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Along with Ironworking, the Composite Bow as a major breakthrough in military technology, letting iron tipped arrows be shot faster and more than twice as far as older models of bow . For all of that it was more physically demanding. The newly emergent Southern Warrior Kingdom exploited this by encouraging archery among it's subjects, primarily by sending agents out to find and select the best bowmen from around the kingdom to join the King's elite corps of Elite Heavy Archers. Clad in bronze armor (which is still considered to be better than iron armor), they and their families were relocated to the capital city in times of peace where they would drill and go on patrol and their wives and children would live in comfort at the King's expense, and would be on hand as leverage if a unit rebelled. They could reign volley after volley of death on their foes at two hundred meters and hold their own if enemy forces got in close. They would stand and fight where other units would flee. They numberedat their height and while they were outnumbered by more than ten to one when compared to what the Kingdom's vassal cities could raise , these Elite Heavy Archers were a foe that nobody wished to face in battle.