Talk:Longbowman (Age of Empires III)/@comment-5814271-20160621123318/@comment-2602:306:CE29:B0D0:9165:4709:DF4F:53BF-20191206131133

The whole "Bodkin arrows pierce plate armor" is a myth that has been debunked time and again. Add to that the fact that 17th century plate armor was twice as thick as medieval armor, required around four times the kinetic energy to peirce, and could stop anything short of a falconet... and you can see why the longbow's days were numbered.

I haven't seen a proper test of Gothic and Maximilian armor against the modern 5.56mm rifle round, but I'm betting it would stop those bullets as well, as they could stop a .75 caliber musket shot well enough. Armor of that caliber was simply too expensive to mass produce, which was the only reason it fell out of use.