Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2021 13:41:04 GMT
I am having trouble visualizing the area which a cavalry troop might occupy or, if you will, its physical footprint. I've looked at various diagrams including Cavalry Tactics by Philip St. George Cooke, the 1862 Army Officer's Pocket Guide, Elements Of Military Science And Tactics: Compiled From Upton's U.s. Infantry, Artillery, And Cavalry Tactics, Reed's Signal Tactics, etc., and FM 2-5 Cavalry Drill Regulations, Horse from 1944. (especially since I typically think of meters for military things, but when pretending I am a carpenter, I use feet.)
Here's is about where I am for the average size of a Cavalry Troops at the LBH after its various people were herded out to some other place, notably the Pack Trains.
Horses I think are like 8 feet long and about 3 feet wide. I think they are supposed to be about 4 - 6 feet between horses head to tail. Frontage column, the they are supposed to have 6 - 9* inches from stirrup to stirrup, so I'll just call it a foot between stirrups, so I figure for the average strength of a troop at the LBH of about 32 we'd get:
Column of 4: 15 foot frontage and about 100 feet long.
Column of 2: 8 foot frontage and about 200 feet long.
Charging: 1 rank with 3 feet between horses 180 feet wide.
Skirmish line: 24 troopers on the line so 330 feet wide (5 yards between troopers). 8 Horse Holders trying to control four horses each.
All of these depend on time of day, terrain, vegetation, and visibility/dust. But let's say 5 - 10 yards between troops in column and about 10 - 20 yards in line.
*I think that is too close. I'd think you'd want to have about a yard between horses because if one had their sabers out, you'd want that much distance between things. Even the Roman Legion had about that spacing.
The goal here is to making little clear plastic templates for my 1:10000 and 1:24000 maps showing the number of men for a full strength troop, then ones based on the numbers reported, for column of 4, 2, charge, mounted skirmish line, and dismounted skirmish line, recognizing of course that these are only an approximation of how the troop would deploy.
The manual's and book's illustrations help some, but frankly, I find the Byzantine Manual by Maurice easier to understand. Maybe I'm just getting old.
Thanks for the help
Mike
Here's is about where I am for the average size of a Cavalry Troops at the LBH after its various people were herded out to some other place, notably the Pack Trains.
Horses I think are like 8 feet long and about 3 feet wide. I think they are supposed to be about 4 - 6 feet between horses head to tail. Frontage column, the they are supposed to have 6 - 9* inches from stirrup to stirrup, so I'll just call it a foot between stirrups, so I figure for the average strength of a troop at the LBH of about 32 we'd get:
Column of 4: 15 foot frontage and about 100 feet long.
Column of 2: 8 foot frontage and about 200 feet long.
Charging: 1 rank with 3 feet between horses 180 feet wide.
Skirmish line: 24 troopers on the line so 330 feet wide (5 yards between troopers). 8 Horse Holders trying to control four horses each.
All of these depend on time of day, terrain, vegetation, and visibility/dust. But let's say 5 - 10 yards between troops in column and about 10 - 20 yards in line.
*I think that is too close. I'd think you'd want to have about a yard between horses because if one had their sabers out, you'd want that much distance between things. Even the Roman Legion had about that spacing.
The goal here is to making little clear plastic templates for my 1:10000 and 1:24000 maps showing the number of men for a full strength troop, then ones based on the numbers reported, for column of 4, 2, charge, mounted skirmish line, and dismounted skirmish line, recognizing of course that these are only an approximation of how the troop would deploy.
The manual's and book's illustrations help some, but frankly, I find the Byzantine Manual by Maurice easier to understand. Maybe I'm just getting old.
Thanks for the help
Mike
