09-08-2010, 02:47 PM
All right then, I did promise you guys the rest of my results and you're going to get them. Right so as far as I can tell a Romano-British warband would consist of levy infantrymen, maybe militia, the number depends on the location; and maybe four or five dozen cavalry. (Numbers approximate and based off what we came up with a couple pages back on the maximum number of cavalry a couple of villages could supply)
At least two of those five dozen would be light cavalry, a simple leather breastplate, a shield, and a dozen or so javelins. An additonal two dozen would be medium cavalry, iron-studded leather scale armour, ridge helm, Alanic longsword, a good shield, and maybe several javelins. And the final dozen would be the local lord and his guards; these men would have the best armour available, mail and maybe scale, a ridge helm, an Alanic longsword, javelins, and a spear (10 feet long).
Now from the literary sources I have it seems that Britons favoured dawn, and ford battles, usually both at once. As far as I can tell, I'll give a narrarative of how I think, with my own personal knowledge, what just makes sense, and the limits of what one can do astride a horse, a battle between a British warband, and a Saxon raiding force, would go down.
The Saxons are across the ford in a panic because they have been woken to the sound of a British force arriving, they grab all the equipment they can and rush to the ford to try and meet the Britons before they can cross over and gain a foothold. Meanwhile the British light cavalry has already made it across the ford and is pinning the Saxons down by riding back and forth across their line, throwing javelins into the panicked ranks of the shield wall. Once they are out of javelins, or the Saxons get a hold of themselves, tighten the line, and advance, the light cavalry reels away and runs back across the ford with the Saxons following close behind. Waiting in the ford, however, is the British infantry, who have their own javelins and a good amount of archers. The Saxons are stopped in the ford by a hail of javelins under which the Britons advance and start attacking the Saxons directly. This melee would be pinned down mainly by its own attack, and it deters the Saxons from trying to envelop the Britons due to their archers, who might have had bows similar to either Hunnic ones, or a bit more like the ninth century Welsh longbows. With pressure constanly being put on by the infantry and archers, the medium cavalry wheel in in a diagonal fashion, and then pull away at the last second while hurling javelins into the flanks of the shield wall. About a dozen horsemen are corvering each flank, but the British left will be the one who gets the best chance at causing casualties due to the Saxon tendancy to fight right handedly, meaning that on the British left, the Saxon's right, there will be no shields to protect the men who are now under assault by the cavalry. This is why being a lefty would make sense, coming in from the left you can still defend from a frontal attack would be easy because you still have your shield, and you'd be able to easily bypass the Saxon's spears as you wheel in and away from them the Alanic longsword would have alll the inertia and momentum of the horses' speed, and turning bcked by your own swinging force, in other words it's going to cut through what you put it against, an unprotected side, keep on going and due to its own momentum make a full stroke recovery. I believe Alanus mentioned that this "Dash and Slash" method was a very popular Alanic style of attack. However the Saxon left wouldn't be so easy to attack, this would leave the cavalry either trying to pull behind the shield wall under covering fire, or just trying to intimidate the men to run away. At this point, if everything is going well the Saxon shield wall is starting to fold in on itself, making the cavalry on the Saxon left have an easier job, while the British shield wall is protected from heavy casualties by the constant literal pressure that they'd be applying to the Saxons' shields and spears, preventing them from striking back, and the water their in makes everything harder anyways, though I'd guess that at this point in the center of the battle the Saxons would be gaining the upper hand. Now at this point in the battle the medium cavalry would be reforming, and on the Saxon right the heavy cavalry would be forming up with the medium cavalry and preparing for a charge, hopefully a hail of javelins from both of those units, and the intimidation factor of a bunch of men on horses charging towards you, would cause those men to break, and make thier escape next to impossible because of the water, the Britons would ride them down, and if the rest of the Saxons already hadn't made a run for it, they'd turn around and strike them in behind. If the battle went down like I described the ending of it would likely be a slaughter led by the archers and the cavalry on the routing men.
Well? What do you think?
At least two of those five dozen would be light cavalry, a simple leather breastplate, a shield, and a dozen or so javelins. An additonal two dozen would be medium cavalry, iron-studded leather scale armour, ridge helm, Alanic longsword, a good shield, and maybe several javelins. And the final dozen would be the local lord and his guards; these men would have the best armour available, mail and maybe scale, a ridge helm, an Alanic longsword, javelins, and a spear (10 feet long).
Now from the literary sources I have it seems that Britons favoured dawn, and ford battles, usually both at once. As far as I can tell, I'll give a narrarative of how I think, with my own personal knowledge, what just makes sense, and the limits of what one can do astride a horse, a battle between a British warband, and a Saxon raiding force, would go down.
The Saxons are across the ford in a panic because they have been woken to the sound of a British force arriving, they grab all the equipment they can and rush to the ford to try and meet the Britons before they can cross over and gain a foothold. Meanwhile the British light cavalry has already made it across the ford and is pinning the Saxons down by riding back and forth across their line, throwing javelins into the panicked ranks of the shield wall. Once they are out of javelins, or the Saxons get a hold of themselves, tighten the line, and advance, the light cavalry reels away and runs back across the ford with the Saxons following close behind. Waiting in the ford, however, is the British infantry, who have their own javelins and a good amount of archers. The Saxons are stopped in the ford by a hail of javelins under which the Britons advance and start attacking the Saxons directly. This melee would be pinned down mainly by its own attack, and it deters the Saxons from trying to envelop the Britons due to their archers, who might have had bows similar to either Hunnic ones, or a bit more like the ninth century Welsh longbows. With pressure constanly being put on by the infantry and archers, the medium cavalry wheel in in a diagonal fashion, and then pull away at the last second while hurling javelins into the flanks of the shield wall. About a dozen horsemen are corvering each flank, but the British left will be the one who gets the best chance at causing casualties due to the Saxon tendancy to fight right handedly, meaning that on the British left, the Saxon's right, there will be no shields to protect the men who are now under assault by the cavalry. This is why being a lefty would make sense, coming in from the left you can still defend from a frontal attack would be easy because you still have your shield, and you'd be able to easily bypass the Saxon's spears as you wheel in and away from them the Alanic longsword would have alll the inertia and momentum of the horses' speed, and turning bcked by your own swinging force, in other words it's going to cut through what you put it against, an unprotected side, keep on going and due to its own momentum make a full stroke recovery. I believe Alanus mentioned that this "Dash and Slash" method was a very popular Alanic style of attack. However the Saxon left wouldn't be so easy to attack, this would leave the cavalry either trying to pull behind the shield wall under covering fire, or just trying to intimidate the men to run away. At this point, if everything is going well the Saxon shield wall is starting to fold in on itself, making the cavalry on the Saxon left have an easier job, while the British shield wall is protected from heavy casualties by the constant literal pressure that they'd be applying to the Saxons' shields and spears, preventing them from striking back, and the water their in makes everything harder anyways, though I'd guess that at this point in the center of the battle the Saxons would be gaining the upper hand. Now at this point in the battle the medium cavalry would be reforming, and on the Saxon right the heavy cavalry would be forming up with the medium cavalry and preparing for a charge, hopefully a hail of javelins from both of those units, and the intimidation factor of a bunch of men on horses charging towards you, would cause those men to break, and make thier escape next to impossible because of the water, the Britons would ride them down, and if the rest of the Saxons already hadn't made a run for it, they'd turn around and strike them in behind. If the battle went down like I described the ending of it would likely be a slaughter led by the archers and the cavalry on the routing men.
Well? What do you think?
Nicholas
