The Road To Cavalry

They got horses, don't they? What do you mean they're not Reiksguard Knights of the Empire?

"Just keep cool and look imperious. No-one will notice."

Not quite as tenuous as my Pistoliers, the second half of my Riders of Rohan box set are proxies for Reiksguard Knights. Their slender spears are representing the mighty lances; those bronze horse caps count as full barding. Their shields still count for shields.

Look, it made a lot more sense when the Dogs of War list had medium cavalry as an option.

"Should I mention that I've still got a bow on my back?"
"Don't complicate things, Stibbins."

Taking the Pistoliers

And now we come to the most tenuous part of my metamorphosis from Dogs of War to Empire army: the light missile cavalry.

Back in the old days, you didn’t have to be a Volga Bulgar (say that five times quickly) to carry a bow on horseback. So for my horse archers, I chose to utilise some Riders of Rohan from the Lord of the Rings range.

Enemies from the left, we got it covered.
Enemies from the right, we got a problem.

And there were some good reasons: they were relatively inexpensive plastics; the bows and shields matched up to the then-equipment requirements; most importantly, they were sculpted by the Perry Brothers, so the realistic proportions of men, weapons and horses meant they were a better fit for my existing Dogs of War that any other range.

You’ll just have to imagine them carrying pistols…

Could happen. Those are some spacious cloaks they're wearing.