What arms were there in ancient wars?

Tactical arms in ancient wars and the setting of our arms

I have long had an opinion on the Three Kingdoms of Glory Company. Mainly because: The History of the Three Kingdoms is a strategic game that focuses on military hegemony. The game has developed well among military commanders, but it is really difficult to agree with the ancient military viewpoint. In the latest work-The History of the Three Kingdoms 10, the arms are divided into three main arms: cavalry, infantry and crossbowman, which contain each other. Cavalry is like infantry, Gong Bing is like cavalry, and infantry is like Gong Bing. As a representative imperial hegemony game, I can only regret this distinction.

1. Abandon old ideas

I have long had an opinion on the history of the Three Kingdoms of Glorious Company. Mainly because: The History of the Three Kingdoms is a strategic game that focuses on military hegemony. The game has developed well among military commanders, but it is really difficult to agree with the ancient military viewpoint. In the latest work-The History of the Three Kingdoms 10, the arms are divided into three main arms: cavalry, infantry and crossbowman, which contain each other. Cavalry is like infantry, Gong Bing is like cavalry, and infantry is like Gong Bing. As a representative imperial hegemony game, I can only regret this distinction.

In the reflection 10, it is ridiculous to say that heavy cavalry is an upgrading unit of light cavalry. In fact, in the history of China, the army used light riding and heavy riding in two completely different fields. Qingqi is good at harassment and sneak attack, and heavy riding has strong impact. Their tactics are completely different, they are two completely different arms. How does heavy riding serve as the upgrade arm of Qingqi? And the setting of Gong Bing cavalry in the game is also ridiculous. Whether riding heavily or riding lightly, they are fast, at least faster than archers. When they rumbled over, I didn't know what the archers took to contain the cavalry. The setting of cavalry and infantry is also unreasonable. Heavy infantry are arranged in dense formation, with a spear two people high in the right hand and a large shield one person high in the left hand. The whole infantry array moves like a moving fortress. No matter how aggressive and impulsive cavalry are, it is unlikely to pose a threat to this formation.

Ancient wars always emphasized three basic elements of arms: attack power, defense power and machine power (this model still applies today); In terms of attack power, there are three attack distances in ancient wars from near to far: melee, throwing distance (crossbow shooting distance) and long-range shooting distance (military equipment attack distance). Cavalry, infantry and Gong Bing all have different performances in this model: cavalry has strong mobility and can attack at close range and with projectiles; Infantry has high defense and strong melee ability; Gong Bing is the same as infantry in many ways, except that it uses bows and arrows to hurt the enemy at throwing distance. According to this model, it will be more realistic and scientific to distinguish arms. And a careful analysis of multiple arms in history, you will find that many of them are similar in this model. Although many of them are collectively referred to as infantry or cavalry, their performances in the model are quite different. So I divide infantry into heavy infantry and light infantry, and cavalry into heavy cavalry and light cavalry.

I also think that there is no problem of arms containing each other, which is a mandatory wrong setting. Each arm has its own characteristics and limitations, and its applications are different. In different occasions and conditions, service arm A may "constrain" service arm B, but in different occasions and conditions, service arm B may "constrain" service arm A in turn. For example, in plain areas, it is very easy to command cavalry to complete long-distance strategic circuitous; But in the mountainous area, it is difficult to imagine the cavalry making a detour. In mountainous areas, infantry is often more mobile than cavalry. In other words, in addition to the three elements and three distances mentioned just now, there are other factors restricting this model: the limitation of natural conditions such as geography and weather, the difficulty of replenishment, the morale and discipline of the army, the cost performance of the army, and whether the weapons are easy to maintain.

In a word, I summarized all the arms in history into five categories: heavy infantry, light infantry, heavy cavalry, light cavalry and military equipment, and then subdivided these five categories according to other factors that restricted the model, and formulated my *** 15 arm setting composed of different arms. Because it was thought of in "The History of the Three Kingdoms 10", I simply wrote some distinctive arms in the History of the Three Kingdoms, which should be closer to historical facts. It can be regarded as a reference, but it is also regular. Interested friends, I hope this article can help.

2. Services have their own characteristics and limitations.

Next, according to the three basic elements of attack power, defense power and machine power, as well as the three attack distances of melee, projectile and long-range shooting, these six aspects constitute a more historic method to distinguish arms in my mind. I roughly divide all arms into five categories: heavy infantry, light infantry, heavy cavalry, light cavalry and military equipment. Look at the table below, and then introduce five arms in many ways.

Heavy infantry has always been the main arms of the China army, especially when capturing fortified cities and positions and killing the enemy's effective forces, it can play a far better role than other arms. Heavy infantry usually wear heavy armor and carry swords and shields. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were also a pair of bows and arrows. Generally speaking, the so-called heavy armor is armor that bows and arrows can't penetrate, so as to avoid being killed by a large number of people within the throwing distance. Therefore, it is not uncommon for seven or eight arrows in heavy infantry to still fight fiercely. Heavy infantry, on the other hand, has poor mobility and extremely slow moving speed, which is suitable for launching a second attack after heavy cavalry charge, expanding and consolidating the results. In addition, this kind of arm can also exert great power in siege warfare.

