Its a bit debatable....they wanted to give em orc bows cause primarly those were orc fashioned. Lotr doesn´t implement crossbows to the lore as the crossbow its something completly new introduced as part of a classical uruk hai wargear.
Apparently they wanted to give similarity to orcs on that matter, only making relevant the diference bettewn.^
- orc bow with the flexbilitiy and accurace of the uruk hai
- crossbow with the power and stability and lack of mobility of the uruk hai
SO they just sticked to it, if you actually gave em great bows (ex: S3 bows) I would admit you would see way more often uruk scouts, and perhaps even being more reliable than crossbows cause of the mobility. or least a 50/50 sharing rate which was fine with me.
To prevent such thing and I beleive that yes, uruk bows are more composite like bows than the orcs, the handler built could make this bows a bit more usefull like some ideas.
- make em like dwarf bows counterpart (S3 18")
- give em normal bow profile (S2 24") like man bow but with the melee properties as these bows can be used in combat
As part of special rules you could give em some properties, as the bows bladed edges could be ment for something like.
- models equipped with this bow can re-roll 1s when attempting to wound in close combat.
- or these composite bows got a more steady built and therefore the wearer will not suffer -1 penalty to the shooting value if he moved up to half of his movement distance and still can shoot.
The pics beneath will show you that all these bows share similarities...hence why thy prob gave em the regular orc bow profile...
http://chocolatebydeath.com/blog/wp-con ... ld/bow.jpghttp://landfantasy.free.fr/Figurines/Lo ... cherpf.jpg