Spartan army 400 - 390

[Aryaman2]

Going a littlte out of topic, I disagree in some details, the cuirassiers of Gustavus Adolfus times wore the lobster half armour, that never returned. Also, I would say that the preeminent cavalry of Europe to reemerge were lancers.

A bit confusing because I was referring to the actual breast-plate when I wrote cuirasse, which Gustavus could not wear. Only a small portion of his armored cavalry were in half armor, such as those from Courland. The majority was in breast-plate alone- with our without buff coat.

Saddly, since I have a genetic affinity to lancers through my mother's Polish blood, the Cuirassier was the preeminent cavalry of the the early 19th c. They were the heavies, with the biggest horses and the most expensive, while the Lancers would always be considered light cavalry. I agree that were you on the ground at Albuera you might have a different opinion.

However, Gustavus enemies, Imperial and Catholic League cuirassiers, did wear half armour, that was what I was refering to.
And lancers returned as the preeminent heavy cavalry just after the Napoleonic Wars, when cuirassiers regiments were transformed into lancers everywhere.
Already in the last Napoleonic campaigns lancers were increasingly important, not just in the French army (Polish regiments) but also in other armies, acting as flanking units of heavy cavalry. Their increasing succes meant that by the time of the Franco-Prussian war all the heavy cavalry were lancers.
The reson for that is simple, and speaks loud about fashion in war. Lancers were dominant in Europe up to the late XVI century. Then cuirassiers displaced them, deployed 8 ranks deep, and armed with sword and pistol, their columns could cut through the line of gendarmes deployed en haye.
Then, when they no longer had to contend with heavily armoured gendarmes, cuirassiers started to deploy thinner and to carry less armour. By the time of the Napoleonic Wars, cuirassiers carried only brestplate and deployed in three distant lines of a single rank each. They were very vulnerable again to a line of lancers.
The development of fire arms, put an end to the return of the cavalry column of half armoured cuirassiers...