Donno Eporedoi (Gallic Noble Cavalry)

Donno Eporedoi (Gallic Noble Cavalry)
Donno Eporedoi (Gallic Noble Cavalry)
Primary Weapon	Type: Spear Attack: 8 Charge: 11 Lethality: 1
Secondary Weapon	Type: Sword Attack: 11 Charge: 6 Lethality: 1
Defence	Armour: 8 Shield: 4 Skill: 6 Upgrade levels: 1, 2
Recruitment	Soldiers: 40 Cost: 2550 Upkeep: 638 Turns: 1
Mental	Morale: 7 Discipline: impetous Training: highly trained
Climate Fatigue	Hot climate : 3
Ground bonuses/Penalties to attack	Scrub: -1 Sand: -3 Forest: -3 Snow: -2
Other	Hit Points: 1 Mass: 1 Attributes: Can board ships, Can hide in forests, Inspires nearby units. Knight Formation: square Side/Back spacing: 1.8/3.7 Ownership: Aedui, Arverni, Romani

Donno Eporedoi are Gallic noble cavalry, well trained and equipped with the best armour and weapons money can provide. These heavy cavalrymen should be used as mounted shock troops, punching holes in the enemy line and using their speed and weight to break enemy formations from the rear and flanks.

Description

The Donno Eporedoi are composed of the tribe's aristocracy. Seated atop well bred, powerful horses and armed and armoured to the teeth, these professional warriors are usually the last thing that an enemy general will see charging before entire sections of his army begin to rout. These men are the wealthiest in the tribe and as such they have the time to and resources to dedicate themselves to the role of professional mounted warriors. Motivated by a strong esprit de corps, as much to protect their people as to advance their reputations, these men will hold their own in even the most dire of melees. Their armour can be expected to withstand all but the most deadly of weapons and their mounts provide them with speed to outflank and deliver devastating blows to the enemy's line. Expensive and time consuming to train they can never the less be expected to deliver results on the battle field.

Historically, cavalry, and in particular heavy cavalry, has been an occupation reserved for the well to do in society. In Keltoi communities this was no different. From the start of the Iron Age in continental Europe, a period referred to as Hallstatt C by archaeologists, we have evidence of equine related activities in the graves of the rich. Originally in the form of horse drawn wagon burials and then later, in the succeeding Hallstatt D phase in the form of burials associated with mounted warriors. During the La Tène era we find both vehicle and mounted warrior graves, the latter identifiable by their long swords, chapes and various horse adornments. The lengthening of the Keltoi sword in the 3rd Century BC has been interpreted as indicating the development of the sort of heavy Keltoi cavalry represented by this unit. Only the nobility and their retainers would have had the sort of disposable wealth to enable them to own horses, equip themselves with the requisite weapons and armour to be considered heavy cavalry. Likewise by living off the work of others, only people in such positions would have had the time to spare to devote themselves to the training and practice required to perform as heavy cavalry on the battlefield. By the 1st Century BC we hear, from Caesar, of Gallic nobles like the Aeduan Dumnorix and the Atrebatan Kommios using their personal wealth to equip and field their own, personal contingents of heavy cavalry which they used both in battle and to influence politics in their own tribes.

It is quite possible that the development of such cavalry units came about as a result of contact with Mediterranean powers, in particular those such as the Hellenic kingdoms of the east who employed the heavy cavalry tactics developed by Phillipus II of Makedon.During the 4th and 3rd centuries in particular there was high demand for Keltoi mercenaries among the Hellenic states, and as noted above it is during the third century that evidence for such troops begins to appear in the form of longswords, chapes, lances, chainmail and helmets which provided greater all round cover. The presence of such troops on the battlefield is noted by Polybius who describes the Battle of Telamon in 225BC, where the Gallic force is reported to have fielded 20,000 cavalry, almost outnumbering the Roman horse by four to one. Certainly at the later Battle of Cannae, Hannibal employed such Gallic horsemen decisively to secure his greatest victory. The importance of cavalry in Gallic armies continued to grow during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The Hellene Poseidonius, writing in the mid 2nd century BC, notes the importance of cavalry in Gallic cavalry. Pausanias, no doubt copying from a much older work, describes how Gallic nobles rode with two retainers in a formation known as the trimarcisia (literally "three riders"), with the two retainers holding back unless their patron found himself in a difficult situation. By the 1st century BC the social and political changes which Keltoi society underwent during this time caused the trimarcisia of Pausanias to develop into a sizable body of retainers, such as those noted above in the employ of Dumnorix and Kommios. These comitatus, as Caesar referred to them, were the apogee of Celtic cavalry, equipped with La Tène D longswords, iron helmets chainmail in some cases, armour piercing lances, and sometimes even large horses imported from Skythia.