In message <20040830141538.33248.qmail_at_...> Chris Lemens writes:
>Roger:
>> One imagines that few Heortlings would be
>> stupid enough to stand and await a charge
>> by imperial heavy cavalry on open ground and
>> that unless they had enough cover to make
>> skirmishing on foot viable, they would be
>> dependent on either Sun Dome mercenaries
>> to hold them off with their pikes (do
>> Sun Domers still have pikes?) or Praxian,
>> Grazer or Pol Joni light cavalry to draw
>> them away in the Roman or Saracen style.
>
>I understood that Roman legions would stand, shield
>overlapping and pila pointing forwards, to receive
>charges by cavalry, the theory being that horses are
>not generally so stupid (all scenes in Braveheart to
>the contrary) as to run headlong into into a mass that
>appears solid and pointy. This would not seem to work
>against the couched 12-foot lance of medieval times.
>I think that the legion had pretty much deteriorated
>in training by the time that cataphracts made their
>first appearances. Is that right? If not, is there
>any record of them facing off? Assuming that real
>world cataphractoi had no stirrups, would the result
>change if they did (since the stirrup is apprently
>widely known in Glorantha)?
The Romans always had difficulty with enemy cavalry, not
so much from a frontal charge but that properly deployed
the cavalry ends up riding round to the flanks and rear
when even light cavalry can see off heavy infantry. As far
as I can see the Romans dropped the pila in favour of a
long spear at about the time they first encountered
cataphracts (3rd Century AD). Whether it was the cataphracts
in particular or more generally fighting against armies with
a high proportion of cavalry I don't know.
Dragging the subject back to Glorantha it's likely that the
result of a cavalry/infantry conflict will depend more on the
steadyness of the two sides than anything else. So a heortling
fyrd will probably run when threatened by pretty much any heavy
cavalry whereas a regiment of Sun Domers wouldn't. In the event
that the infantry stood few cavalry units would actually charge
into contact. Exceptions probably being Sir Ethelrist's knights
and some Lunar Guard Cavalry.
--
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/