Why is the middle finger considered an obscene gesture? The answer has to do with English longbowmen and the Hundred Years’ War. Medieval longbowmen were a type of human sniper rifle slash machine gun capable of firing arrows over 300 meters at a rate of 12 per minute, and the French army was understandably sick of fighting against them. So whenever the French captured a longbowmen they would cut off his middle finger, the finger used to draw when firing. In response longbowmen began holding up their middle fingers as a gesture of defiance whenever they crossed paths with French soldiers. The war ended but the gesture stuck. Interesting, huh? English longbowmen are just as deadly in Rise of Kingdoms as they were in real life and they’re easy to train too. Want to have your very own archer army? Download Rise of Kingdoms today.