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Scottish Cavalry

The Scots had very few cavalry, and they were mostly light and used for reconaisance and so on. There seems to be no reports of Scottish cavalry action at Bannockburn. The senior knights would certainly have been mounted, but too small in number to act as cavalry and therefore fought on foot. What I would like to see is lots of pikemen and some axe men too plus a few longbowmen.

Re: Scottish Cavalry

The scots did have cavalry. Their cavalry fought like, were armoured like and looked like their english enemies. Regarding the scot infantry the diffenrence were that Robert The Bruce trained his infantry to fight in wellorganised formations (scheltum) this way they could break the heavy english cavalry.

Actually this set will be great together with the upcoming plastic set from Valdemar. I think that they plan to do a personality figure of Robert The Bruce as well.

Re: Re: Scottish Cavalry

Yes, they did have at least a little cavalry, I think. Remember the story of Robert the Bruce killing Sir Henry de Bohun and breaking his favorite axe on his head? That's a neat story...

Just my two cents.

CivilWarDinosaur

P.S. See G.A. Henty's In Freedom's Cause.
http://www.visionforum.com/search/productdetail.aspx?search=william+wallace&productid=24206

Re: Robert The Bruce

The Scots (or we Scots, as I am Scottish) did have a small cavalry contingent at Bannockburn, mostly light cavalry, but sometimes described as mounted infantry. Their main contribution was crucial, as they drove off the English archers. This prevented them from breaking the Scottish schiltrons as had happened at Falkirk and was to happen in later battles. Although there were few Scottish cavalry at Bannockburn, their action was the turning point of the battle, without which it probably would not have been won. Bruce and his deputy Douglas both understood the importance of cavalry and used the small numbers that they had well at Bannockburn and elsewhere, such as at Loudon Hill. Unfortunately for Scotland, later generations believed that they had won at Bannockburn with infantry alone and could not understand why they kept losing to English armies which were free to use their archers to destroy the schiltrons. The presence of the English cavalry meant that the enemy infantry had to stay closely formed, but the presence of the archers meant that the closely formed infantry could be picked off at will, until they were thinned out enough for a cavalry charge to be successful.

Scottish Schiltrons

The schiltron set certainly looks good, and would be useful for depicting Scottish schiltrons throughout the 14th century. But, given the fact that the Scots used these formations well into the 16th century (for example, at Pinkie Cleugh), what figures would be useful for depicting later formations? More to the point, what did Scottish military costume look like during the Late Middle Ages/Early Renaissance? I would guess that the sets of Swiss, Landsknect or Spanish pikemen currently on the market or planned for the market are probably not really accurate.

Re: Scottish Schiltrons

Scotland was a fairly poor country. So for the first line well armed nobles but behind them more poorly armed. That's part of the reason why the Scottish King got killed by leading from the front rather than directing from the rear where its easier to escape when things go wrong.

Best regards,


Malcolm

Re: Re: Scottish Schiltrons

Ah, the Knights have appeared! Look very nice.

Will the poles be separate items, or are they still to be added to the figs?

Spears will be separate

Re: Spears will be separate

Awesome! And, given the little bit of research that I have done into Scottish late medieval/early Renaissance military costume, most of the footmen in the set would work for Scottish troops all the way into the mid-1500's - the billmen and guy with the two-handed axe seem especially appropriate. Add to them a few musket-wielding Conquistadors from Caesar's upcoming set, and you can have a Scottish army from Pinkie Cleugh or Ancrum Moor with some French gunners interspersed among the schiltrons. Love it!