TL 5 Griffon Cavalry

[Kalzazz]

Suppose there exists griffons in a TL 5 setting (like say some hypothetical Old West or Civil War type setting)

How would Griffon cavalry be used? What would they be equipped with?

[zylosan]

That would very much depend on the weapons avalable, the animals carrying capacity and the difficulty of reloading a cartrage weapon in flight.

Given the most avians have a very low mass to volume ratio I would not expect them to be carrying much in the way of heavy artillary or large amounts of ammo.

On the other hand the imporovements in communicaitons and scouting would be a major boon to a force with griffens verse one with out.

[Kalzazz]

ST 17 griffon out of Campaigns

57.8 basic lift

Could carry 174 at medium encumbrance, 348 at heavy

Technology available is say 'anything TL 5'

[mlangsdorf]

I'd expect Griffins to be used as (very) light cavalry. They would have almost no direct battlefield role. They would be used in observation and reconnaissance, pursuit of beaten foes, and sabotage and raiding behind the lines. They seem like they would ideal for destroying railroads, for example.

I'd expect that griffins fighting griffins would be a relatively bloodless affair. Both sides have difficulties with sustained, accurate fire until the development of clip fed repeater rifles, and melee attacks require a difficult and dangerous approach if the target still has a firearm available.

What other flying forces are available? What counterforces are available?

[SuedodeuS]

The riders would likely be lightly armored or completely unarmored - most of their opponents would be shooting at the griffon (a larger target, and the rider will probably have partial to full cover from it), and armor isn't going to help much in a long fall. Weaponry will likely primarily be grenades with maybe a rifle and/or a revolver sidearm. If it's late TL5 (with self-contained rounds rather than powder-and-shot), repeating rifles may be rather useful. I'd primarily see them being used for dropping bombs, however, which is where the ability to fly is going to be the most useful. You'll likely end up with "superiority" griffon-riders who's primary purpose is to take out bomber-griffons, and this is where the rifles and revolvers will primarily be used (both by the fighters and by the bombers defending themselves). Melee weapons aren't likely to be carried - the griffons can handle themselves in melee (indeed this may be the primary way griffon-griffon combat is resolved), and if the griffon dies a sword isn't going to stop that long fall.

Another use for griffons is for dragoons - the original meaning, not the light cavalry. Griffons could be a very effective means of deploying infantry where they need to be quickly. You could deploy on the high ground and rain down death on your enemy below - and this works all the better if you have griffon-riders dropping grenades from high above.

From time to time, you can also damage enemy morale by taking a risk - have the griffon swoop down and charge through the enemy ranks for a moment, then grab a soldier and fly off with him. You probably won't kill/injure very many soldiers this way, but you can wreck hell on morale, particularly if you do brutal things to the captured soldier, like biting off limbs and/or dropping him from a great height onto his own company.


In general, I think griffons would be most useful in early TL5, when weapons have a low rate of fire and most infantry carry muskets. Once you get decent rates of fire with more accurate weapons, griffons may become unviable (they are simply too exposed) without significant armor on their lower surfaces - which might make them unable to fly (or at least fly well).

[Verjigorm]

Griffon Cavalrymen would have to be small, or children: ST 18 isn't strong enough to carry a man and any degree of equipment, and most mounts will refuse to carry more than medium encumbrance. This leads me to think that Griffon cavalry will likely be used in a purely reconnaissance role.

[Kalzazz]

Griffons are pretty much the main flying things available. There are homing pigeons probably, and also likely early observation balloons

There might be things like dragons or summoned elementals or such, but would be rare

Probably more late TL 5, cartridges and gatling guns and such exist (but clips for the most part dont)

Big problem I see for the griffons is their extremely low carrying capacity . . . a griffon can carry 174lbs at medium encumbrance, and that means if its going to be trying to move at medium encumbrance will barely be able to carry much beyond rider and tack (unless a very light rider and tack)

Griffons also seem to be carnivores, Im not sure how this effects logistics. Will griffons be flying around with cages full of chickens strapped to them?

[SuedodeuS]

Domesticated griffons are likely to be bred and trained for greater carrying capacity if they are to be used as mounts. ST20 or so for a typical war-trained griffon mount isn't too extreme, and better specimens will have higher ST. Some of this ST may be in the form of Lifting ST only. This gives the BL 80, so they can carry up to 240 lbs at Medium encumbrance - more than enough for a typical soldier and his weapons.

As for rations, the griffons would probably be fed dried meats. Their caretakers would likely make it a point to hunt/trap (or let the griffons hunt) wild game to supplement the rations, and captured livestock would similarly be fed to the griffons.

[Mathis]

They will be invaluable as reconnaissance and messengers between different army groups. Working in cooperation with traditional cavalry it will permit wider flanking maneuvers and raiding far deeper into enemy territory.

Griffon bombers seem a little unfeasible to me because of the small carrying capacity of griffins and their small basic move (compared to WWI airplanes) Ground riflemen won't have a too difficult time shooting them down if they try any bombing runs.

The riders will probably be light to increase griffin range, either teenagers or people with dwarfism. The armament could be six-shooters to prevent hostile griffin melee strafing. As they will be busy steering the griffon (or holding on) an acc bonus won't be of high importance. But their most important equipment will probably be a map nailed to a board and a piece of chalk.

For griffin provisions: Lots of beef jerky!

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Suppose there exists griffons in a TL 5 setting (like say some hypothetical Old West or Civil War type setting)

How would Griffon cavalry be used? What would they be equipped with?

I ran a calvary officer of Gryphons in a TL 4 ish campaign. We specifically worked out of a mother ship capable of flying us vast distances at high speed and in practice we were a fighter squadron on a Carrier. Lances were required by regs but rarely used, if we got face to face we got in reach one to reach one range and used swords.

Tactically we were more bombers than fighters, dropping alchemical ammo on ground pounders.