Doing an Empire/English Civil War Army -- Episode Two: Cavalry

Posted by Ranillon on 23. August 2010 21:41

This week I take a look at Warlord Game's English Civil War basic cavalry set, compare them to their Games Workshop equivalents, and give a little history about how their real life counterparts worked.

Cavalry in the Era of the English Civil War

By the mid-16th century cavalry had nearly completely transitioned from the heavy armored, lance wielding knights of the High Middle Ages to the more lightly armored pistol and sword strike force.  With the invention of the wheellock a practical pistol gunpowder weapon became available to mounted troops and in the process altered their battlefield role.  Unlike the matchlock harquebus of the infantry which was large, bulky, and required you to load your weapon while clutching a burning match cord -- gunpowder and open flames don't mix well, especially at the gallop -- the wheellock was compact, dependable, and safer.  It allowed you to carry pistols that could be pulled out and fired at a moment's notice.  That meant that cavalry could now be lethal at range without necessarily requiring you to get stuck in.
 
Likewise, given the power of gunpowder weapons heavy suits of armor became more trouble -- and especially more expense -- than they were generally worth, although you could still see some units in plate armor (cuirassiers) even in the early part of the English Civil War and Thirty Years War (this type of armored cavalryman would never quite go away and would in fact enjoy a revival of sorts in the 18th and 19th centuries, although in a significantly altered form).  Accordingly, speed and maneuverability became more important while the armor a mounted soldier typically carried into battle was reduced to a chest plate and helmet.

By the time of the English Civil War there were two main ways to use standard cavalry.  The first was the caracole, a tactic where the pistol armed cavalrymen would ride up toward their target only to angle away once they came within range, fire at the enemy in turn, and then retire back the way they came to reload and start the process all over again.  In the era before the Civil War this had the advantage of allowing the cavalry to use their superior firepower -- pistols could be fired faster and more dependably, plus you could take more than one -- to whittle down opposing infantry, but as the organization and weapons of the harquebusier improved this method of attack became increasingly ineffective.

The second common tactic was a return to the cavalry charge, but in this case one backed up with gunpowder fueled firepower.  The rider would gallop into battle with sword and pistol, enhancing the impact of his charge by using his firearm at close range (sometimes by placing it right up against his enemy's body before pulling the trigger!).  This approach gave back the cavalry its 'shock and awe' role in battle, enabling it to once again be the unit of decision.  Both sides in the Civil War tended to prefer this type of cavalry -- Prince Rupert, the famous Royalist general, was a renowned cavalryman while the ultimately even more famous Oliver Cromwell made his name leading his horsemen to victory in a number of crucial battles.

The ECW Cavalry Models

The Warlord Games English Civil War cavalry box comes with 12 plastic models and costs around $28 (depending on the exchange rate at the time).  As you can see these models best fit the role of Pistoliers within the Empire army -- guys on unbarded horses with light armor and wheellock pistols.  It costs $22 for just five plastic Empire Pistoliers.  That is an average cost of $4.40 a model compared to just $2.33 for the Warlord equivalents.

Yet, what does it matter if the models look like garbage, right?  Well, here are some images of a completed group of eight ECW cavalry figures:

Taste is of course a subjective thing, but I think these models stack up rather well against Games Workshop pistoliers.  Admittedly, with GW you have the option of Pistoliers or Outriders, but in the end you are left with just five models for $22.  I don't see how anyone could contend that the Warlord figures or the box set as a whole are only half as good as a similar GW set.  The Warlord figures obviously do not come with GW bases so you'll need to purchase those separately.

The models themselves usually only require about five pieces each, thereby making construction pretty fast.  While the GW Pistoliers can be posed in a wider range of positions most are just minor variations of the same thing (like the angle at which an arm is pointed) so in the case the differences don't add up to very much.  Beyond that these Warlord cavalry figures are the same scale as Empire Pistoliers and have much the same look (if admittedly missing the poofy sleeves).  If your playing partner doesn't look closely he won't even notice the difference.

Note that while you can buy "Royalist" or "Parlimentary" cavalry in separate box sets both use the exact same models.  The only difference is that the paper flags that come with either fit the side listed on the box.