Clash of Arms: Cavalry, a source book for D20 fantasy written by Charles Rice and published by Vigilance Press. This is a twelve-page document (ten pages after cover and OGL) with a clean layout with only a single piece of interior artwork (a nice B&W piece of clip art).

This source book covers cavalry, mounted soldiers, beginning with the Cavalryman, a full 20-level base class. It uses the Fighter as its starting point and all cavalrymen begin with the mounted combat feat, naturally. Instead of bonus feats, the cavalryman gains choices from three ability trees: heavy cavalry, horse archer and light cavalry. Heavy cavalry focused on heavy armor, lance charges and strait-up combat. Horse archers on speed and missile attacks. Light cavalry is fast, tricky and maneuverable. Additionally, at higher levels all type of cavalryman gain an improved mount (though the table for an improved mount only gives the bonuses for up to eight levels of advancement) and various other equestrian-related special abilities.

After the class is a discussion of the various ages of cavalry warfare and the ways that the class could be used to represent those periods and styles. A short discussion of cavalry equipment and rules for various types of saddles and other cavalry equipment (though no price list).

Lastly, there is a section about horses with random tables to determine a horse?s quality (from bag of bone to noble steed) and traits (such as clumsy, coltish or tough as nails). A good idea, but open to potential abuse, the bonuses gained from quality and traits probably should be reduced or at least monitored closely.

Like the mounted combat-focused fighter, the cavalryman is exceptionally dangerous when they have their mount and terrain they can ride on, but much less so when they must fight on foot. It can make it a challenge to balance encounters including such a character. But this product provides a well-built class and a useful source for information on cavalry.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Clash of Arms Cavalry

<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This 10 page PDF (12 with front cover & OGC declaration) provides a new core class for D20 fantasy games, the Cavalryman. It also includes a discussion of the historical development of Calvary, as well as providing a list of cavalry specific equipment.

The Cavalryman is divided into 3 main types based on how they fight. These types are light cavalry, heavy cavalry, and horse archers. Light cavalry rely on their maneuverability to outflank other unit. Heavy Cavalry rely on heavy armor, powerful horses and powerful charges with lances to act as shock troops. Finally, horse archers are mounted archers adding increased maneuverability to the range given to them by the use of the bow.

The Cavalryman is a combat oriented class, and has a D10 Hit Die. The Primary ability for the Cavalryman class depends on the type of cavalry, light cavalry and horse archers have Dexterity as their primary ability, while heavy cavalry feature Strength as their primary ability. The class features Superior BAB, Good Fortitude saves, and poor Reflex and Willpower saves.

Cavalryman can choose their mounted combat specialty Feat gained at 2nd level, and every 2 levels afterward, from one of three feat trees, Light Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, and Horse Archer. The feats within each tree must be selected in order, however. Key feats in the Light Cavalry tree include the Lightning Attack ability, providing a bonus to attack flat-footed opponents, and Lightning Rider, providing a bonus to armor class, initiative, and Reflex saves, but only while in light armor. The key feats on the Heavy Calvary tree include the Spirited, Power, and Terrifying charge abilities, and the mounted tank feats. The Horse Archer tree features the Mounted Archer and the Spur (adding to his horse move) feats as key feats.

The remaining section provides a discussion of essential cavalry equipment, and their historical development. Each period was limited by the mounted specialties available, the mounted equipment, and the mounts available For instance, ancient cavalry were limited to Horse Archer and Light Calvary (chariots only) mounted specialties, War Ponies ad the only mounts, and the Bridle and Saddlecloth as the only mounted equipment available. Rules are provided for the effect of the different qualities and levels of equipment on riding and combat.

Finally, a short section on mounts and a set of mount traits, such as Lame, or Pure Bred, are provided, allowing for some individualization and color to mounts.

The PDF is laid out in a two spacious columns with an ornate distressed script-like red-brown colored font in a large point size for section headings, and an easy to read serif body font. The art is sparse, with just one piece of clip-art. The tables are very readable, making good use of the header font for column titles, and light-red shading for odd-numbered rows. It is a plain, but easy to read document, with no excess ornamentation to waste your ink.

