AD Cavalry.pdf

8/23/2019 AD Cavalry.pdf

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Cavalry Factors in the Dunnigan System

By Alan R. Arvold

Cavalry is something of a weird animalin the Dunnigan System. It can closeassault and direct fire like an infantryunit but it moves like a vehicle and aspecial one at that (it can cross greenhexsides); yet, it cannot make overrunattacks. There is only one original

cavalry unit in the system, the Russianone. The German and French ones Iadded because the Germans usedcavalry units in the 1940 FrenchCampaign and in theopening rounds ofthe Russian Cam-paign in 1941 beforethey converted themto mechanized or

motorized forces thefollowing year. TheRussian cavalry unithas a good attackfactor and a fairrange factor, but hasa defense factor thatputs it towards the lower end of thedefense factor table in the infantryfactor article. The German and Frenchcavalry units are nothing more than

Rifle platoons on horses, with areduced but still good range factor (inPanzerBlitz for the Germans) and anabysmal defense factor. The Germanand French ones deserve mentionbecause when I created them, I had touse the Dunnigan System precepts from

Panzer Leader to do it and thenreverse engineer these precepts toPanzerBlitz to create the GermanCavalry units for that game.

The attack factor was arrived at usingthe same system as that used to create

the infantry attack factors. The Russiancavalry was trained in offensive tacticsand this included fighting armor whenthey ran into it. Because they often

operated deep in theenemy rear this wasnecessary. And sincethey rode on horses,they could carry plentyof infantry anti-tank

weapons with them. Thisput them in the AF 4category on the InfantryAF table in my previousarticle. The Germancavalry on the otherhand acted more as the

dragoons of old, equally well versed inboth infantry and cavalry tactics. Andsince the German cavalry carried thesame weapons as the infantry, it made

sense to give them the same attackfactor as the respective Rifle unit foreach game, that being an AF of 3 forPanzerBlitz and an AF of 2 for PanzerLeader 1940. One will already see acontradiction in this last sentence as theFrench Rifle unit in Panzer Leader 1940


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Cavalry Factors in the Dunnigan System 2 Imaginative Strategist 18 August 2006

has an attack factor of 1. Well theFrench cavalry were the elite of theFrench Army in 1940. They were bettertrained than the infantry and theylearned to be more independent and

innovative in their tactics, compared tothe infantry. They really were not betterarmed than the infantry, just bettermotivated. The attack factor of 2 isrecognition of this.

A lot has been said about the cavalrycharges (or the lack of them) during theSecond World War. In truth, theGerman and French cavalry almostnever used them, preferring to fightdismounted. The Russians made greatuse of them in the first year of the war,but only a few were successful and sothey quickly adopted the Germanmethodology of cavalry tactics. This isnot to say that the Russian cavalry wasnot trained in dismounted tactics at theonset, they were. Its just that many ofthe commanding officers in the Russiancavalry in 1941 had cut their teeth as

junior officers in the mass cavalrybattles in the Russian Civil War and theRusso-Polish War thatfollowed in the late1910s and early1920s and theywanted to relive someold glories. Howeverthe hard reality of warin the 1940s showed

that their old wayswere no longer validand they had to adaptor die (most sufferedthe second option).After 1941 cavalry charges still didhappen but they were rare and usedagainst an enemy position that had

been properly prepared beforehand.One note on these cavalry charges,they were not long the long drawn outaffairs of Borodino and Balaklavafame. They were short charges from

attack positions close to the target, inorder to reduce the time they wereexposed to enemy fire before theyreach it. Thus a close assault thatoccurs after the cavalry has moved onehex could be thought of as either adismounted or mounted attack by acavalry unit, at the attacking playersdiscretion.

The range factor was based on thenumber and type of machine guns inthe unit in question, just like with theinfantry. Most of the Russian machineguns were light machine guns, therewere only two or three mediummachine guns which were mounted inhorse carts and placed in positions toprovide supporting fire. Thus this is whythey have a range factor of 3. TheGerman cavalry unit had 4 to 5 of their

machine guns (depending on whichplatoon in the cavalry troop got the

fifth machine gun).Most of the time thesewere in light mode, butwhen the cavalrydefended as infantry,the tripods (which werecarried in the troopsbaggage carts) came

out and now they werein medium mode. Thusthe 4 hex range inPanzerBlitz was some-thing of a compromise

solution to this dilemma. In PanzerLeader 1940 they received a rangefactor of 2* for the same reason.


