Ai-chan
Queen of Yuri Devourer of Traps
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2018
- Messages
- 1,413
- Points
- 153
Everyone knows of horse cavalries, right?
Did you know that there are also goat cavalries and elephant cavalries? Yes, people actually rode goats in real life, but not into battle. That part is entirely Tolkien. But the idea itself is sound, assuming your goats are huge and your legs are shorter than goat legs.
You would have probably also heard that Putin rode bears into battle, but that's completely fictional. He only rode a bear to cross a fast river because bears are good boats better than actual boats. And he can just feed the bear some political enemies that nobody would miss.
However, to use bears in battle as a mount is a very huge logistical issue, assuming you can tame them in the first place. Bears eat a lot. And unlike horses, they don't eat grass or straw, they require meat as part of their diet. And guess what, your soldiers need to eat meat too, so your logistical supply train would be extremely stressed to the point that you won't be able to travel far from a town or supply node with a division of bear cavalry.
In one of Ai-chan's stories, the humans managed to tame a flock of giant eagles from eggs after they killed the mother. However, their number is kept low because of the high food requirement, as they are unable to rear enough livestock to feed more than a dozen such flying weapons. So although they are powerful terror weapons, they are not particularly useful due to their small number and how easily it is to penetrate their thin hides and brittle hollow bones.
What about you? What kind of fantasy cavalry have you designed for your own stories? What are the pros and cons of such cavalries? Let's poke holes at each other's fantastic cavalry ideas.
Did you know that there are also goat cavalries and elephant cavalries? Yes, people actually rode goats in real life, but not into battle. That part is entirely Tolkien. But the idea itself is sound, assuming your goats are huge and your legs are shorter than goat legs.
You would have probably also heard that Putin rode bears into battle, but that's completely fictional. He only rode a bear to cross a fast river because bears are good boats better than actual boats. And he can just feed the bear some political enemies that nobody would miss.
However, to use bears in battle as a mount is a very huge logistical issue, assuming you can tame them in the first place. Bears eat a lot. And unlike horses, they don't eat grass or straw, they require meat as part of their diet. And guess what, your soldiers need to eat meat too, so your logistical supply train would be extremely stressed to the point that you won't be able to travel far from a town or supply node with a division of bear cavalry.
In one of Ai-chan's stories, the humans managed to tame a flock of giant eagles from eggs after they killed the mother. However, their number is kept low because of the high food requirement, as they are unable to rear enough livestock to feed more than a dozen such flying weapons. So although they are powerful terror weapons, they are not particularly useful due to their small number and how easily it is to penetrate their thin hides and brittle hollow bones.
What about you? What kind of fantasy cavalry have you designed for your own stories? What are the pros and cons of such cavalries? Let's poke holes at each other's fantastic cavalry ideas.