Cataphract, Clibanarii, whatever, against Infantry

[Aulus Perrinius]

Yes I can and in all of these battles the cavalry were triumphant over solid infantry (Nor were the infantry poor quality)




Dreux. The heavy horse made several frontal charges on their own against solid swiss pikemen they dealt out heavy casualties to the swiss and went right through the pike square would have broken them except the Swiss pikes were rescued by: Guess what? A Charge of Heavy Horse.


Elyau French Lancers took on solid infantry in a deciding charge on their own and went right through them.

Dresden The French Lancers Hit Solid infantry in a frontal charge on their own and went right through them.

Omdurman The 21st Lancers broke solid infantry on their own in a frontal charge.

dreux you might want to read the accounts again
elyau i always read this as the charge went between infantry squares
omdurman don't dispute this one although they lost a lot of horses

phlanxes were always vulnerable to flank or rear attcks due to the redeployment time

i read the account alexander took them in the flank when a gap opened up in the line.

franks breaking viking infantry i think this is saucourt and even the frankish sources maintain the vikings withdrew in good order from the battlefield.

also by my admittedly limited maths a charging cavalryman would face four spears or pikes at least from the opposing infantry.

I have no problem with the Vikings leaving in good order, my point was that the Franks beat them.

Dreux as far as I know that's what happened the Gendarmes pulled it off, granted they lost to the Catholic Heavy Horse and Granted the Swiss survived and didn't break amazing courage and stubborness was displayed on both sides.

Elyau, well okay then although I'm not sure what a charge between squares would do. If you have info please tell me.

Grnated they did lose a lot of horses at Omdurman . . . But still.

As for Chaerona it did take several repeated charges against the Thebans to finally break them.

Somehow, this whole conversation reminds me of another Clibanarius who used to come to a conclusion, then bring a question that sounded genuinely curious, then drum that conclusion over and over, in spite of evidence to contradict it. That fellow usually was pretty closed-minded about things. Wonder what ever happened to him? :|

What's that supposed the mean? I am curious about battles where Cataphracts fought infantry (You read my posts and I never denied any of the battles where infantry fought them off) nor am I being close minded that's what happened at those battles.

As for Spearmen VS Cavalry

Well the cavalryman would be facing several pikes, so assuming that one rank is kneeling so that's around the pikes, the last ranks would have their pointing up IIRC, so the cavalrymans lance takes out the first rank, which seems believable, now there are still two ranks left okay then, well if the horse armoured then the first rank of spears that hit the armour will be diverted to the side wrenching their wielder along with them, or the shaft will break, the third rank, well that's the monkey wrench, the heavy horse might take out or neutralize the first rank and if they're really good take out the second, but the assuming the third ranks holds its ground then that's a lot of rider who take a point through the gap in their helm or or knocked off or the horses are held and the charged is stopped. If the cavalry is really, really good and lucky they might manage to take out or neutralize the third and then you have a bunch of running horses charging through a mass of tightly packed dudes and the horses are to close for the remaining ranks to get their spears in position and so the horses go out the other side. Assuming the heavy horse don't wheel and attack the infantry from the rear and the infantry reform then you have what I believe is a draw. IMO charging home isn't that difficult the real problem is breaking the enemy infantry.

BTW we're getting off topic here.

So so far all the battles where cataphracts fought solid infantry, the infantry won.