Camels: A horse's worst nightmare?

[ScientiaExcelsa]

We've all played the RTS games like AoE and the Total War series, and we've probably all noticed a common theme: camel-riding troops getting a bonus against normal cavalry.  The usual excuse for this feature is that the rancid smell -- and in some cases the bizzare look -- of the gangly gargantuans drives horses to hysteria.

Now, I realize that camels are hardly a good choice as battle-mounts go, and I suspect that no self-respecting Bedouin would ever be caught riding one into a pitched battle.  Therefore, the question I have for you chaps is not so much whether they were effective in battle, but whether the anti-cavalry angle in my video games has a grain of truth to it.  Would a band of horsemen be thrown into confusion if they were met in battle dromedary-driving dune-dwellers?  Perhaps if the horses were European dudes who didn't get out much, and had never seen or dreamed of such a thing as a camel?  Speculate.

Oh, and if this has been brought up before, my apologies.  I just kinda skimmed over the first page of search results.

 

[Finaz]

Why were rhinos never ridden to battle? They aren't too bulky and would have been great against infantry.

Or giraffes as siege ladders 

 

[ScientiaExcelsa]

Or how about Lapland reindeer cavalry? 

 

[Finaz]

Or how about Lapland reindeer cavalry? 

They might be too weak to carry a human, dunno.

But that doesn't prevent them from becoming police officers:

Spoiler

 

[AWdeV]

Why would a camel be so bad in combat?  Never mind, was just reading the other thread about camels.

Trying to domesticate a rhino sounds like a patently bad idea though. And I doubt the neck of a giraffe is quite sturdy enough to climb. Reindeer can well be used for chariots though. Possibly also riding.

 

[ScientiaExcelsa]

I don't think they're cut out for extended strenuous activity, for one thing.  They're more about endurance than performance.  Also, they sway a lot and they're tall, so they wouldn't give you a very stable platform or good range of attack in comparison with a horse.  Furthermore, they are stereotyped as being obstinate beasts, though that may be merely a stereotype and nothing more.

 

[AWdeV]

Endurance would be a good thing in battle. You don't want anything that has to lie down for a nap after a ten-second sprint towards the enemy.

 

[ScientiaExcelsa]

I don't mean the kind of endurance that allows for dashing about a battlefield all day.  That's a different endurance from the kind that allows for strolling across a desert.  Someone on this forum brought up the fact that camels sweat a lot and would overheat quickly if they kept up a sprint.  They're walkers, not runners.

Of course, I'm no expert.  I'm only speculating.

 

[AWdeV]

That someone on the forum (Archonsod) said they'd overheat quickly with armour. The creatures are well-adapted to moving 'round in a desert. Maybe not at full speed all the time, but that shouldn't mean much due to the lack of a fatigue system in the game.

 

[ScientiaExcelsa]

Okay, fair enough!

BUT WE STILL HAVEN'T ADDRESSED THE QUESTION AT HAND.

 

[AWdeV]

Good point.

I've wondered about that too a few times. I suppose it's just a game mechanic, just like any spear giving a bonus against cavalry.

 

[ScientiaExcelsa]

The spear thing makes sense, though, ostensibly.  Camels being anti-cavalry doesn't have that air of common sense about it, that's why I wonder.  Maybe it was implemented to solve game balance issues.

 

[AWdeV]

It only makes sense in formations/if the rider doesn't have a longer spear.

 

[ScientiaExcelsa]

Right, but it still makes sense to us all that spears beat horses.  It's the great rock-paper-scissors of wargames.  But camels?

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

The Arabs used camels to great effect against their horse-mounted European enemies during the Muslim conquests.

The first recorded use of the camel as a military animal occurred during the Battle of Thymbra in 547 BC, fought between Cyrus the Great of Persia and Croesus of Lydia. According to Xenophon, Cyrus' cavalry were outnumbered by as much as six to one. Acting on information from one of his generals that the Lydian horses shied away from camels, Cyrus formed the camels from his baggage train into the first Camel Corps in history. Although not technically employed as cavalry, they were crucial in panicking the Lydian cavalry and turning the battle in Cyrus' favor. There is a reference in historical records to the Arab king Gindibu employing as many as 1000 camels at the Battle of Qarqar in 853 B.C., although it is not clear how they were employed during the battle.

That's what the Wiki says on the matter.

 

[Archonsod]

Horses will run from pretty much any large animal they're not familiar with, including camels. Once they're used to them however they're fine.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Just that it might be a bit late by then?

 

[ScientiaExcelsa]

So an Eastern cavalry army would fare better against camels than a Western army, think you?

 

[Adviser]

So an Eastern cavalry army would fare better against camels than a Western army, think you?

Most likely, it might also depend of breed, training of the horse and the rider, if rider ****s his/her pants while riding the horse also ****s its pants and after that its technically over.

 

[Agent Griff]

I was once riding a horse and it got seriously scared by a plastic bag. They're damn easy to frighten for all their size and strength.

But of course, war-horses would be much more accustomed to cope with conditions of high stress such as other horses whose riders want to kill your rider or people scurrying about them while shouting, dying and generally being belligerent. Still, I rather doubt smell is that much of an issue with camels. More like the sounds they make and their great size.

As for camels not being a stable base, I've seen Tuareg tribesmen ride camels at what would be the camel equivalent of a gallop and they do so quite effectively, for all the wobbling of the camel. Did I mention that all Tuareg males also carry swords and do not relinquish them when mounted on a camel? Do the math.