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Originally Posted by M21Sniper
Then tell me how Xerxes cavalry won the day at Thermopalye.
Or how Queen Boadicea of Iceni's cavalry rode down the vastly outnumbered(30:1) Roman infantry at the battle of Mancetter.
Tell me about the glorious "charge of the Light Bde" and how it smashed through the Russian defenses at the Battle of Balaclava.
And hey, fill me in about Pickett's charge while you're at it too please.
And, oh...nevermind...
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With respect to Queen Boadicea, there was Roman cavalry. The roman general exploited its cavalry to draw Queen's cavalry away from the infantry from a formation standpoint. When the infantry came down, the cavarly wasn't in proper formation and thus lost its tactical mobility. Besides, the majority of the Queen's army were ill trained and amauters, not comparable to any professional standing army or even a semi professional one. They had no order no discipline. ALl they relied on was their sheer numbers and sheer rage. Prior to that battle, they never faced an highly trained army on the battlefield. All the roman legions they defeated were in the midst of transit or victims of guile and sabotage. But when it came to a battlefield, the Queen's army were solely outmatched in nearly every respect except numerical superiority.
Charge of the LIght Brigade and the Pickeet's charge examples are not applicable to this discussion because it is about the ancient form of warfare, not the form of warfare where bullets and artillery are the mainstay. Before the advent of trenches and fences, cavalry did rule the battlefield. I mean witness Stuart's cavalry raids and the Battles of Manassas Run. The confederates used their cavalry to great effect and overran the Union infantry.
With Xerxes, I don't think that's a fair analogy because it wasn't really on a battlefield. It was on a narrow pass, very confining. Still, Xerxes made a lot of mistake with the cavarly that I wouldn't do.