Slitherine

Couldn’t Light horses pass though a friendly unit as Light Foot actually do, even it was at the walk in order not to disturb the order of the friendly unit ?

As I don't know (almost) anything about History of warfare, this is a genuine question from a historical perspective and gameplaywise

In game, Light foot passing though costs the same amount of Points of Action as when they move without obstacle (4 points per square forward and 6 diagonally).

Light horse (whose total PA=20) passing though would cost 6 points per square when moving forward and 10 when moving diagonally, to mimic horses at the walk ?

I think the issue is that a man on a horse takes up something like 2.5 times the frontage compared to a man on foot. So a formation would have to open up their ranks a lot more for horsemen to fit through than people on foot.

Even though they are called ‘light’, they are still horses. You can let a human through by opening ranks but a horse needs twice the space and is skittish. It would totally disrupt any formation if a group of horses would try to pass through.
Imho.

pompeytheflatulent wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 7:08 pm I think the issue is that a man on a horse takes up something like 2.5 times the frontage compared to a man on foot. So a formation would have to open up their ranks a lot more for horsemen to fit through than people on foot.

In Napoleonic times perhaps 22” for an infantryman , 36” for a horseman. That would of course be in close order, “elbow to elbow” and “stirrup to stirrup” respectively.

Heavy infantry could be trained to open files to allow enemy elephants/ chariots to pass thru, but this seems like specific training for a specific battle, and not normal. So I suppose an army could train its light horse and heavy infantry in such a manner, but why when the horse are on the flanks?

I guess if 2 out of every 3 rows gets behind the 3rd row,you could conceivably temporarily triple the depth of the formation and open up lanes wide enough to squeeze horses through. Whether it's doable in a timely manner is another matter.

btw checkerboard formations (employed by the Roman for example) were used (and can be used in game), among other reasons, to let any cavalry pass between infantry units, weren't they ?