Jinete

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"He brought Daroca under tribute first,
then Molina, which is on the other side,
later Teruel, which was farther along,
in his hand he held Cella del Canal."

— Cantar de Mio Cid

In game

Jinete ico.png
Jinete — Vital statistics
Jinete

Unique medium cavalry unit with a missile attack, stronger and faster than normal Javelin Cavalry.

Prereq: Build time HP LOS Attack Attack speed Movement
speed
Upgrade of Upgrades to
  • High Mediaeval Era [2];
  • Level 3: Heraldry and Code of Honour Military
15s
(225t)
82 9 18 1.9s
(29t)
38

Jav rkc.png | KOZSAK merc.png

Cran rkc.png | Superjinete ico.png

Cost Created from Armour Weapon range Specialty
Base Ramp Pop
Timber: 60;
Wealth.jpg: 40
Timber: 1;
Wealth.jpg: 1
1

Stable.jpg

1 0–5

Can attack units whilst pursuing.

Moors.jpg Spain Portugal

Overall strategy

Jinetes mate the speed and rate of fire of normal Mounted Rangers with the attack of Javelin Cavalry, forming thus a hard-riding and harder-hitting javelin cavalry unit that can even be used to attack enemy cavalry, especially Knights. This added speed means that in many cases, Jinetes are much better thanks to their mobility than the normal Javelin Cavalry that is used by most factions — you only need to train a few, as opposed to the massive numbers of units required of Javelin Cavalry and Mounted Cranequiniers in order to be effective.

Although Jinetes can be trained by three different factions, how Jinetes can be used vary greatly. For the Moors, these units can be used to deprive an opponent of his heavier components by forming an advance guard, which can then be exploited by the fast-running and hard-hitting Hasham Guard Infantry, giving them a better edge despite their poorer armour. With the Moors' penchant for food and wealth production, it goes without saying that Jinetes and infantry are the mainstay of Moorish power, since you can create hordes of them thanks to your Food and Wealth production bonuses. Couple this with fast-marching sword units, and you have two sets of units that can complement each other well — Jinetes can be used to screen your weaker Hasham Infantry, while the Hasham Infantry can be marched en masse into an opponent's archers to deny them the ground to deploy against your Jinetes.

For Christians, however, Jinetes can't really be relied upon greatly - the best thing that can be done would be to team them up with Almogavers as a defensive anti-cavalry force. This is especially true of Spain which doesn't have any proper UUs in the Castle Age, thus meaning that there really isn't any point in training them except as a ranged unit for use against melee units. They are still fast units, however, so they are ideal as a raiding unit, or a counter-unit against other ranged cavalry units.

Unit summary

  • Big Is Not Beautiful — The strong attack and speed of the Jinete allows it to be used as a counter for any heavy melee unit.
  • Know When to Retreat — Light units such as Light Cavalry and Mounted Rangers however can easily fell them, so keep your Jinetes properly escorted at all times.
  • Cavalry Traditions — Because of the Moors' penchant for generating added food and wealth from farms, Jinetes, alongside Moorish light infantry, are best used in an offensive fashion. Christian factions that have access to Jinetes will discover that they are better used as support or defensive units.
  • Stradiots — Hungary and Venice can raise Stradiots, which are horsemen fighting in a style similar as Iberian Jinetes, available as mercenaries to various nations in the Imperial Era. This unit can later on be upgraded to Heavy Stradiots by Venice.

History

The terrain of Iberia which varied between arid deserts and deadly mountain passes meant that whatever military cultures in that area had to be as flexible and innovative as possible. In this environment, javelins were the preferred over bows as the weapon of choice, due to perhaps the geographical diversity of Iberia and North Africa, and most likely because of a lack of wood — a javelin would have remained in a more serviceable condition than an arrow at the end of a fight! Of course, light skirmishing skills are not the sole monopoly of nascent Iberian nation-states: the mountains of Greece and the Balkans are the home to Stradiots. These are horsemen fighting in a style similar as Iberian Jinetes, available as mercenaries to various nations in the Imperial Era, sacrificing sophistication and training for recruitment speed.