Kryten
Smeee heeeeed
Hi ya s3d!
"Knights should smite an ancient army...."
Hmmm....I'm not so sure.
Lets put the Roman Legion and Chinese pikemen to one side for the moment
(I also think that the Macedonian Pike armed Phanangites of Alexander the
Great's army would put up a good fight against Medieval Knights).
The long battlefield dominance of the Knight, from about 1050 AD till say 1550 AD,
can be split into two overlapping parts. In the earlier period they wore mail, while
later on more and more armour was added untill the Knight was almost totaly
protected from head to foot with plate armour by the end.
Now lets look at weapons. The Ancient armies used two main types of hand weapons:
the single handed edge weapon (i.e. swords & axes) and long pointed weapons (i.e.
pikes & spears). During the Medieval period a third type of hand weapon was added: the
two handed pole weapons (such as Poleaxes, Halbards, Bills and so on, which had the
disadvantage of not being able to use a shield because both hands were busy).
Now all these weapons were powered by the same thing: human muscles. And Medieval
muscles were no better than Ancient muscles. Yes, Knights also used their horses
and lances to charge the enemy, but after the initial impact it was
all down to their muscles to win the melee.
So I think Civ3 has got it right by giving Knights an attack of 4 and a defence of 3.
The Knight unit in the game can beat all the Ancient units. Against Swordsmen or Immortals
for example: when attacking they have a 2:1 advantage, and if defending, then the
odds are still about 1:1. And, being faster, the Knight unit can always fall back
if things start going against it.
Last of all lets look at the decline of the Medieval Knight.
Mid way into the Medieval period foot soldiers, fed up of being trampled by Knights
for hundreds of years, began to rely more and more on long pikes to stop mounted charges.
The English of the Hundred's Year War tried a different weapon, the Longbow. Both
these helped to give the Knight a bloody nose, but neither caused the end of
the Knight (remember, even with the Longbow and the battles of Crecy and Agincourt,
we English still lost the Hundred's Years War!). And both these weapons are also
muscle powered.
The true end of the Knight came with the invention of gunpowder.
Chemical power had at last replaced muscle power. After all, whats the point
of wearing heavy expensive plate armour if a bullet is going to go straight through it?
I think the last time 'Knights' were used was at the begining of the English Civil War
of 1642 to 1648. A unit nicknamed the 'Lobsters' (because of all the armour they wore)
soon threw away all their armour before the end of the first year.
Sorry to be so long winded!
(By the way, Medieval Knights were notoriously undisciplined, arrogant and foolhardy.
Steady trained and disciplined Romans or Macedonians would have been ok....)
"Knights should smite an ancient army...."
Hmmm....I'm not so sure.
Lets put the Roman Legion and Chinese pikemen to one side for the moment
(I also think that the Macedonian Pike armed Phanangites of Alexander the
Great's army would put up a good fight against Medieval Knights).
The long battlefield dominance of the Knight, from about 1050 AD till say 1550 AD,
can be split into two overlapping parts. In the earlier period they wore mail, while
later on more and more armour was added untill the Knight was almost totaly
protected from head to foot with plate armour by the end.
Now lets look at weapons. The Ancient armies used two main types of hand weapons:
the single handed edge weapon (i.e. swords & axes) and long pointed weapons (i.e.
pikes & spears). During the Medieval period a third type of hand weapon was added: the
two handed pole weapons (such as Poleaxes, Halbards, Bills and so on, which had the
disadvantage of not being able to use a shield because both hands were busy).
Now all these weapons were powered by the same thing: human muscles. And Medieval
muscles were no better than Ancient muscles. Yes, Knights also used their horses
and lances to charge the enemy, but after the initial impact it was
all down to their muscles to win the melee.
So I think Civ3 has got it right by giving Knights an attack of 4 and a defence of 3.
The Knight unit in the game can beat all the Ancient units. Against Swordsmen or Immortals
for example: when attacking they have a 2:1 advantage, and if defending, then the
odds are still about 1:1. And, being faster, the Knight unit can always fall back
if things start going against it.
Last of all lets look at the decline of the Medieval Knight.
Mid way into the Medieval period foot soldiers, fed up of being trampled by Knights
for hundreds of years, began to rely more and more on long pikes to stop mounted charges.
The English of the Hundred's Year War tried a different weapon, the Longbow. Both
these helped to give the Knight a bloody nose, but neither caused the end of
the Knight (remember, even with the Longbow and the battles of Crecy and Agincourt,
we English still lost the Hundred's Years War!). And both these weapons are also
muscle powered.
The true end of the Knight came with the invention of gunpowder.
Chemical power had at last replaced muscle power. After all, whats the point
of wearing heavy expensive plate armour if a bullet is going to go straight through it?
I think the last time 'Knights' were used was at the begining of the English Civil War
of 1642 to 1648. A unit nicknamed the 'Lobsters' (because of all the armour they wore)
soon threw away all their armour before the end of the first year.
Sorry to be so long winded!
(By the way, Medieval Knights were notoriously undisciplined, arrogant and foolhardy.
Steady trained and disciplined Romans or Macedonians would have been ok....)
. 
. As for the air power problem the support ships will do more then enough to keep the battleship safe, if it was a matter of fear of safety then we would of scrapped the battleships, not decommisioned.
