the Robot horse sounds like a waste of resources, but the cycle is our most likely option.
Challenge: Cavalry Survives
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the Robot horse sounds like a waste of resources, but the cycle is our most likely option.
what if you used dragonskin? It wouldnt reduce speed as much.
I think we all can agree though, motorcycle+machine gun+rockets=awesome!
seeing it's not invented untill 2006+/-, it's not much of an option.
In the nuclear post-apocalyptic wasteland, without large supplies of fuel and with a thin, spread out, and lawless population it's up to the ethanol-burning bikers of the Federal Mounted Rangers to police the anarchic territories.
More seriously, mounted police can still make very good sense in a lot of plausible situations, but cavalry charges in conventional military operations seem less likely.
More seriously, mounted police can still make very good sense in a lot of plausible situations, but cavalry charges in conventional military operations seem less likely.
well if we go with the oil running out we could see it in future cavalry, but you're right, its not an option if we want them to be in use through out the world wars to modern day, then yeah it wont.
The problem is horses are very manpower intensive. They need to be fed, watered, washed and groomed, given medical care, and watched constantly. With a motor vehicle you just park it when you don't need it. It won't die from thirst, run away or get sick because it got cold one night and you lost the horse blanket.
Not if you use them up like a resource. Just plan your campaigns like Ghengis Khan did. From horse country grassing lands to horse country grassing lands and exchange tired horses for fresh horses as you go. It worked for thousands of years in the past.
If this is a post oil world it may still have developed alternative powered vehicles and weaponary ,like Hyrdogen fuel cell or solar powered craft?
The Mongols, who learned to ride before they learned to walk, took care of their horses like every other civilization built on horseback. It's their careful attention to horses that made their empire possible. A modern army without this intimate knowledge cannot replicate the Mongols. For example there are lots of plants that horses can't eat, but horses are stupid so they'll eat it and get sick or die. It takes an army of horse experts to keep an eye on these little things.
A cavalry man on a campaign has to know a lot about his mount. But a mechanized infantryman doesn't need to be a mechanic just to ride in a truck.
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The Air Force has several Mounted Units operating with the MP's [Mounted Police ] to patrol the periphery of the bases. [Faster than walking, Quieter than Motor vehicles]
Horses are also good at Crowd control, [why the Park Police still Use them] So If Your Military is involved Pacifing a urban area and with crowds.
] to patrol the periphery of the bases. [Faster than walking, Quieter than Motor vehicles]Horses are also good at Crowd control, [why the Park Police still Use them] So If Your Military is involved Pacifing a urban area and with crowds.
With vehicles you end with massive logisitical tail that is worse than the logistical tail on horse units. Since you don't have much fuel anyway you have little choice.
Besides combat leaders can include vets [equivilant to Medics] to best advise on grazzing , care etc.
In world war two both Soviets and Germans employed alot of horse in basic infantry divisions to haul guns supplies & ammo in wagons etc, while recon units had mounted recon units.It seemed to work for them well enough to wage the most intense fighting WW-II saw for 4 years.
I don't think you'll be able to get horse cavalry to come back again. However, motorized cavalry, mounted on fast vehicles such as ATVs, off-road motorcycles, jeeps and smaller trucks, is shockingly easy.
Many places in the world would have this be useful. Afghanistan is one example. Perhaps we get Cavalry teams, trained similar to the SAS/Army Special Forces/GSG-9 et cetera, used by armies as scouts and operators in dangerous zones.
Many places in the world would have this be useful. Afghanistan is one example. Perhaps we get Cavalry teams, trained similar to the SAS/Army Special Forces/GSG-9 et cetera, used by armies as scouts and operators in dangerous zones.
CanadianGoose
Banned
Agree. One can take a look at how fast horses (and another forms of animal draft) were replaced by mechanical contraptions as soon as latter became available (even such clumsy solution as cable-driven trams proven themselves to be wastly superior to horse-driven street railways as far as cost of operation is concerned.
However, when everything is said and done, horse-mounted units (as dragoons, forget all this fancy cavalry charge horseshit) do have their useful niches. Soviet and Mongolian army successfully used dragoon units during August Storm, and some special purpose formations still do. For example, Soviet border guards widely employed horses until Iron Curtain fell; probably their successor forces still do, as nothing can beat mounted patrol silently moving across taiga or through mountain country.
Widespread use of cavalry is probably ASB until farming turns back to horse draft, as well as until fuel would get expensive enough that only heavy battle vehicles are allowed to use it. I can picture some post-oil world where farming isn't able to produce enough biofuel (although it is still unclear what would prevent nuclear-powered synth. fuel plants from coming) and it is cheaper to maintain dragoon force to accompany armour than to get fuel for APC-riding infantry.