Dan Howard wrote: |
Every culture has accounts of men who could shoot powerful bows, but has anyone other than the English ever managed to put together enough of these individuals to deploy the weapon en masse and developed specific tactics for it? |
The ancient Chinese managed that sometimes and all Central Eurasian powers.
In China from time to time armed border peasant militias were allowed, who also provided the army with the much sought after archers. Because bow-archers were often not enough, a large portion could additionally have a crossbow stock to make operating the same bow easier. Finding out the exact composition from the sources is difficult, but in practice the crossbows were more relevant. Massed crossbow formations are known from Scandinavia and far easier to get than massed bows.
Korea during the Imjin War seemingly had massed archery, but not with the outstanding strength requiring tools the British deployed.