​Battlefield Role: Elite Heavy Cavalry
Steeds: Athenian Champagne Warhorses
Weapons: A heavy cavalry lance, a steel shield and a mace.
Outfit: Closable owl-themed helmet and a reinforced full suit of plate armour over a heavy chain mail. They also wear nice capes.
Skill level: Experts in equitation and horseback fighting.
Affiliation: Minerva, in the Athenian Fields.
Doctrine: Athena's Way of the Warrioress
Strengths: Riders and horses wear thick reinforced armour all over their bodies, making them quite implacable in an open field.
Weaknesses: Too much steel covering their bodies overburdens their steeds, rendering them quite prone to fatigue.
Athena's Cataphracts
As a bastion of Democracy and equal rights for every citizen, there are very few actual noble houses in the Athenian Plains, which means that the heavy cavalry regiments that would usually be composed of high-born dames are actually composed of common citizenry who really excel in horseback riding and fighting.
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And of all the cavalry regiments of this rich and fertile region, no one is better armoured and more talented than the mighty Athenian Cataphracts from the glorious City of Minerva. Those fierce women are hand-picked for their inherent bravery and fearlessness, which makes them perfect candidates for the role of driving earth-shattering heavy cavalry charges with their deadly long lances during the heat of battle.
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Themed like the wise little owl of the Goddess Athena, their armour (which is all paid by the State) is one of the heaviest ever seen in Arandolia. Up to the point of exageration. The Cataphracts are clad in so many layers of thick metal that they are virtually untouchable by any sharp weapon known to man. Only the sheer impact of blunt weapons can ever affect them.
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On the other hand, these women are so overburdened by the sheer weight of all that thick armour that they are quite easy to get themselves and their horses tired on the battlefield. After the initial cavalry charge, they must regroup and withdraw back towards behind allied lines in order to rest and recompose themselves, grabbing a second lance for their next ferouscious charge. The first lance was most likely to either break or get stuck on the trampled corpses of whoever was the unfortunate target of their charge, so they always bring spare lances carried by their dutiful squires.
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Cataphracts are therefore not the best soldiers to engage in prolonged melee confrontations or to chase down enemy light units, but they are absolutely freaking amazing at the daunting task of utterly crushing heavy infantry lines as heavy shock cavalry. With just a few carefully placed charges, any general can completely break the enemy formation and morale, leaving it quite easy for the allied infantry forces to take care of the rest of the fighting.
Steeds: Athenian Champagne Warhorses