Chariots Rampant? Evolution

 

The classic chariot was a powerful mobile missile platform. Its Composite Bow outranged the Self Bows of foot archers. 

Imagine standing in the battle line hoping the chariots didn't come for you. 

No one could cope with it and chariot technology was adopted far and wide.  What next?

Someone, somewhere, decided that a chariot with an added close fighter should be able to catch a classic chariot and spear its archer.  

This seemed to have worked. It was likely pioneered by the Hittites. And then?

Four horse chariots appeared with 4, or 3, crewmen only one of which was an archer. The chariot was now able to multi task, missilery and close fighting. No one seems to have thought that increased missilery would adequately protect the chariot against immediate threats. Otherwise we would have 3, or 2, archers and a driver.

Chariots had started off as all-purpose weapons dominating the battlefield with missilery. Now chariots were optimised for seeing off other chariots. The odds presumably being 50/50 on success. Dominance depended upon having more chariots than the other side.

Chariots were expensive, food and lodgings for the crew, ditto the horses. Likewise for trainers and technicians. Five of the latter per chariot seem to have been required.  More chariots meant more expenditure. An Arms Race in fact.

Then came the Sea Peoples and Cavalry and the great days of the chariot were over.

All the same it is quite an evolutionary journey. We need to differentiate between classic chariots and multi- purpose chariots because they did different things. I have not thought yet about how to do this with LRv2. It should be simple enough.

What of the Mycenaean Chariot? No use at all for missilery; it only carried a heavily armoured close fighter. It was very good for tackling other chariots . Maybe that was what it was for. Did the opponents joust? Of course not. 

Rather, you come up alongside and spear the other lad. Better still, if you can cut across behind the foe you can safely spear him in the back. Think dog fight.

If no chariot foes presented the Dendra armoured warrior could dismount, having preserved his energy, and spear a few lesser protected fellows. 

On this page you see my chariot collection so far. I now have enough to test some game concepts.