Re: [HIST] Japanese Culture shock

--- Ryan M Gill <rmgill@mindspring.com> wrote:

> I may be wrong, but what most people know of as
> Samurai (Yojimbo, 
> Ran, etc) takes place in 1600 and later. At that
> point firearms were 
> reducing the size and nature of the Heavily armored
> cavalry in 
> Europe. Hussars =!

Ummm. . . 

Polish Szlachta Hussars would lunch on Samurai.  The
can play the mounted archer game just as well or
better (they adopted composite bows from the Turks),
they can make massed charges with shock weapons (as
they demonstrated in the process of saving
Civilization in 1623), and they carry a semi-random
assortment of firearms.  They wear about 3/4 armor. 
Plus they have decent supporting medium/light cavalry
Lithuanian Panceri and they have those damn musketeers
who use bardiches as musket rests.

Imperial Cuirassiers also wear heavy armor and would
walk through Samurai without breaking a sweat.

John

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