User blog comment:Ekreture/Ashigaru vs Yeoman Archer/@comment-4098900-20140722173431/@comment-4661256-20140727001239

Now you're changing the whole point of your argument, Hawk. "I'm sure they were trained well," you say, contradicting your earlier statement that they were a bunch of "not so skilled black powder gunmen." That aside, their weapons are not really as "inherently inaccurate" as you like to pretend. First of all the Tanegashima has sights on it, meaning you can aim at your target, but even more importantly they are trained to specifically use that weapon successfully on a battlefield - they're going to know how to use a musket properly. And as far as accuracy is concerned, watch Hernan Cortez vs. Ivan the Terrible again. Finally, you are dead wrong about the whole "Ashigaru won't reach melee" thing. If it was army on army, yes, I can see your point with thousands of arrows raining down on the Ashigaru, but simply put, five arrows is not enough to blanket the enemy squad and hold them down. Add in a few dead Longbowmen and that "volley fire" you're pretending exists gets even more pathetically tiny.