I1a3_Young
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I'm not very knowledgeable on this subject I'm speaking from an average dummy perspective. I'm just trying to point out that some comments in the thread are exaggerating this idea that warriors on horses or cavalry could easily defeat infantry warriors. There are advantages but there are disadvantages too. Advantage covering long distance, one on one battle with spears, axes and swords, you don't have a big advantage if you're on a horse. Even without weapons a guy on foot especially more than one guy could easily pull you off that horse.
Plus I highly doubt there were organized army battles of this sort going on during the so called Indo-European expansion into Europe. Where's any evidence of that?
However Eurasian steppe warriors with horseback mounted archery were like the special forces cavalry. They were really good and really made use of the horse in warfare. And they practically lived on the horse. Using the compound bow and the attack and retreat attack again strategy. As it's well known the Mongol Empire had huge success with that.
Skilled horsemen are a massive advantage. Mobility aids in scouting, tactics, and supply train. A few horsemen alone might not defeat a whole group of infantry but can 10 infantry fight 5 infantry plus 5 horsemen?
Mounted warfare is a very serious business but not all cultures made use of it. Alexander famously used cavalry tactics to force open a lane and rush the opposing commander/king to force a retreat.
The bigger a battle, the more important to have a mobile unit of flanking horsemen. Have you even been up close to a horse as it gallops past? It's a bit scary without mounted warriors trying to kill you. I've seen trained horsemen put 2.5m lances on a target as small as a coin as they gallop past full speed. You could not pay me enough to try and fight one of those guys while I was on foot and they were mounted.
And if the battle moves unfavorably for the horsemen, they can just run away while infantry units don't have the same option. Using the mobility factor alone to choose favorable fights is a very big advantage.