Overall, this is an excellent product, providing a solid mounted fighter class, with a nice introduction to the historical development of the cavalryman and how the evolution of mounted equipment affected his fighting abilities. The set of traits for mounts provides a nice mechanism for personalizing the player?s mounts. The Talent trees all seem well-balanced and put more emphasis on the use of mounts, or taking a mount out from under your opponent. I recommend this product to any GM or players intent on riding down their foes and taking them on the run. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Terrifying charge (Could you imagine holding ranks against a charge of a 250lb man on 2000lb horse?)<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No stats for chariots. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Clash of Arms: Cavalry is a short 12 page pdf detailing a new core class, the Cavalryman. This is the first product in Vigilance Press' line of historical fantasy sourcebooks, the only other current product in this new series being Clash of Kings: Nobility. Each product in the series details, from a historical perspective, a core class and the role that it played in history and how it can fit into your fantasy world.

This product comes as a single pdf file with a complete set of detailed bookmarks. The cover artwork features two cavalryman charging with lances, and is a good representation of the nature of the pdf. There is only one other piece of artwork in the product, another decent piece showing cavalryman at war. Layout and editing is good, as is the writing and general presentation of the product. The pdf contains a good introduction to the product, before presenting the core material of the pdf. Mechanics is generally good, and it was pleasing to see the product offer some supporting mechanics for the core class in the form of mechanics for horses, and a number of mechanics for using equipment pertaining to horses. Presentation-wise a good product and a solid standard of material.

The cavalryman is a mounted warrior, be he a skirmisher, an archer, or a heavy horseman on the charge. The pdf aims to present the core class from a historical perspective and provides loads of juicy bits to add some flavor and background to the class and its role in warfare. This, again, supports the mechanics well, and the whole class succeeds at capturing the flavor of the historical perspective. Whether you want a light skirmisher from ancient times, or a horse archer in the dark ages, or heavy cavalry in the middle ages, this pdf and the core class provide all the mechanics and information to cover a whole era of historical mounted warriors.

Mechanics-wise the cavalryman is very focused on mounted combat. To a certain extent that is a drawback of the class - take away to cavalryman's horse and there's not much that the class can do beyond that. Nevertheless, as a mounted combatant it provides a very nice balance across all the levels of the class. For one, this is one of the few exclusive mounted warrior classes (barring the mounted paladin, of course) I've seen in d20 that advances the horse in HD and abilities as the rider progresses. It's very clear from the material that the author put a lot of thought into the development of the class, and in its utility across the whole range of levels.

The core class allows one to become either a light cavalry skirmisher, a horse archer, or a heavy cavalry lance charger. In fact, the flexibility of the class allows you to blend all three to create a more versatile rider rather than a specific type. A useful extension of the class, not included in the pdf unfortunately, would've been to allow, for fantasy, alternative mounts instead of advances horses. The development of the class is very feat intensive, but there are a welcome scattering of other abilities in the class as well.

Beyond the core class the pdf presents an overview of cavalry through history, which is insightful and helpful. In addition it looks at the use of horse equipment throughout history and its effect on riding. Lastly, and certainly not least, the pdf provides a useful overview on creating horses with a little more flavor and character. This includes details such as the quality of the horse (a racer or a noble steed, for example), and various traits for the horses, such as skittish or coltish. All these details are detailed well with appropriate mechanics, and it allows one to craft something more out of the cavalryman's horse, or any other horse for that matter.

Overall I found this to be a very interesting pdf. There's a lot of useful material, the mechanics and the flavor of the material support each other very well, and there's a lot more to this product than simply a core class. The only drawback remains that the class is extremely focused, but that shouldn't deter from using this material where it will be most appropriate. A nifty little pdf with some novel material that should complement many fantasy games.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Good material, good balance between mechanics and flavor, good mechanical execution of the concept into something useful across the range of levels. Decent presentation, and good value for money.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The class is perhaps too focused on mounted combat.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>