Does anyone think it would work to give Gondorians crossbows?

I know they aren't in the book but I feel that they would have had them as the Normans already had crossbows when they invaded England.

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The Uruk-Hai and Iron Hills dwarves have them, so theoretically some Gondorian people in universe could have picked up crossbows.

If you wanted to use Gondor crossbow men in friendly games you could use the crossbow rules for those forces (strength four weapon, can't move and shoot) and maybe just add 1 point to the cost of a Gondor bowman.

I don't think there'd ever be official models/profiles for this though as we didn't see it in the film.

That's what I was thinking, plus I don't see why the Gondorians would not have crossbows since the Numenoreans had them.

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Its always darkest before it goes completely black

I would have expected the Gondorian Regular Army to use crossbows in defence of the cities and walls rather than longbows. An archer using a longbow exposes quite a lot of himself when shooting especially if shooting downwards close in to the wall. The crossbowman can easily hide behind cover (benefitting from resting the weapon) while he can also shoot from loopholes and even prone (though reloading prone is more diffcult). The crossbowman may also have a couple of loaders passing him a loaded weapon then reloading ready for another shot.

So I can see Gondorians, the fiefdoms and the regimented Isegard Uruk Hai using crossbows particularly when defending fortifications. Maybe garrison troops use crossbows mainly and the field army uses longbows and crossbows in different units.

In history the crossbow shoots mainly as a direct fire weapon (like a rifle) while at longer ranges the longbow is more indirect (like a field gun) for plunging aea shooting and direct fire at short range.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Plus none of the figures I am using as Gondorians have longbows, only crossbows.

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Its always darkest before it goes completely black