Quote Originally Posted by geala View Post
I'm not quite sure what you do expect from dragoons. If they had some horse pistols they should be rather weak with it. In fact real dragoons imho were rather weak as cavalry and rather weak as infantry, what was the reason that they more sooner than later were just another kind of heavy cavalry using shock tactics in battle.

And I think the US dragoons were not realy dragoons but more or less cavalry. Afaik the first 4 regiments rarely had carbines in the beginning in 1776 and the following years. The reformed Continental Dragoons from 1778 were also more or less normal cavalry who fought on horseback. Same with the two regiments dragoons from 1812 to 1815. And when the first mounted regiment after the abandonement of cavalry in the year 1821 was formed in 1833 (1. US Dragoons) it was normal cavalry again. Maybe later on, after the dragoons were renamed "cavalry", they fought more often as dragoons than ever before but this would be beyond E:TW timeframe.

I hope CA will not waste much time with creating very powerful dragoons.
A lot of confusion arose when Briton in particular and others in general reclassed their Cavalry as Dragoons. The reason for this was simple and quite mercenary. Dragoons were paid less than Cavalry.

(Aside: it is interesting that politicians and leader often pay men less that are required to have a larger skill set or more hazardous job than those who don’t)

If you think I am asking for Super Dragoons you are much mistaken. I am only looking for them to possess their actual weapons and capabilities. What can be made of them afterwards is up to those using them. A more modern example would be Tanks in 1940. The allies used them in penny packets for infantry support. The Germans used technically inferior models in mass to great effect.

Tactics is an art of using men and equipment to gain the maximum effect against the enemy. Finding new ways to employ units is certainly no crime. In fact that is what tactics is all about.

We will not have the ability to create units of our own design so maximizing the capabilities of those we have should prove the key to victories.

Forest used mounted infantry to good effect in the war between the states, while no one else seemed to use them at all.