Heavy Cavalry
Age: | Iron | |
Prerequisites: | Build Town Center, build Barracks, build Stable, upgrade to Heavy Cavalry. | |
Upgrade Cost: | 350 food, 125 gold | |
Research Cost: | – – – | |
Cost: | 70 food, 80 gold | |
Hit Points: | 150 | |
Attack: | 10 | |
Armor: | 1 | |
Piercing Armor: | 1 | |
Range: | – – – | |
Speed: | Fast | |
Upgrade of: | Cavalry | |
Special: | Cavalry charge bonus (+5 attack against infantry); +1 piercing armor against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons. |
Description:
The Heavy Cavalry has more attack strength and armor (including +1 armor against missile weapons) than Cavalry. The Heavy Cavalry can be upgraded to the Cataphract.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor.
Comments
The Heavy Cav is an upgrade of the Cavalry and is only available in the Iron Age. He has more attack strength and he gets armour and piercing armour but he doesn’t get more hitpoints. He’s better at killing archers than the normal Cavalry but of course Iron Age archers will have more range, armour and attack strength so this is just another example of the arms race.
Peter
History
Heavy cavalry was distinguished from other cavalry by equipment and battlefield role. It was considered heavy because the warriors and horses usually wore some metal armor, including breastplates, helmets, and greaves. The horses were also oversized to more easily carry an armored man and to intimidate foes. While most cavalry acted as skirmishers and scouts on the battlefield, heavy cavalry was a shock weapon, held back for the proper moment to charge into enemy formations and ride them down. Heavy cavalry was rare in antiquity because the saddle and stirrup had not yet been invented. It took an exceptional rider to ride into a shock battle and use a lance effectively. The most famous heavy cavalry of the time was the Companion cavalry of Alexander the Great. These men were horsemen from birth on the plains of Thessaly and Macedon. Part of their devastating success in battle against the Persians may have been due to the novelty of their wedge-shaped charges, unprecedented at that time.