"Scorpion" Regiment Crossbowman (5e Fighter Champion re-skin)
by Marc SaindonThis is a basic crossbowman, inspired by the almanach's mention of the 4th and 5th regiments of the 12 army divisions of the Ochalean army. In canon, these guys are longbowmen, but I've made a change to incorporate part of the 1007 AC secession of Ochalea from the Thyatian Empire.
Historically, China had crossbows since the Zhou dynasty, and even stranger models such as the repeating crossbow (which sacrifices impact for rate of fire), so giving Ochalea crossbows isn't far-fetched. The reasoning behind this is both to give them a distinctive feel, and present an in-game reason for the shift from longbow to the crossbow: quarrels have better armor-piercing capacities against armored Thyatian legions.
Officially, the closed circle of Ochalean generals who prepared the "order 66" passed it on as a memo complaining that "if you want to train an archer, you have to start with his grandfather", stating that because competent archers take longer to train, it would be more efficient to outfit troops with crossbows for which they don't have to develop the body muscles and techniques as much as just push a trigger (and in mass combat, a rain of bolts doesn't need much aiming or precision). Although they would sacrifice range, the crossbowmen could replenish their ranks more quickly.
The first crossbows were bought from Minrothad, reversed engineered, and then improved upon. Folks started calling them "scorpion bows" (not to confused with the scorpion siege engine) because of a somewhat similar appearance. Ochalea still keeps a few regiments of traditional longbowmen, but most of them are phased out based on the recruitment efficiency claim.
The real design of these units is to pierce Thyatian armor, and as the bolt pushes the metal of the armor with it in the wound, it creates rather incapaciting injuries that need to be tended to if the legionnaire survives (thus treating the serious injury also adds a burden to Thyatian healers). Even in a world of hit points and cure spells, it still takes a toll of Thyatian resources. Of course, that true reason isn't spoken of in public.
Crossbowmen are giving some training in alternating shooting with standing & crouching rows, and cooperating with the pikemen of light infantry for "pike and shot" tactics to counter both cavalry and infantry in the rock-paper-scissors approach to the battlefield.
(The choice of the scorpion is partially inspired by Mortal Kombat. Obviously.)
(image from: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J8KdchB-1RA/VSTcmRyDMqI/AAAAAAAB8u4/k8RMnpRlNy4/s1600/2.jpg)