Page 93

"A Cultural weapon skill cannot ever be selected as a favoured skill."

So is this saying my Woodman cannot choose Bows, as a favoured weapon, because it's too generalised (i.e. Bows = plural), but can choose Great Bow (singular) or Bow (singular)?

I see no reason not to.

Woodsman can choose Bows as a cultural weapon skill. This gives them proficiency with all bows - Great Bows and Bows - essentially being two weapons skills at that level.

You can't choose to make a cultural weapon skill as a favoured skill as it effectively gives you several favoured skills for the price of one.

However, you can raise an individual weapon skill out of the cultural weapon skill and make that favoured.

Page 171:
"It is possible to buy a level for an individual Weapon skill belonging to the category of a Cultural skill group the hero already possesses, starting from the proficiency level of the Cultural weapon skill.
...
While there is no savings in buying a specific Weapon skill, players may choose to do this if planning to later make the new individual Weapon skill a favoured skill (as Cultural weapon skills cannot be made into favoured skills)."

So, you can do, but you have to do it in a non-broken way.

Ok thanks for that