TOP 12 cavalry of all time.[no order]

[Type 052D]

Persians have the best cavelry. If the sassanids stopped using heavy infantry against the Byzantines and arabs then Persia would be a world power to be reckoned with..z

 

[Surenas]

@Surenas the Indian posters here would know more about them. You can judge if you consider them one yourself.

As for the Ottomans, they were most definitely a Hyper Power. Consider that the Europeans use to try and make alliances with the Ottomans to fight one another as evidenced by the letters by the English queen to Ottoman Sultan. (You can search for it, I think a thread was made about it here).

Also consider this

Padishah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The paramount prestige of this title, in Islam and even beyond, is clearly apparent from the Ottoman Empire's dealings with the (predominantly Christian) European powers. As the Europeans and the Russians gradually drove the Turks from the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, they insisted—even at the cost of delaying the end of hostilities—on the usage of the title "Padishah" for themselves in the Turkish versions of their treaties with the High Porte, as acknowledgement that their Christian emperors were in all diplomatic and protocollary capacities the equal of the Turkish ruler, who by his religious paramount office in Islam (Caliph) had a theoretical claim of universal sovereignty (at least among Sunnites).

This alone shows how much prestige the Ottomans held even in the eyes of their adversaries.

But historians don't consider it to be an hyperpower. Amy Chua about the Ottomans:

''Amy Chua: Again, to be clear, my thesis is only about hyperpowers. An Islamic superpower is certainly a possibility. An Islamic hyperpower, on my view, is extremely unlikely - just as a fundamentalist Christian hyperpower would be unlikely. To pull away from its rivals on a global scale, a society must be able to pull into itself and motivate the world’s best and brightest, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or background. A tolerant Islamic society might be able to do this. I have a chapter on the Ottoman Empire, which perhaps came closest, but never came close to being a hyperpower.''

 

[KingMamba]

Alexander never faced truly serious adversaries the achaenamid empire was in decline,its emperor a coward and its infantry non armoured rabble relying mostly on archers and greek mercenaries .The immortals light armour and wicker shields were not even able to defeat the greek hoplites.Its cavalry hadn't yet become the brute force that it would later under parthians,sassanids and safavids.that is his main problem.Alexander is glorified in the west but no way was it anyway near the mongol war machine.Primarily because it needed brilliant generalship unlike the mongols who were successful even after genghis and subedei were no more.
While alexander's macedonian army system under seleucus was defeated by the war elephants of the amuryas,pyyrhu's army failed to defeat the romans,and thelegions successfully smashed the phalanxes at pydna and cyncesphalae conquerig macedonia.

You give too little credit to Alexander, yes he is glorified the world over and probably given a lot of credit but just look at how he was outnumbered in nearly all of his wins. The battles he won were based on his military expertise and yes that particular emperor was a coward but you forget that he ran AFTER an amazing maneuver by Alexander that nearly killed the Emperor and forced his army to rout. Also you forget some of the Brilliant Mongols generals after Genghis and subedei.

Namely Hulagu Khan and Berke of the Golden Horde!!

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Yes ottomans can be called a hyperpower.
Mauryas i don't know,main problem is timefarme is too short.After asoka they stopped military expansion and began a slow decline.At their peak they were a formidabe force though .While the cavalry was average.The infantry standard,the archers were very good.But the true shock arm of the mauryan army was the 9000 armoured war elephants.No empire in history fielded this many.Remember porus gave alexander a run for his money with 70-130 war elephants.So no wonder chandragupta defeated seleucus,his succesor and founder of seleucid empire .Seleucus actually exchanged 500 war elephants for 4 provinces and a matrimonial alliance.These would win him the succesor war at ipsus.For more info on the war elephant check my entry on the war elephant in this thread.Its the one before the sipahi.

 

[Type 052D]

IMO Alexander was more brilliant than any Mongol general whatsoever. I came across this in ne my books about him:

Khans would have distroyed Alexandia's army. BTW I joined militaryphotos.net but it's sooooo west centric. Say one thing wrong in that fourm and everyone calls you Anti-semite

 

[Surenas]

Khans would have distroyed Alexandia's army. BTW I joined militaryphotos.net but it's sooooo west centric. Say one thing wrong in that fourm and everyone calls you Anti-semite

That's true. It so Americanized.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

IMO Alexander was more brilliant than any Mongol general whatsoever. I came across this in ne my books about him:

Subedei would give him a run for his money any day.Who else conquered russia in the winter?

 

[KingMamba]

But historians don't consider it to be an hyperpower. Amy Chua about the Ottomans:

She dismisses them by calling them intolerant, quite frankly I think this is not a great point to dismiss them because there have been plenty of tolerant societies that have not even come close to what the Ottomans accomplished.

Khans would have distroyed Alexandia's army. BTW I joined militaryphotos.net but it's sooooo west centric. Say one thing wrong in that fourm and everyone calls you Anti-semite

Man, Alexander was a military mind more than a king. Yes he is GLORIFIED by all Westerners but you cannot dismiss him just because of that. It is not his fault all westerners ride him hard body, lol. Who's to say he would not have modified his tactics to fight the Mongols? You really cannot say, so you must judge him based on what he did do.

