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Stirrup
New Advance

Stirrup

Prerequisites

Requires:

  • Composite Bow
  • Animal Husbandry

Statistics

Gives:

  • Heavy Cavalry
  • Mounted Archer

Gameplay

The stirrup allows very effective mobile combat units: the Heavy Cavalry for attack and the Mounted Archer for Ranged support.

Historical

The origins of the stirrup are difficult to pin down, but it seems to have originated north of China or in northern China around 330 AD. By the 600s stirrups were first seen in the west used by raiding Avar horsemen, and by 875 AD they were in common use by Europeans. Contrary to popular belief, stirrups are not required to charge with a lance - Alexander the Great’s Companion Cavalry were doing that in 330 BC without stirrups, as were the Sarmatian cataphracts hired by the Romans later. The advantage of stirrups was that they made for a much more stable seat when firing a bow or throwing a javelin from horseback. The composite bow combined with this stability gave the ancient mounted archer unprecedented firepower along with his high mobility.