert of Paris, Ch 5
In game[edit | edit source]
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Light infantry unit with medium-powered range, able to take out slow-moving targets but must be protected from cavalry and light infantry.
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| Prereq: | Build time | HP | LOS | Attack | Attack speed | Movement speed |
Upgrade of | |||
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9.3s (139t) |
90 | 11 | 16 | 2.7s (40t) |
26 |
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| Cost | Created from | Armour | Weapon range | Specialty | ||||||
| Base | Ramp | Pop | ||||||||
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1 | 
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0 | 2–15 |
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The ultimate crossbow, the arbalest is a crossbow with a mechanised reloading system that makes reloading and firing even easier than ever. Previously, crossbows would have to be reloaded manually by forcing back the drawstring to cock the weapon before reloading, wearing out users immediately. Yet, despite the obvious implications of so useful a mechanism, widespread adoption of this weapon would require a greater deal of centralised control than what a pure feudal system could offer as regards to production and adoption. In fact, it can be argued that any warrior carrying an arbalest is like a mini-springald - the range and power of this weapon are so extreme that arbalests are considered as highly unfair weapons.
Yet such power comes at a price. Despite its added range and attack, which can even take down cavalry in one shot, arbalests have one major disadvantage: their reload speed. While crossbowmen and archers can be expected to continue firing as they will, the arbalest is so slow that without proper supervision, the lack of coordination between units will easily doom arbalest infantry to being slaughtered before they can decimate the foe's ranks sufficiently.
