War Chariot speed?

[AqD]

Hi all!

Anyone know about speed of ancient war chariots, such as scythed chariots and those used in Mauryan empire? Are they supposed to be faster or slower than heavy cavalry like companions or cataphracts (fully-barded)?

[Brain_in_a_vat]

I thought they travelled at 15mph, give or take. May be wrong though. I used to think they went faster. They couldn't match the speed of most cavalry, although I'm not quite sure about cataphracts and other super-heavy types.

[Ridiculas]

Depends on the horse. early people used chariots because they only had smaller horses. which would only be able to trott if a guy was riding it (let alone with heavy armor) but could still pull a chariot pretty fast.

basically. same horse then chariots > heavy cavalry in speed. but typically that's not the case

[bushbush]

how many ppl on the chariot too, 1, 2 or 3?

[bleach]

I understood it was about 20 mph max, but it depends on the era and the place. Not all horses are equal and some cultures had a much longer tradition of horse breeding than others.

i guess there was a reason why armoured cavalry became preferred over chariots
mebbe cuz flaming arrows arent as useful against cavalry rather than chariots

More probably because they were less maneuverable, and slower, and fragile, and required extra horses to carry the same number of men. Chariots really didn't grant any advantage once the horses got big and strong enough to ride into battle. Scythed chariots were an ineffective gimmick. I guess they were still more comfortable to ride, though.

[Exarch]

can we have it based on metric please

[AqD]

hmmm are there any records of heavy cavalry chasing chariots or vice versa?

[Exarch]

i guess there was a reason why armoured cavalry became preferred over chariots
mebbe cuz flaming arrows arent as useful against cavalry rather than chariots