Light infantry is the auxiliary force of the whole army. The two major tasks are: cooperating with other arms to fight, such as following the chariot in the Spring and Autumn Period, protecting the chariot and destroying the enemies near the chariot; An attack that reaches a projected distance, such as shooting an enemy with a crossbow. Most of the light infantry are recruits, lacking in training discipline and general attack power, and are the most vulnerable units on the battlefield. However, there are exceptions. In the ancient wars in China, the most aggressive troops, or death squads, often wore light armor or no armor. They think that wearing heavy armor will reduce their action frequency and their motivation, so they simply don't wear armor and go shirtless. This is a typical Qin infantry. It is necessary to mention here that archers are classified as light infantry because they have the same equipment (defense) and power as light infantry, and they all assist other arms in fighting, but the difference is that they can attack the enemy at the throwing distance. Since it is consistent with light infantry in function and nature, it cannot be separated and exists as one of the representative arms.

Heavy cavalry is more popular in Europe. We can often see knights wearing steel armor from head to toe, including war horses, which has a strong visual and sensory effect. However, in the history of China, heavy cavalry was paid attention to only in the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Other heavy cavalry of the Central Plains Dynasty were auxiliary arms, and the number was small. There are many reasons, perhaps the most important one is that China has a vast territory, and heavy cavalry is far less effective than light cavalry in realizing strategic maneuver. The heavy cavalry in China's history can only be regarded as medium cavalry in Europe, neither heavy nor heavy: only three-quarters to half of the whole body is covered with armor (see the picture below, Mongolian heavy cavalry). This ensures a certain mechanical power and at the same time has the basic defense. When the heavy cavalry charged, the power was amazing and unstoppable.

The Central Plains Dynasty was very fond of light cavalry, and classic examples of light cavalry emerged one after another. China's ancient art of war has always attached importance to "combining singularity with rightness". Here, "positive" refers to heavy infantry, and "odd" refers to light cavalry. My understanding of "surprise attack" has two meanings: first, "attack", protected by the motive force of light cavalry, can complete very important tasks such as strategically detouring to the enemy's flank and rear, carrying out long-range surprise attack and raiding the enemy's base camp; The second is "awkward", which is a horn with the main heavy infantry. When the main force is facing a crisis, either help or attack the enemy's flank. In addition, it should also be mentioned that in history, the Qingqi shooters of the northern minorities and the Qingqi shooters of the Mongols and Huns are typical of this type. Qingqi archers are powerful. The horror is that it can accurately shoot arrows in high-speed sports. I can only say that it is the best unit to achieve tactical harassment.

Military equipment also plays an important role in the cold weapon war. The most typical equipment can attack the enemy's trebuchet, giant crossbow, crossbow gun and so on. All three countries have military equipment, such as thunderbolt cars and drilling holes, which also played a great role in the war. The Yugoslav capital of China has always been perfect, and the city is high and deep. Without military equipment, the attacker will generally not launch a siege. Although the attack power is amazing, the maneuverability is poor, and military equipment generally only appears in tough battles, which is not suitable for long-distance mobile operations. There are exceptions to military equipment. There is a kind of equipment that can follow the field troops and act as a cover fan for light infantry, or it can be pulled out alone to take the lead. It is a chariot (see the picture below). Chariots run through chinese military history. In addition to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the armies of Shu in the Three Kingdoms were equipped with a large number of chariots, and the Emperor Wu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty equipped the chariots with giant crossbows instead of moon arrays. In the Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang also continued to develop the tactical combination of chariots in the gunpowder age, and the operational requirements were somewhat similar to those of today's tanks.

I set up tactical weapons.

As mentioned above, there are five ways to distinguish arms, and there is no unrealistic mutual restraint mechanism. So what is a better solution?

The system scheme I provided is very simple, only adding a "fighting posture" setting on the basis of the real-time strategic arms setting (such as Age of Empires). So what is a fighting posture? There are some skill settings similar to RPG in combat posture, which are also skills, but there is no level, no practice and no mana consumption. Starcraft human infantry (marines) have two attack postures: excited and normal. Excited posture is twice the normal attack frequency, but it costs 10 life. This is the origin of the basic concept of combat posture. All arms have their own special combat posture to meet the operational needs under current conditions. For example, the enemy's heavy cavalry is approaching this array. Of course, our heavy infantry should pose, raise spears and solid shields, and make this array look indestructible. It can be inferred that the heavy infantry has two postures, normal posture and defensive posture (of course, there are more than these two postures). In normal posture, the attack power and engine power are high, but the defense is weak, so it can't carry the charge of heavy riding. After changing to the defensive posture, the defense force has increased dramatically, and even the strongest heavy rider can only escape.

So with the setting of "fighting posture", everything is much easier, and there is no unreal mutual restraint. For example, the defense force of heavy infantry is 100 in normal posture and 150 in defensive posture. The defense is greatly increased, so I don't think players will take precious cavalry to the position where heavy infantry is located. For another example, heavy cavalry can also set two postures: normal posture and charge posture. Charge posture is 20% higher than normal attack power and moving speed is 20% higher than normal. It also has a range attack effect, which makes its charge even more terrible.

Let's stop here for all kinds of "fighting postures". Next, let's talk about the arm setting. There are not only five kinds of arm settings: light step, heavy step, light ride, heavy ride and equipment. I regard them as basic arms, but this is not all. I listed 15 kinds of arms with different characteristics below. In fact, I have subdivided five basic arms, added different characteristics, and made some changes and imagination according to historical facts. Make a brief list, listing the basic situation of 15 munitions, for reference only. I didn't balance any figures. I just made it according to the marks left by my arm. You can give your own opinion.