See this picture: Tell us what happened in your trading...

First association.

Also :



What actually happened, Alexander hired ~200 saracen (?) riders, that would be trained in riding the horse since they were 3 y.o.
Those guys could hit the targets from a ~200 yards away (~180 meters)

Before battle begun, em archers made their way into the front of Macedon phalanxes and took out the elephant riders and kept shooting into elephant heads/eyes.
(Each elephant has only one-permenant rider since he is born)
Elephants went crazy and started to attack their own.

Ain't historically accurate, but love the movie.
And what kind of a man he was.

 

Here is actual untouched footage of some of that battle.

 

Mongol archers: "hold my kumis (fermented horse milk)..." I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that Yabusame had roots in the Mongolian horseback archery tradition.

These guys reach 500+ meters, and the world record holder - not Mongolian himself, but using a Mongolian bow - went to 566.83m.

 

That's about 1/4th of a mile. Long enough to start a war. Dayum.

 

There's a story from Poland about Mongolians invading and sacking a city because they shot the guard who was supposed to raise the alarm from 600 meters. On horseback. Through a small window in a tower. That one's a bit difficult to credit, but the Mongolians also kept records of their competitions from the ancient times, and there was supposed to be this guy who won pretty much all of them when he was competing - because he could usually hit targets at that distance.

Between that, their "Parthian" tactics, and Subeddei - one of the greatest generals who ever lived - they rolled over Europe and much of Asia, and (if I recall correctly) killed a higher percentage of the world population than anyone managed to since. Retail, 'cause they didn't have nukes or even artillery in those days. Also created libraries and universities, and afforded safe travel and freedom of religion to the people they ruled (to the degree that people in that age saw as absolutely revolutionary.) Quite the interesting period in history.


Mongol Empire at its greatest extent:

 

There seems to be at least one of those in every war in history. Some folks are just meant for precision killing.