Re: [NetEpic ML] [v5.0] Core rules: fortifications

From: peter cornwell <petecorn_at_...>
Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 00:02:05 +1000

"Millett, George" wrote:

> Depends on the width of the trench, of course - but we
> are talking about trained professionals (Imperial) who
> would jump trenches as part of their basic training.
>
> --->As far as I am aware the training is relatively benign and I would like
> to see a horse that would willingly jump a deep ditch filled with nasty
> people armed with various nasty pointed things just waiting to cut it to
> pieces.
>

At the battle of Beersheba in WW1, the Australian Light Horse charged trenches

full of Turks across open desert. They jumped the trenches (full of Turks) and
went on to hit the artillery and take the city. (They had to take the city
because they had run out of water). It was one of the last great cavalry
charges and the charge itself was portrayed pretty accurately in the
Australian film "The Light Horsemen" and we see them jumping right over the
Turks heads! I know it was a rare event, but isn't this the sort of legendary
charge that should happen sometimes in Epic? Maybe any infantry in the trench
could get a free attack as the cavalry crossed - discouraging such charges but
not making them impossible.

By the way, I think that as far as trenches being too wide to cross, I always
thought they were pretty much by definition narrow. The whole idea was to make
them a small target for artillery. I remember how historians bagged the
Kubrick film "Paths of Glory" because the trenches were too wide. He made them
wide so he could run his old style camera dolley along it, but even then they
weren't all that wide. I've certainly seen photos of actual trenches that were
narrow enough for horses to jump.

just my two cents worth.

Peter Cornwell
Received on Mon May 06 2002 - 14:02:05 UTC