 

[Type 052D]

That's true. It so Americanized.

The worst part is that they are so hypocritical at the same. They called "ChiCom bot" and I commented on a post about the palistinian UN vote stating that the PA should have the right to declare indepedence. That Dude called "Camera" and "GBX" lashed at me.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

You give too little credit to Alexander, yes he is glorified the world over and probably given a lot of credit but just look at how he was outnumbered in nearly all of his wins. The battles he won were based on his military expertise and yes that particular emperor was a coward but you forget that he ran AFTER an amazing maneuver by Alexander that nearly killed the Emperor and forced his army to rout. Also you forget some of the Brilliant Mongols generals after Genghis and subedei.

Namely Hulagu Khan and Berke of the Golden Horde!!

Have you heard of xenophon and his 10000?They were basically greek mercenries that were hired by a persian pretender to challenge the throne.They defeated the persian imperialarmy in battle but their employer was killed.Amazingly these mercenaries simply retreated back out from deep within the persian empire and they could do nothing.So you see the quality of the persian forces were low,especially after the passing of strong rulers such as cyrus,darius and xerxes.Even darius and xerxes suffered heavy defeats at the hands of the armoured greek infantry which their light infantry couldn't beat.

On alexander,yes he is one of the greatest military commanders of all time.But ur forgetting this point is not about his generalship but rather comparison between the macedonian army and the mongol horde.And as a military force the mongols are generally agreed to be superior.

 

[KingMamba]

Yes ottomans can be called a hyperpower.
Mauryas i don't know,main problem is timefarme is too short.After asoka they stopped military expansion and began a slow decline.At their peak they were a formidabe force though .While the cavalry was average.The infantry standard,the archers were very good.But the true shock arm of the mauryan army was the 9000 armoured war elephants.No empire in history fielded this many.Remember porus gave alexander a run for his money with 70-130 war elephants.So no wonder chandragupta defeated seleucus,his succesor and founder of seleucid empire .Seleucus actually exchanged 500 war elephants for 4 provinces and a matrimonial alliance.These would win him the succesor war at ipsus.For more info on the war elephant check my entry on the war elephant in this thread.Its the one before the sipahi.

Yes but elephants were unreliable and could turn on the user as evidenced by the way Tamerlane defeated the elephant users.

Have you heard of xenophon and his 10000?They were basically greek mercenries that were hired by a persian pretender to challenge the throne.They defeated the persian imperialarmy in battle but their employer was killed.Amazingly these mercenaries simply retreated back out from deep within the persian empire and they could do nothing.So you see the quality of the persian forces were low,especially after the passing of strong rulers such as cyrus,darius and xerxes.Even darius and xerxes suffered heavy defeats at the hands of the armoured greek infantry which their light infantry couldn't beat.

On alexander,yes he is one of the greatest military commanders of all time.But ur forgetting this point is not about his generalship but rather comparison between the macedonian army and the mongol horde.And as a military force the mongols are generally agreed to be superior.

Well I guess we can care to disagree because I believe that if a general is good enough he can overcome the shortcomings of his army and make them rise to the occasion.

Thanks for the info on xenophons, I had actually never heard of them.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Yes but elephants were unreliable and could turn on the user as evidenced by the way Tamerlane defeated the elephant users.

Exactly.The elpahant was a double edged sword.But note timur faced about 100 war elephants and they still did cause considerable terror in the tatar ranks.Timur actually created a elephant corps with captured beasts that he used against the turks.
Mongols too defeated war elephants in small numbers [around 100] in smarakhand and khmer,but were defeated by alauddin khilji's combination of turkic cavalry and about 300-400 war elephants.

 

[KingMamba]

Exactly.The elpahant was a double edged sword.But note timur faced about 100 war elephants and they still did cause considerable terror in the tatar ranks.Timur actually created a elephant corps with captured beasts that he used against the turks.
Mongols too defeated war elephants in small numbers [around 100] in smarakhand and khmer,but were defeated by alauddin khilji's combination of turkic cavalry and about 300-400 war elephants.

True, elephants were fierce but remember you just had to get a few to go berserk and the rest would follow them. I figure if you were facing 5000 elephants and lived long enough to get 1000 to rout the rest would follow, they are animals after all. Remember Timur did not use men to get the elephants to rout, he used camels with hay on their backs which he lit on fire because he knew his soldiers would be scared and it worked.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

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Added new hetairoi macedonian cvalry pic.



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The carthaginian african pachyderm.Used in its conflict vs rome it was much smaller and consequently less effective than the gigantic asian elephant.The north african elephant is now extinct.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Added some new pics.


Mamelukes in full armour.
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Winged hussars charging pikemen.


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Saladin and his cavalry.


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Dismounted arab and berber muslim light cavalry.


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Dismounted templar knight.


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Late arab heavy cavalryman dismounted.

Since there are so many indo pakistani members here i'll post some detailed pics on mughal,rajput and maratha cavalry with equipment soon.
Also some pics of iranian safavids and afghan cavalry.