Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered
Bicycle troops certainly have a role in an AtE setting. I'm not sure that I'd use them to replace horse troops.
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Bicyclists might not be able to replace actual cavalry, but bicycle dragoons are likely better than horse dragoons.
Even heavy, three-speed off-road bikes can probably sustain 6-8 mph cross-country for 3-4 hours/day, so they're strategically faster than horses. An active cyclist might consume more calories than an infantryman (maybe), but it's still less than a horse, so your logistics tail is lighter.
Bicycles don't need to be trained to not spook at the sound of gunfire, and you can train up a cyclist faster than you can teach a man to ride and a horse to be ridden. You have to manufacture bicycles (though steel or wood 3-speed off-road bikes are TL5, especially if you use solid tire rims), but you have to grow horses, so I'd consider that a wash.
On the attack, horse dragoons have to detach 15-25% of their number just to hold the horses, but you can drop off a bike without worrying about it wandering off someplace.
You obviously can't replace heavy cavalry with bicycles, and probably not light cavalry that fires on the move from the mount*. So if that's something your AtE setting has, bikes won't replace them. But late TL5/TL6 style horse cavalry that are really dragoons should be replaced by bicycles if you can.
* It seem like tandem bikes could be used to let half your force move and shoot. Alternately, bike rickshaws could work like fairly compact chariots. I'm not sure that tandem bikes and rickshaws are better than light cavalry at that point, though.