I've been working out infomation on Bosmer and combat style so I can build a character centered around the Green Pact in skyrim. I understand the that they were the best archers, but what about melee?

Does anyone know if they had a prefered style or weapon?

Since wood elves are so fast, light weapons like daggers would be the best bet. Plus since their resources are limited to animal by-products, blades made from stone, bone, or chitin would be rather small and lightweight. My advice is to look up the warfare used by peoples living in the jungles of South America or Southeast Asia since the environment and cultures are probably the closest you can get to Bosmer in Valenwood.

"The spear is a common weapon for light irregular troops and militias, but has been developed as a martial art form by the Bosmer." -- Garothmuk gro-Muzgob

So, uh, apparently they like spears.

Forsworn weapons i guess. I'm sure any bosmer would prefer steel or ebony over bones and garbage though. It's just that they don't have the means to obtain them in the jungle.

You must eat everything you kill. You must never eat plant matter.

They use wagon wheels as shields according to PGE1. Or occasionally stylish hats.

They invented the Anudamned bow you morons.

They've been repeatedly described as ambushers, and they don't so much fight as they hunt. They're self-assured when they enter into combat, but they know their limits. They don't enter into wild melees - if it looks like things would go that way, they just slink back into the shadows and disappear. The key thing to remember is that, to a bosmer, the intelligent races are just another prey species.

Also, they're not afraid of magic, and have strange sorceries of their own.

What's that book, either swords and philosophy or words and philosophy? By a Bosmeri author? Meh, either one is just a tool to convince other people that they really wanted what you want and were mistaken when they claimed otherwise.

I tend to assume that, since they invented the bow, they fight smart which means they fight dirty. None of this big lines and shiny armor foolery. Shoot from cover, ambush, run, hide, repeat.

They don't fight as dirty as Khajiit do in http://www.imperial-library.info/content/mixed-unit-tactics. The Bosmer get beat pretty handily on that occasion.

It doesn't really matter all races can become powerful melee combatants in time.

Atlatls.

Be a stealthy archer (sniper)

Eat everyone you kill (mind, most bosmer don't do this anymore)

Don't eat plants (by habit of course. The Green Pact only forbids the harming of Valenwood? vegetation)

PRAISE BE TO Y'FRRE!

I'm on same tune. This is something what happened in our world. Dark Age history for my living area is that local population, instead of going into heavier equipment developed more light equipment to enable better mobility and relied on swarming tactics where smaller cells would try to get in front of raiders to screen and hinder them while larger force was organized and then started to hunt raiders (we are talking about irregular militias). In southern Europe similar answer to vikings (and such) was to form small units of horseman equipped well and heavily.

Same idea with own raids, as distances might have been pretty vast in northern backwoods mobility was important factor. Boats ofcourse were main method of movement in summer where weight of equipment isn't that vital factor, but at winter skis were main method.

Green Pact is irrelevant outside of Valenwood.

This has always been my understanding. I don't remember the specific source though.

Ditto. I think, but don't remember from where, I heard that Valenwood's plants have some link to Y'ffre. Again, not sure the source and can't be arsed to look it up just this second.

Dance in the Fire.

Bosmer import lumber from other provinces, demonstrating that they have no qualms with felling non-Valen trees.

If we go back through the games to Morrowind then we can see that archery is their primary means of combat. Stealth and acrobatics massively comes into this.

After this would be a short sword / dagger as in Morrowind the short sword skill was governed by speed and Bosmer had a maxed out 50 for this.
Spears, long swords, blunt, axe etc were all governed by attributes that the Bosmer were low in.

I like to put my Bosmer in Elven armor so after archery I personally like to add an elven dagger & shield even though they are low in block.

Valenwood's borders shift all the time. What happens when they import wood in from what is now western Elsweyr, but used to be eastern Valenwood? Does it still count?

Good question. For what its worth, the Skyrim race description calls them "the elves of western Valenwood." which probably isn't worth much. Perhaps it pertains to the original area the green pact encompassed when it was first formed, whatever that is.

Strictly speaking, true, it's not binding, but by culture and habit I'm sure most Bosmer emigrants would continue to prefer using animal products over plants. It may be legal for them to use plant products now, but they might consider it distasteful. One might even RP a Bosmer character as a young neo-con intent on reviving the old ways of canibalism.

The Green Pact is an actual pact between the Bosmer and the Valenwood. It's the agreement that lets them live in Falleneti & all that. They almost certainly have an easy way of differentiating the Valenwood from other types of plant life. While the ban on using plant matter only applies to the Valenwood, the rest of the pact has no such limitations, so, for example, the meat mandate still stands. A true bosmer must eat all those he kills. However, not all bosmer follow the pact, just like not all Cyrodiils are part of the empire and not all altmer are part of the Thalmor.
Cannibalism never died out, AFAIK.