TOP 12 cavalry of all time.[no order]

[AUSTERLITZ]

They will not be ranked by quality.1 is given to denote first entry thats all.

1]MACEDONIAN HETAIROI COMPANION CAVALRY.

The cavalry force that won alexander his empire,unmatched in its day.Lead by alexander in person and composed of friedns with superb camaraderie and co ordination.Campaigned from greece to india.

Weapons and armour.

Xyston-Thrusting spear.
Kopis-short sword.
Boetian helmet.
Shoulder guards.
Bronze cuirass.
Horses had partial head and breast plating for limited protection vs missiles.



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Kopis.



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Organized into tetrachies.

Each tetrachy of 49 men was formed into WEDGE formation.4 tetrachies formed a squadron[ILE].
Each squadron had 200 heavy cavalry.
Only the royal Ile had 400 men.This was commanded by alexander in person and composed of the creme de la creme.



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The tetrachy wedge.Four wedges like these formed a ile[squadron].The phalanx held the enemy in place with its pikes while the cavalry wedges smashed its flanks.

Next;Arab Mobile guard/ummayad cavalry.

 

[Basbug]

Kapkikulu, Spahi many more Great Turkish Cavalry.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

2.ARAB CAVALRY[Rashidun and ummayad]

These are the cavalrymen responsible for the great islamic conquests initiated primarily under the generalship of khalid ibn al walid and his feared mobile guard.They swept all accross them from the pyranees in the west to the indus in the east defeating the byzantines and sassanids.The interesting thing is there was no standardized doctrine or equipment that is clearly known
Their main advantages were extreme mobility,superb horsemanship,religious zeal and endurance from harsh desert conditions.The main strategy was deception and hit and run to wear the enemy down,then finish the demoralized forces with massed charges.They were superb in skirmishing and use of terrain.



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What khalid's mobile guard charging would look like.Badass ninja look.

The main weapons were lances,and both straight and curved blades.Plus the arabic dagger khanjar.

The swords included primarily straight swords during early rashidun era.The infamous scimitar and cutlass evolved a little later.



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The 'saif ' scimitar ,the official weapon for holy war.Used for slashing strikes.



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Thrusting straight swords.Show byzantine and persian influence.



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The moorish cutlass,used primarily by the moors of spain.


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Other than this the khanjar arabic dagger was also carried.


Next;Norman Knight

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Before everyone comes up why i haven't included his fav cavalry.my list is.

Macedonian hetairoi.
Mongol horde.
Mamelukes.
French napoleonic cuirassiers.
Arab cavalry.
Turkish sipahi.
Parthian/sassanid cataphract.
Russian cossacks.
Indian war elephant.
Steppe horse archer[turkic/hun/scythian etc]
Norman knight.
Polish winged hussar.

 

[Kambojaric]

The Delhi Sultans cavalry was formidable as well. They went up against the Mongols on several occasions and came out the winners.

 

[Basbug]

Before everyone comes up why i haven't included his fav cavalry.my list is.

Macedonian hetairoi.
Mongol horde.
Egyptian mamelukes.
French napoleonic cuirassiers.
Arab cavalry.
Turkish sipahi.
Parthian/sassanid cataphract.
Numidian skirmisher cavalry.
Indian war elephant.
Steppe horse archer[turkic/hun/scythian etc]
Norman knight.
Polish winged hussar.

mameluks were Turks, you seem to have no idea of history.

Kapikulu elite cavalry.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

I am not talking about ethnicity,but the area/nation they served for.Egyptian mamelukes were extremely deadly vs mongols.christian crusaders,later many served in turkish armies after ottoman conquest.Napoleon destroyed them finally but was impressed and hired them and squadrons of mamelukes served in the grande armee.

The elite turkish cavalry in numbers was the sipahi,it was a war winning instrument in its time.

But if u want mamelukes will do.

 

[Kambojaric]

What happened to your infantry thread?

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

The Delhi Sultans cavalry was formidable as well. They went up against the Mongols on several occasions and came out the winners.

True,but it was regional in nature.Mostly confined to subcontinent.Also alauddin khilji defeated the mongols using indian war elephants.
The combination of similar turkic cavalry and war elephants was too much for the mongols.

I see moderator has deleted infantry thread for being duplicate thread.How are infantry and cavalry same?facepalm.

 

[Basbug]

Kapikulu was elite cavalry aswell.

Quick note Ottoman cavalry in the game Napoleon total War have the best set of cavalry and that game is set in stagnation / downfall, so even in them times we was elite of elite.

 

[Kambojaric]

Out of curiosity, does cavalry play an important role in South East Asian warfare? I know pretty much nothing about historical Vietnamese/Cambodian armies other than that they did use elephants. What about horses?

For me the best:
light cavalry = cavalries that emerged out of Central Asia (whether it be Turkic or Iranian or Mongolian). The parthian shot and feigned retreats was their trademark and used successfully again and again.

heavy cavalry = medieval European knights. A big combined charge by these horseman could break any infantry. However this way of warfare was only suitable for colder climates, as the heavy equipment that these knights wore, bore a heavy toll on them in hotter climates, best exemplified by what happened at Hattin.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Heavy cavalry too emerged from the parthian cataphract.The sassanid cibinarii and byzantine cataphractoi are direct descendants of this.Later europeans under franks of charlemagne adopted the knight.
Btw in napoleon total war game best cavalry is french imperial heavy horse guard grenadiers,the only undefeated regiment of the napoleonic wars.
Light cavalry was always from steppe,because archery used for hunting and horsemanship,the way of life were both excellent military skills,So steppe nomadic people didn't have to train armies,their lifestyle itself produced excellent cavalry.But once they settled down,their advantage would slowly dwindle.As a mongol general famously said-u could conquer the world on horseback but alas u couldn't rule it from there.

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

The Delhi Sultans cavalry was formidable as well. They went up against the Mongols on several occasions and came out the winners.

Not much details on exact tactics used against the Mongols by Zafar Khan and Khilji

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

3.NORMAN KNIGHT/TEUTONIC KNIGHT.

The most accomplished medieval knights were the normans,teutons and the templars.
The norman knight was the predator of the western european battlefield in france and england.Its greatest triumph at hastings during norman conquest of england.
The teutonic knights based in prussia,spread terror against the polish and lithuanians,especially the pagans.They also took part in crusades.The templar knight was very similar to the norman knight and was primarily a force for crusades where they met their match against the fast moving seljuk cavalry that refused to meet their charge head on.In europe the rise of armoured pikemen and english longbow eventually led to their decline.But armoured cavalry in their time was the king of the medieval battlefield.



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Charge of the teutonic knights.



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Norman knight,lighter but more mobile.

Arsenal consisted of Long lance,Norman longsword,kite shield,chainmail armour and mace or battle axe.


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Templar knight.



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The norman longsword.Maces and battleaxes were also common.


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How they looked in battle.

Next-The steppe horse archer.

 

[livingdead]

Thanks for the effort mate. It was an iteresting read.