"Should Dwarves have cavalry?" Topic

The idea that a dwarf would ride a bear into battle doesn't sit right with my particular sense of fantasy.

Can you really outflank a bunch of dwarf armored like tanks?

A war machine I can buy into, cavalry not so much.

Should dwarves have cavalry and if so, what mounts?

Sure. Why not?

I envisioned them on armored up Boars…

they could ride ponies, or breed their own horses. Hell, if you read some of the accounts of the horses avaliable to the romans, dwarves would sit on them much like a modern person rides a horse

@Winston

You are answering a question with a question. It's my worthless opinion and that's enough. You say "sure", but what should they ride?

I think someone makes them on rams, too.

Sure on bears and other larger four legged animals

I agree with DisasterWargamer. I've always thought bears were the only mounts worth much to dwarves.

There is no reason why Dwarves shouldn't have cavalry, for some reason everyone has taken Tolkien's claim that short people can't ride horses at face value and have continued the trend and introduced riding animals that are in fact even harder to ride than horses …

There is nothing wrong with horses, they are extremely suitable as cavalry in a way that most other animals that look quite similar are not.

Mounted Dwarves never feel quite right to me, and I try to avoid making my fantasy armies tactically the same. So my Halfling army has no serious heavy infantry unless Dwarves show up as allies, and the Dwarves similarly have no cavalry unless they get Halfling mounted bowmen on ponies. My (sort of western European) Mannish army has no mounted bows, and so forth.

But I'm a tabletop battle person, not a map and pins campaigner. If I were running a campaign, I'd posit a few Dwarven mounted scouts on ponies. (And Patrick R, as a scout I'd try really hard to have an animal short enough that I could mount it unaided. There's never a mounting block around when you really need one. See Goblin Reservation.)

Only a few leader types IMHO. I have some mounted on bears & a couple of "winged hussars" on rams.

The dwarves in my campaign settings (RPG type games) ride giant tortoises. When they form a line, the tortoises pull in their heads and lower their front legs creating an almost unmovable wall.

I'm fine with armored boars over bears as there's no risk of them rearing up in the same way.

From Ghost Miniatures:

Yes!

* Bears
* Boars
* Giant Armadillos
* Ponies
* Rams

Agree, no cavalry. One trap that some fantasy armies get into is making sure everyone is covered in every slot. So dwarfs get cavalry on a variety of ridiculous animals no one in their right mind would use as riding mounts. And have to be better at it than everyone else (goblins get wargs, but dwarfs get bears, because…). But personally I like it better if dwarfs didn't have any cavalry or at least heavy cavalry. It gives them a weakness that you have to overcome in other areas to compensate. Dwarfs already get the best heavy infantry (traditionally), so now we have to give them bear cavalry?

Damon.

Yes, on donkeys!

TMP link

I have some on bears and cows, but I don't think it is realistic due to my view of dwarves, but I may be incorrect in my assumptions.

Sure they can ride mounts, just as Saxons could, but they generally didn't. And so dwarfs don't (from a none fantasy player)

No mounted dwarves in my collection.

Goblins have warg riders and even a few warg chariots.

Orcs, hobgoblins, ratmen, and ogres all walk, except one orcish leader on a hell horse and one hag spawn on an oversized horse.

Humans and elves have normal horse mounted cavalry.

They are a race that mostly lives underground, so pit pony charriots, at a push!

Yep. If they're gonna ride boars, they better have appropriate protection. Perhaps a good cod piece, in addition to their saddle.

As most of you guys already know, boars have extremely tough and stiff bristles on their backs. :)

Dan

Well if they live underground they should be riding Pit-Ponies…

Yes.
That's what elves are for.

Ponies for dwarves, but just a few for scouts etc in a Tolkienesqe setting, after all Thorin et Al rode ponies at the start of the Hobbit. For, 'freestyle' fantasy, why not ride whatever, anything goes.

For the underground dwelling Dwarves:

* Giant Woodchucks

I'm not about tell a dwarf chieftain that he can't have cavalry. Are you nuts?

Good point Winston !!

Mine don't, but I'm good with bears, ponies, rams, goats, "rock lizards" (D&D Known World), or whatever. Probably not boars, as that's what my GW orcs ride, and identical forces are boring.

