Cuirassiers History and Civ4

Hamilton321

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Greetings, this is going to be a different thread. I really like the history of the Napoleonic wars because in many ways they are the transition between a world dominated by kings and generals to a world dominated by financial institutions and political parties. My interest in that period taught me much of what I know about cuirassiers.

In Civ4 beyond the sword Cuirassiers are one of the most unique and powerful units, utilizing base strength, power, immunity to first strikes and withdraw chance to provide an incredible amount of utility. In Beyond the Sword they are as effective as tanks are in vanilla and they come much earlier than tanks. Thus I think that Civ4 fans will appreciate some of the history of real-life cuirassiers.

First of all, what is a cuirassier? A cuirassier is an elite or heavy cavalryman of the age of gunpowder. The name cuirassier came from the single metal breastplate first used by the cuirassiers. Cuirassiers have been in active service in armies for four hundred years and are still in active service today. Developed due to the decrease in the effectiveness of cavalry due to the changes in warfare that took place during the Italian wars. such as the rise of cheaply produced pikes wielded by well-trained soldiers and the rise of gunpowder weapons, cuirassiers were a completely new form of cavalry. During the late sixteenth century advances in armour-making allowed the creation of breastplates or "cuirasses" which could resist musket-balls at certain angles and ranges without greatly increasing the weight of the armour. These cuirasses were incredibly expensive, therefore they were not given to infantry or light cavalry. Cuirassiers were heavy skirmishing cavalry who used long matchlock pistols and the caracole tactic to counter traditional heavy infantry and cavalry.

Cuirassiers came in and out of style throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, even though they were very effective cavalry, they were incredibly expensive to recruit, and many questioned if they were worth it due to the requirement of massive war horses, advances in gunpowder weapons made the cuirass less effective. During the thirty years war the role of cuirassiers evolved from heavy skirmishing cavalry to shock cavalry used to break enemy formations. Cuirassiers filled the role that was left open by the declining use of lancers.

The Napoleonic wars saw a massive revival in the use of cuirassiers. For instance, in 1799 when Napoleon returned to France from his Egyptian expedition, France had only one cuirassier regiment. Over the next decade, Napoleon would increase the number to fourteen . Cuirassiers fit very well into Napoleonic tactics because they were such excellent shock troops and thus complemented the French mixed order tactics very well. These heavy cavalry units would be sent in at the most intense moments of fighting and break through the already weakened enemy resistance. Napoleon would lose all of his cuirassiers during his invasion of Russia, some of the horsemen survived, but none of the large horses which the French Cuirassiers rode on survived. This was an enormous loss and the grand armee was never the same after that.

One little note, the cuirassiers of Civ4 do not use historical armament, even though early cuirassiers often used pistols, throughout their history cuirassiers relied more on swords than firearms and if they did bring firearms into battle they would have been small, portable pistols rather than large and clunky firearms, thus the cuirassiers of Civ4 are really more like armoured carabineers than true cuirassiers.
 
Interesting post. I have a question for you. Do you think it's fair to label them as a distinct new unit type? From what you wrote, they seem more like a gradual evolution of knights/heavy cavalry(better armor, but still mostly fighting with swords), rather than a really "new" type of soldier.
 
I think that there are arguments both ways, I personally think that cuirassiers should be classified as a distinct unit type. Even though they were heavy cavalry much like knights, their tactics and equipment were very highly specialized for gunpowder warfare and the massive battles of the corresponding period. Cuirassiers were best suited for fighting lighter cavalry rather than infantry. Cuirassiers also had a more specialized role, much like knights they were heavy cavalry, used to smash or rout lighter cavalry and infantry and had a very important psychological role, however, unlike cuirassiers which operated in support of the rest of the army, knights often fought independently and would sometimes fight on foot, knights were used in scouting and holding ground and could operate as both light and heavy cavalry. I think that cuirassiers could be labeled as a distinct new unit type because they had a more specialized role than knights did. They were types of cavalry used for very different types of warfare.
 
If anything I would add more units. Imo between Knights and Cavalry you should be able to build Dragoons (mounted infantry, get defensive bonuses) and Hussars (light cavalry, weak but high withdraw %) in addition to Cuirassiers.
 
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