Quote:The stirrup will push the cavalry in two directions. .. mounted archers (which your nomad types will be predominantly) and mounted spearmen..which will be shock cavalry, not melee types if you go by the clasical armies. Stirupless cavalry armed with spears have to thrust in the overhead fashion. With stirups, you can couch the lance and transmit the shock of impact into the lance. That's going to drive the development of the armored knight, which will drive the breeding of monster mounts.
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Feh, give them 20 years or so and you'll have doggies two or three times the size of the one your talking about. Now... does the cavalry have stirrups? Very important... if you know the difference between melee and shock cavalry.
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I'm much less assured of the ability to quickly breed for larger sizes than you are. For one thing, they've never heard of the kind of heavy cavalry you and I have, so they've no reason to think of it. For another, the larger a dog gets, the more likely it is to start showing serious health problems - even without the inbreeding issues you get in a serious breeding program. The current mount breeds don't show much of this because they're old - they've been around and stable since prehistory, having been originally bred to help take really large game - but it comes back real fast when you start messing around with them. And third, even once you've established the type, you have to get enough of them born and raised to adulthood to carry your troops - not a small number of beasts.
But, yes. Stirrups are known and used.
How long to set up a breeding program..well, you need pastureland to do that, and a tradition of horse breeders.
Quote:Which means they cannot afford a protracted war....look how fast the Romans became a professional army.
Islander - How much can you afford? Each man buys his own gear and takes it into the militia. Cavalry are going to be the younger sons of nobility - they have the money to feed their mounts, but don't leave the family short an heir if they catch a dart or a crossbow bolt. Marines are professional sailors... or rather, vice versa.
Quote:My loose definition, anything that allows you to move comfortably with some protection, definitely the chest plate and protection for the arms and shoulders...Everything else is negotiable.
*headdesk*
Oops, dammit.
So, wait, how the heck do you define 'half plate', anyway? 'Cause, as far's I can find, the term has no definition.
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