Of course, with dwarves, the answer to the question "What would a dwarf ride" is "How much ale has the dwarf drunk?"

It would seem?
Do you want them to have cavalry, then they have cavalry.
If you don't want them to have cavalry then they don't have cavalry.
They can ride any mount you fancy.

Since we are making it all up via our own imaginations after all.
Regards
Russ Dunaway

I can already imagine the new TMP poll question:

Is there a law in your fantasy universe against drunk riding?

Dan

Have you ever met a jockey? The premier equestrians are virtually all </= dwarf height.

Sure…. boars, rams, bears, ponies, badgers, anything you want.

I have two small units on bears. Thanks Battle Valor!

The only D class unit in the army is a small unit of mounted scouts on ponies.

Ha! Good point MM Steve.

Nope.

"Have you ever met a jockey? The premier equestrians are virtually all </= dwarf height."

Attila was pretty short. Imagine how much more legendary he would have been if he'd ridden a bear into battle… ;-)

I think it depends on your fantasy world.

1. Where do they live? If they are in the mountains, that's bad cavalry country regardless of your type of mount.

2. Do they live in more mixed terrain? More likely they will have some kind of cavalry.

3. Do the Dwarves stay pretty much to themselves? Then they will be less likely to have cavalry, fighting defensive wars with heavy infantry and missile weapons (bow, crossbow as you prefer) and some Dwarven missile engines.

4. Do the Dwarves take to the field to project power, are they often fighting to expand or defend new territory against other powers? If so, then cavalry makes more sense as a scouting and striking arm for a Dwarvish army.

I prefer a classical Tolkien style Dwarven culture -- mountain kingdoms who may engage in trade but other than fighting with goblins and others in the mountains do not generally field armies abroad. So they would field a core force of heavy infantry supported by skirmishers/scouts, missile troops and some type of missile/siege weapons, with little need for cavalry.

Gnomes are a better jockey build than Dwarves.

Mountain terrain is a great place for pony or goat riding scouts and light cavalry.

I have Ram Cavalry, Boar Cavalry, and a few, leader types, riding massive Bears. It all works for me.

With regards to not every army having cavalry, I agree. Not every fantasy race army in my collection has cavalry: Gnomes, Kobolds, and Orcs immediately come to mind.

Goblins have: Light Wolf Cavalry, Medium Warg Cavalry, and aerial Giant Bat Cavalry (not terribly effective, but quite the sight to see them swarm atop an enemy unit!…).

I found some fantastic Lizard toys, which are perfect for my Caesar 1/72 plastic Lizardmen Army to create "Cavalry" for them. They are not fast, of course, and they may get distracted by all of the tasty meat lying freshly dead in front of them, on the battlefield, but that is what Discipline Checks are for! Note that even the Lizardmen troops may need to make a Discipline Check to avoid being… Distracted. What with their, "horrid feasts", and all, don't ya' know? [See Gary Gygax's description for Lizardmen, in his 1977 AD&D Monster Manual book.) Cheers!

All good fantasy is rational. Even though dragons don't exist; they must still adhere to the laws of physics when they fly. You typically don't see Dwarves wielding long swords and long bows because of their short stature. But you might say professional jockeys are short; they are but not stoute or thick as a Dwarf. Dwarves simply don't make good cavalry troopers and as such their culture developed differently than other races. They are better at being slow moving heavy infantry defending fixed fortifications.

I agree USAFpilot, I always viewed Dwarves as rather Dark Ages types, who feel the only honourable way to fight was on foot, who could ride ponies, but not in battle.

Tolkien's Dwarves, in the second age, hired human mercenaries to serve as light cavalry (and light infantry).

David B

Badgers! Well in Mantica (Kings of War) anyway.

goats bears or boars all work for me

Does this mean that Elves aren't allowed heavy infantry, if Dwarves can't have cavalry?

Only on horses or ponies and mostly as mounted infantry. No boars, bears or other such silliness…might as well mount them on screaming werebats if you want to go that route and defy history!

Does this mean that Elves aren't allowed heavy infantry, if Dwarves can't have cavalry?

For Wood Elfs? Sure…

Damon.

Bulls.

Bull Centaurs.

Yes.

Moles. Gophers. Prairie Dogs. Groundhogs. Rabbits. Bilbies.

All of the giant kind.

Mine do.