Thursday 1 September 2011

Ancient German Cavalry



Caesar describes German cavalry in his description of battle against Ariovistus.  Cavalry were deployed with lightly armed infantry in a 1:1 ratio and they would work together. He foot were selected for their speed and they clung to the horses to keep up. German horse did not use the Gallic saddle so could not fight so well mounted. But they slipped easily on and off the horses as circumstances required. They were highly aggressive and were happy to attack horse using saddles, such as Celts or Romans.

I created infantry-supported cavalry for my ancient German army using a 7.5cm by 7.5 cm base.

The stats are as follows:
1)      Cavalry so move 9”
2)      Clash 7
3)      Sustained 6
4)      Short range 3
5)      Long range 0
6)      Morale Save 5+
7)      Stamina 6
I raised the sustained and save stats by one from standard light cavalry to indicate the staying power of the infantry in the formation.

I used Wargames Factory models.  A pack of cavalry and one of infantry costs around £35 and makes four cavalry units and one warband, which I treat as if it was Celtic.

One point is that WF German cavalry have Gallic saddles. These can be omitted from the models by gently bending in the riders’ legs until they fit the horse.

10 comments:

  1. Very nice colorfull bunch! Great painted figures!

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great stuff John. I used these figs to make Dark Ages Saxon Cav too:

    http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2011/07/saxon-cavalry.html

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  3. Hi John
    Nice minis the origin of Jager Zu Pferde ?

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  4. Dear SC,
    Thanks. I like to splash the colour around as I have dodgy colour vision.
    J

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  5. DearPaul
    Wargames factory are not the best sculpted figures around but thay are very versatile.
    J

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  6. Dear Shaun
    Those are pointy hats, right?
    J

    ReplyDelete