Re: Unit abstraction?
Another point on Feudal armies.
In many ways the only way to get a really good feel for the role of Knights on the battle field is there interaction with other cultures with more sane military traditions and thus somewhat less chaotic insane, accidental battles. Its the accounts of the Arabs and Byznatines that have lead military writers to place great weight on the role of the Knights charge as this was the thing the enemies of Knights feared and why Knights turn up all over the place as mercenaries. Knights were the best shock weapons of the period and Byzantine and Arab sources make this very clear.
Who has seen the Rohan hit the Orcish line in the Movie the Return of the King? The most inspiring depiction (indeed the only detailed one) of mounted hitting foot I have ever seen and boy did they trample them. Think about the training at the Quitain on this one and you will understand knights much better - flinch and you lose is what the Quitain teaches and Knights learnt this over and over agian in the becoming of a Knight.
The difficulty is that charging mounted only trampled foot who didn't maintain their nerve and also had the capability to form a solid wall. No idea how to represent this in dom at this point but including push backs would be a big step forward.
cheers
Keir
[ January 16, 2004, 20:53: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]
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