Saxon Generals

[CountMRVHS]

Hi all,

Just started a Saxon campaign in BI. Everything I've read indicates that the historical Saxons did not appear to use heavy cavalry in battles, and my traditional image of the Saxon general's retinue is one of a stout group of foot troops gathered around their lord -- not a group of heavy cavalry who dash around the battlefield.

So my question is, can anyone point to any historical basis for the Saxon general unit being heavy cav? I suspect the decision had a lot more to do with wanting to keep the Saxons on equal footing with all the other factions, who have heavy cav bodyguards for their family members.

And secondly, if my suspicion is correct & there's no indication Saxon generals dashed about on horseback, has anyone ever modded a general unit to be a foot unit? Is there an easy way to do this? I'm reminded of the original BI flaw whereby a WRE general actually commanded a unit of archers, so presumably it can be done. I think the perfect solution would be to take the Saxon Hearth Troop unit and tweak its stats to make them more competitive -- because as we all know, the general's cav is the most powerful unit in the game.

Any thoughts?

CountMRVHS

[DisruptorX]

Every Faction has heavy cavalry as a general unit, this was the case in medieval, too. Its a real pain when you crush the entire enemy army, but all of your 600 light infantry combined cannot kill his single unit of general's bodyguard because of the way Rome's combat works.

[snevets]

It is definately true that the horse was not a very big aspect of saxon warfare. Many southern germanic groups were but the northerns like the saxons and their relatives were infantry and to a lesser extent at this time sea people. I don't see anything wrong with having infantry bodyguards for them, the team I'm on (Hegemonia) has infantry bodyguards and as far as I can see they're fair and work well.

[CountMRVHS]

Nice. Yeah, I'm thinking about co-opting the Hearth Troops as the general unit altogether; maybe makethem completely untrainable. Of course I haven't tried this at all yet so will see how it works in practice.

[x-dANGEr]

It is that each general would get a horse to ride if he can. Horses provide mobility mind you, that is needed for the general to command his army right.

[Ciaran]

Not to mention that sitting on top of a horse gives a definitely better field of view. Plus it´s more comfortable and probably a sign of wealth and status.