Lay Knight

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"The men he treated as God's foes,
Who dared the true faith to oppose."

Heimskringla (Cap 12 Pt IV)

In game[edit | edit source]

Knight hosp.png
Lay Knight — Vital statistics
Lay Knight

Exceptional heavy cavalry, with powerful attack and exceptional armour, capable of healing nearby friendly units.

Prereq: Build time HP LOS Attack Attack speed Movement
speed
Upgrades to
  • High Mediaeval Era [2];
  • Organised religion Religion
14.7s
(220t)
210 7 16 5.9s
(35t)
25

Gonfalon ico.png

Cost Created from Armour Weapon range Specialty
Base Ramp Pop
Ore.png: 80;
Wealth.jpg: 80
Ore.png: 4;
Wealth.jpg: 4
1

nobles' Court

8 Melee
  • Bonus damage versus light infantry.
  • Defensive bonus versus Archers.
  • Attack penalty versus camel cavalry and elephants.
  • Can heal nearby friendly units.

England Scotland Sicily Venice.jpg Burgyndy.jpg Hre.jpg Poland.jpg Portugal.jpg Spain.jpg Papal States.jpg Armenia.jpg Serbians.jpg

Overall strategy[edit | edit source]

Lay Knights come with the development and integration of small military hospitals and monastic orders into large, powerful Military Orders. Because of the wealth of these orders, these monks are able to receive better training and equipment and are mounted on a fine steed, meaning that they have better armour, hit points and attack than their Militant Clergy ancestors. As a consequence though, they are more expensive and take longer to train — and only at a Nobles' Court at that. This means that they should be used carefully by making the most of their strengths so that they are not wasted. Because of their large amount of hit points and armour, they are best for holding a line and protecting some of the more vulnerable soldiers such as crossbowmen. Also, they can heal units within a larger radius.

Unit summary[edit | edit source]

  • He Who Liveth By The Sword ... — As always, knights have sufficient armour and punching power to plow through hails of arrows, but not a wall of determined pointy objects. Thus while they are most effective against enemy archers and infantry, their worst enemy will forever be pikemen.
  • Pronoiar Cataphract — Byzantine heavy cavalry is known for its armour which is superior to normal lancers. This type of heavy cavalry is also available to factions who historically had interests in the Balkans and Mainland Greece, such as Venice.
  • Retinue Cavalry — In areas where Western feudalism does not penetrate, whole communities on the peripheries of Europe are capable of raising bodies of retainers on horseback to do the dirty work of fighting for them. Although weaker than Knights, they are still cheaper to train.
  • Frankish Knight — The French propensity for fast and hard-hitting heavy cavalry continues in the Castle Age with the gendarmes, or men-at-arms. These are the men most loyal to the crown, and have thus been elected as the escorts for the Crown Prince, or Dauphin as he is known.
  • Transoxanian Lancer — In the lands of Islam, a new people have arrived, the Khwarezmians. Armed with heavy lances and trained from birth to ride on the haunted steppes, these warriors from beyond the Oxus River in Central Asia are capable of a reach unknown to most melee units, and are capable of hitting archers from behind a spear or shieldwall.
  • Várispán Lancer  — Although now a Christian people, the Hungarians still maintain the cavalry traditions of their Turkic forbears. This means that while they are far more lightly armed, they are capable of untold destruction when flanking an opponent and thus cannot be underestimated.

See also[edit | edit source]

History[edit | edit source]

By the end of the 10th century, European magnates had realised that a man on horseback with a spear moves faster than one on foot, making him far more useful, and soon heavily armed horsemen began to take precedence over elite footmen. Even the Viking kingdoms soon learnt to use cavalry to their advantage, with their Gallicised Norman descendents soon learning to transport horses by ship to where they were needed. The cost of raising horse and rider and then arming them however was problematic to the extreme in the mostly agrarian societies of Dark Age Europe, and so it was that only people of means could furnish cavalry units to fight for their kings, meaning the ruling aristocracy (and in more modern times, yeomen as well).

These aristocrats were often landowners and in good time evolved into the warrior known to us as the knight, and were often found in the most warlike of societies. The French, Russians and Hungarians had good lands that allowed for the rise of an efficient feudal society to sustain a heavy cavalry tradition, a system that was soon adopted by the increasingly strapped-for-cash Byzantines, whose lands covered present-day Italy and the Balkans. Although knights were often expected to be landowners, not all of them were always sufficiently rich to do so, much less afford the sums required for maintenance of their equipment and mounts — the very embodiment of their own livelihoods. Towards the Modern Era, feudalism increasingly fell out of favour, and many knights, especially in Germany, were soon forced into becoming bandits or selling their services as mercenaries. Such a warrior, independent of land, custom and even fealty, were often called "Freelancers", and they were not only recruited by most European factions but were also raised by Muslim Moors who had contacts with their Christian counterparts in Spain.