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In case you are wondering why theGerman Cavalry units gets a RF of 2*and the German Rifle and Paratroopunits get an RF of 2 in Panzer Leader1940, consider this: the German

infantry did not have all of its machineguns as required by their T. O. & E.sdue to the rapid expansion of theGerman Army between Poland 1939and France 1940. It would not be untilthe next year that the German infantrywould have close to, if not all, of itsrequired machine guns and thus qualifyfor the extended range in PanzerLeader. The German Cavalry still hadpowerful supporters in the GermanArmy in the early part of the war andthey made sure that the cavalry was upto full T. O. & E. requirements in eachcampaign.

The defense factor was where thereverse engineering went into effect. InPanzer Leader it was decided thatmounted troops (those units whereindividual troops rode their owntransport vehicles, horses in cavalryand motorcycles in motorcycle units)would have an automatic defensefactor of 2 to represent theirvulnerability while mounted. Ironically

the defense factor of 2 was derivedfrom the Russian cavalry unit inPanzerBlitz which has a defense factorof 8. Since the Russian cavalry unit hadfour platoons in it, it was a simple

matter to divide the 8 by 4 to get thedefense factor of 2. Thus this is why theGerman and French cavalry platoonshave a defense factor of 2. The Russiancavalry unit was given a defense factorof 8 because using the infantry defensefactor table it was found that theRussian unit fell into the DF 4 category.(It operated in platoon size groupswithin the hex.)

It seems the cavalry units are at adisadvantage when it comes to defensefactors, especially since they did mostof their fighting dismounted. It has beenput forth over the years to provide ahorse counter for the cavalry and havethe defense factors increased to putthem more on par with the otherinfantry units when dismounted. Thiswas considered at the very beginning

and rejected for several reasons. One,it would add a bunch a rules whichwould further complicate the game.Two, it would create a horse counterthat players could use in an unhistoricalmanner. (The horses would have a fewtroops with them to keep them fromrunning off, not to run them across theboard like a herd of gallopingstallions.) Furthermore, cavalrymen

always kept their mounts close by whenfighting dismounted, so they couldmount up and retreat if they lost, ormount up and pursue if they won. Sincecavalry spent most of the time mountedin combat situations, moving around toget into attack positions from which toassault from, it was decided that they


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would get the mounted defense factorof 2. Besides, PanzerBlitz and PanzerLeader are not the proper tactical levelgames to show all of the intricacies inmounted and dismounted cavalry

operations. These are better portrayedon a lower tactical level and it herewhere Advanced Squad Leader doesthis quite well.

For the movement factor it was decidedearly on that all units that used horsesas their means of transport orlocomotion would have a movement

factor of 3 as this represented theaverage speed of horse mounted orhorse driven units on the battlefield.

Yes, horse units could get an extraburst of speed out of their steeds,whether it was in a cavalry charge or ahorse driven artillery unit bring-ing itsguns up to a critical point in thebattlefield. But then the horses wouldbe winded and would have to rest.

Rather than making a bunch of extrarules for this, Dunnigan just went withan average speed for horse units inPanzerBlitz and Reed carried on therule in Panzer Leader. Thus all cavalryunits automatically get a movementfactor of 3. (Sorry to disappoint thosegamers who want a super fast cavalry

counter because they believe all thoselate night Westerns they used to watchon television where the horsesappeared to run across the field allday long like they were at the Kentucky

Derby and never, ever, got winded.)

Alan R. Arvold

Publishers Note:

Byron Henderson, well versed in theArvold school of factoring, has createdfurther cavalry units for other powers.These can be found scattered amongthe pdfs of Imaginative Strategist, butowe their inception to Alans work,above.

Documents

AD Cavalry.pdf