03-28-2006, 10:47 PM
"Cavalry could not operate in big numbers, because the distance needed to give room to the knights and horses for maneuvering was way bigger than the typical infantry formations (from probably most open to more closed, light infantry slingers, javalineers, archers, late Empire millenium (and centuria), Imperial and late Republican cohort, early Republican (Livy style) hastatii, and then classical hoplite and Makedonian style phalanxes and Republican principes). "
An excellent post, but I must disagree about the light infantry formations. Missile troops need space to operate their weapons. This is most marked with a sling - I would guess that slingers need to be space 1.5 -2 meters apart in order to use their weapons, and that spacing is comparable to a horsemen's formation. Archers and even musketeers were vulnerable to being overrun by cavalry - as late as the Napoleonic Wars they could be slaughtered unless the infantry were in well-formed squares (and those men had bayonets, unlike most archers and slingers who didn't carry any spear).
An excellent post, but I must disagree about the light infantry formations. Missile troops need space to operate their weapons. This is most marked with a sling - I would guess that slingers need to be space 1.5 -2 meters apart in order to use their weapons, and that spacing is comparable to a horsemen's formation. Archers and even musketeers were vulnerable to being overrun by cavalry - as late as the Napoleonic Wars they could be slaughtered unless the infantry were in well-formed squares (and those men had bayonets, unlike most archers and slingers who didn't carry any spear).
Felix Wang
