Cavalry Archer Tactics in the Medieval Period

[edyzmedieval]

A couple of questions with regards to those cavalry archers that we know and use in our TW games whenever we have the possibility and tactics. :yes:

Pecheneg, Tatar, Cuman, Byzantine, Seljuk... a long list of cav archer types.

1. Per the inspiration of our beloved TW games, how common were those Cantabrian circles / circle formations used by the cavalrymen? Would they just run and shoot or would they actually form in circles and shoot/reload in complete motion?

2. Western armies preference for cavalry archers was quite low - you had some French cav archer units, Spanish jinetes (taken from the Moors in fact), Byzantines extensively using them, Outremer Crusader kingdoms as well (locals), but the Westerners at most had Reiters or Mounted Crossbowmen, not mounted archers.

Why?

3. Were they used at all during sieges? (TW games literally reduce them to useless units during sieges)


Thank you scholars. :bow:

[Seamus Fermanagh]

There is an earlier thread on horse archery that covered most of this stuff.

[Fragony]

Second question, armour, no matter how light will stop an arrow. Nott fully of course

[AE Bravo]

Not too well versed on western military history, but specialists in Heian to Kamakura Japan (where cavalry archers were prominent) compare the engagements to messy dogfighting in WWI. Basically nothing special and anything different is a blatant romanticization, if any of you ever go to Japan all you have to do is look at some antique shoji screen doors to see this.

STW is part of the mythologized world of samurai history and is probably the most historically inaccurate TW game. There were no elaborate formations (that we know of) in medieval Japan and most of the info regarding these was written decades later, fabrications to make one's clan seem as awesome as the Chinese martial epic tropes like those from the Three Kingdoms.

Still my favorite military history topic though. Eastern wild west.

[Montmorency]

STW is part of the mythologized world of samurai history and is probably the most historically inaccurate TW game. There were no elaborate formations (that we know of) in medieval Japan and most of the info regarding these was written decades later, fabrications to make one's clan seem as awesome as the Chinese martial epic tropes like those from the Three Kingdoms.

Still my favorite military history topic though. Eastern wild west.

Speaking of the Wild West, they had these accents in Old Japan, right?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbc2d8LhEtU