Cavalry tactics

For much of history humans have used some form of cavalry for war. Cavalry tactics have evolved over time.

Introduction

While men have fought each other for thousands of years, cavalry has been a more recent phenonom. Along with the tactical advantages on it's own, cavalry has a psycological effect. A group of men charging an enemy on horses invokes fear, sometimes so much as to cause them to retreat. In a modern sense of cavalry we see tanks and armored personnel carriers. Just like chariots of the past did these modern chariots have many of the same advantages.

Ancient Warfare

Cavalry was first used by civilizations who had learned to control animals. The Scythian and Persians made these animals even more deadly by mounting archers on them. Around 1500 BCE, the bow and horse was integrated. The two together created a lethal and mobile unit. As a result the trend of massed infantry slowly began to disappear. The Egyptians improved the Sumerian invention of a chariot to make an even more lethal and effective unit. The Egyptians would overwhelm infantry with large forces of chariots that would smash through their formations, showering them with arrows. Later on the chariot would be countered by light well trained infantry and cavalry.

After the asssination of the Hittite prince, the Egyptians and Hittie went to war. The Hittie had chariots too but there's were different than the Egyptians. Unlike the lighter Egyptian chariots that consisted of an archer and a driver, the Hittie ones were heavier and had a crew of three. In the first battle of the war, both sides relied on their chariots as the main attack troops, while infantry and bowmen stayed behind. The battle ended with the Egyptians chariots surprising the Hittie charioteers as they looted an Egyptian infantry camp and destroying them.

The Assyrian armies relied upon chariots and cavalry as their main shock force. Behind them were bow and spear armed infantry donned in armor. Being that there weren't many horses in Persia, the Persians relied upon The Immortals, a 10,000 man infantry unit, a modertaly armored force armed with spears and bows. When they encountered the Lydian cavlary in their attempt to conquer the civlization they were at a big disadvantage. Through the use of camels, which Lydian horses hated, the Persians were able to negate this factor. As a result of the lessons they learned fighting the Lydians, the Persians incoporated their own cavarly and chariot force.

War Elephants

Elephants can be a terrifying weapon. At several tons each and capable of charging a formation of men, little could stop them before they crushed enemies before them. With thick skin they were difficult to kill. People who'd never seem before often retreated. Atop them would be bowmen or javelin throwers. As powerful as they were, elephants were not unstoppable in the [[Battle of Gauagmela, Alexander the Great defeated a force of elephants through superior tactics.