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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 1533379" data-attributes="member: 6533">Look, the last thing I want is for you to feel like you are getting spat on, to use a carefully chosen term, by the PC crowd.  A lot of the PC crowd is in my profession, but so's Prof. Keegan and I'm fairly certain he'd use the same terms given the right context.My only point is that you look at the long term and you miss the big picture.  The long term doesn't end here or begin here and extend backwards.  The Arab world has had a longer history of Economic success than the Anglo-Dutch-American by about, let's see given a 1000 year long period such as the period we are discussing, oh, 750-800 years with the Anglo-Dutch-American sector only begining to become competitive in the last 300 or so.  A lot of the time you're looking at the looser and it's just next weeks winner and vice versa.  What's going to be more useful to a world creator the guy who won last week or the guy who won every week before that?So in terms of the last question, what works in mideaval armies?  It seems hard to deny that free infantry weren't the big winners.So if you're going to answer the question it seems fair to emphasize cavalry, systems that encouraged you to build armies that didn't hurt either home defense or the economy, and that both of these were very much rational choices made by people who had a fair number of options over the course of their history.So it's also fair to emphasize the options and that you're right free, though I might put free in the same marks you put slave, infantry had some good days among the many days available.All the best great conquering mideaval armies used a cavalry core.  That or a really great and flexible naval force, nod to the Vikings.Combined arms was another great idea, but mostly for defensive nations, like the Byzantines, or very specific campaigns, as the English and Crusaders pulled off.  The Turks and Spanish started to make it take off at the end of the period...  And, the French topped them all, cept the Spanish but including the English, by developing field artillery and combined arms and also, coincedentally, much of the pattern of modern, if not contemporary, warfare.Something that hasn't been discussed yet, but since Keegan has reared his hoary head, is Mideaval military ethics.In terms of what you could expect as an average soldier or citizen it's a pretty important point.  They were pretty good.</blockquote>

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