Impprovements to the Arcuballista

Frank sat in the lecture hall of his medieval history course. At the moment, his professor was speaking of the importance that crossbows and crossbowmen had on the high medieval battlefields. On the board was a diagram of how crossbows functioned. Which the professor prattled on about.

"Crossbows, in case you were unaware, were essentially bows that faced sideways and were mounted to a wooden stock, also known as a tiller. Early on, the bows were fastened into the tiller via a rope, but around the year 1400 AD, the Europeans invented the bow iron. Which was an iron reinforcing wedge that kept the bow in place, usually through a retaining pin.