Slitherine

The Danish cavalry regiments during the 30YW were mixed regiments of cuirassiers and Horse Arquebussiers, I wonder if such mixed units are feasible in the game

Aryaman wrote:The Danish cavalry regiments during the 30YW were mixed regiments of cuirassiers and Horse Arquebussiers, I wonder if such mixed units are feasible in the game

So were the Catholic League units. The Imperial army deployed kurassiers and arquebusiers separately.

We chose to represent the whole unit as Kurassiers for the following reasons:

1) Horse arquebusiers were extremely useful for many purposes during a campaign, but were something of a liability in pitched battles. We felt that the reason they were in the rear ranks of the (very deep) Kurassier units was to keep them out of harm's way and hopefully add some extra resolve to the Kurassiers.

2) If we had given these units 40% carbine (say) this would probably inaccurately represent their function - assuming that the arquebusiers historically stayed in the rear ranks of a 10 rank deep formation during pitched battles. This also assumes, of course, that the caracole (as it is usually understood) was not used by Kurassier units in this period (despite what Guthrie says).

3) Reducing the average armour rating of the unit (to take account of the arquebusiers) would also be inappropriate since there were 6 ranks of kurassiers in front of them.

We had to go one way or the other, and felt that treating the whole unit as kurassiers was the best compromise, especially as, under the rules, the rear ranks of a 400 man kurassier unit don't actually get to fight (or at least not until some of the men in the front ranks have been lost).