Historic Descriptions

[killerxguy]

Here our members ( or anyone who wants to contribute to the mod) can post descriptions here.


Btw, gladiator, can u post ,the previous descriptions u made, here .

[Sir Matthais]

English longbowmen


The English in the middle ages used archers extensively. The English logn bow was about six feet long made of a wood called "yew". It was incredibly flexible and still coudl maintain its strength. In the dramatic raids the English did under the Black Prince, over one third of all the soldiers were archers. They would unleah a hail of arrows upon the charging enemy, causing enormous causilities. The longbown, against plate armour was only good from 30 yards but with hundereds of bowmen against cavalry and sharp sticks protruding from the ground in front of archers, it never was a surprise theat the archers always came out on top.


Critize all you want.

[gladiator551]

I found a little on Saracen tactics:
The Saracen infantry was deemed by Leo VI to be little more than an disorganized rabble, except for the occasional Ethiopian archers who though were only lightly armed and hence could not match the Byzantine infantry.
If the Saracen cavalry was judged to be a fine force it could not match the discipline and organisation of the Byzantines. Also the Byzantine combination of horse archer and heavy cavalry proved a deadly mix to the light Saracen cavalry.
Should however, the Saracen force only be caught up with by the time it was retreating homewards laden with plunder, then the emperor Nicephorus Phocas advised in his military manual that the army's infantry should set upon them at night from three sides, leaving open only the road back to their land. It was deemed most likely that the startled Saracens would leap to their horses and take homeward rather than defend their plunder.
Another tactic was to cut off their retreat across the passes. Byzantine infantry would reinforce the garrisons in the fortresses guarding the passes and the cavalry would pursue the invader driving them up into the valley. Like this the enemy could be helplessly pressed into a narrow valley with little to no room to manoeuver. Here they would be easy prey to the Byzantine archers.
A third tactic was to launch counter attack across the border into Saracen territory. An invading Saracen force would often turn around to defend its own borders if message of an attack reached it.

[Sir Matthais]

Swordsmen (Any faction)

As many may know a "swordsmen" is just that, a man with a sword. In the middle ages swords were of great value both sentimental and money wise. Swords varied in length, longer ones required two hands to wield and others were light enough to use with only one hand. Swords were usually passed down from family to family which gave them their sentimental value. One reason for this is because swords were very expensive to make so that is why only knights or rich soldiers had swords and the other men had to use the less expensive weapons such as a spear or an axe. The swords was a very easy weapon to use but took many years to learn how to wield it properly. A knight or a soldier would spend his whole life learning and practising with a sword so they were obviously the elite and one of the strongest soldiers in any medieval army.

[Sir Matthais]

Foot knights (Any Faction)

Accordign to the ruels of chivalry a knight is to fighton his horse, armed with lance and shield. Well for this worked for the beginning of the middle ages until soem genius had to come up with the idea of a really long spear. When these came were introduced it spelled disaster for knights everywhere because they would charge these long blocks of spearmen and end up beign screwed at one end. So to solve this problem, knights started to fight on foot so they could work their way past any spears or sharpened stakes in the ground. The French were not to reluctant to do this because they honoured chivalry and wanted to stay on their horses. This is part of the reasong why England had so many victories over France because they sowuld set up rows upon rows of sharp stakes and then the French would just charge right into them. If the knights had been on foot they coudl simply walk between the stakes and be alot more affective then on a horse.