Alex comments:
>Isn't cavalry tradition to ride double-"file"? I've assumed that
>the usual mounted patrol is 14. (Though mounted patrols needn't
>be cavalry, especially if you think that a) lunar cav isn't that
>plentiful,
IMO the Imperial cavalry is actually quite imposing in numbers.
Some 30 regiments in the Cav corps, Imperial Bodyguard, Sisters Army and Heartland Corps. 15000 strong.
The Provincial Army adds a further 7-8000.
This is not including Satraps personal troops or mounted mages, special forces of various Imperial groups and cliches.
25,000 is a close number. Nearer 30,000 actually.
I'm working on the full regimental list
as a breather from the main text of "She Guards Us" and as
a means of working out the Imperial economy, which mostly
goes into the military. If anyone is interested, I may publish
my work on this and the military evolution of operational and
tactical thinking in the Imperial military, at some later time in
a fanzine probably.
>or all that good (which I do),
The Imperial Cavalry is quite effective IMO.
The Imperial cavalry is drawn from many sources which are all invariably rich in a tradition of horsemanship and cavalry combat. The Yelmic influences are drawn from the nomadic past and the traditions of Kastokum. The Pelorian influences are likewise strongly Pentan in origin. Add in the presence of the Char-Un, the Sable riders and the ever present threat of nomadic incursion throughout Imperial history, it is no surprise that the Imperial light cavarly chased off the Pol Joni and are effective in all the traditional roles that LC play.
The heavy cavalry have also had a legion of influences, the greatest being the Carmanian concepts of shock cavalry.
This idea was new to Peloria and accounted for most of their victories. Other influences would have been the Bison dynasty, the Sable riders and the heavy bodyguard of the later Emperors particularly those after the Erzanestyu reforms.
The post Sheng and Nights of Horror period also saw the conversion of several surviving cadres to heavy units.
>and that b) that dragoons are more common (which I'm not sure
about).)
There are the Red and Blue Dragoons, Hadrians Dragoons, the Standfast regiment and a couple of others. Probably 1 sixth of the cavalry.
Most cavalry in the Imperial forces is light cavalry.
Martin Laurie
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