Chestnut Skirmishers

The Chestnut Clan of Windcliff always faced a dire scarceness of natural resources within the mostly barren tundra of their territory. They have no abundant commodities to trade for iron, textiles and other materials, so their warriors have to do without much in the terms of armour and weapons. Whatever swords they wield or jewelry they display on their bodies are usually a fruit of plunder taken in raids and wars, while their fur capes are usually fruit of poaching on other clans' hunting grounds. The only thing they have in abundance are their horses, which they will never trade because of their deep devotion on the Goddess Nephele.

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As such, the clan can only muster cheap light cavalry units of mounted skirmishers who often go to war half-naked. At the beginning, it was just for intimidation, but with time riding with no armor nor clothes became a tradition for them. Something that paint a strong picture of boldness and resilience to their clan, as fighting on bellow zero temperatures while most of their bodies are covered in nothing but warpaint is quite a feat.

The Chestnut Skirmisher Cavalry is actually one of the amazon military units with the lowest recruitment and upkeep costs on account of that, and yet they're surprisingly effective at taking down much heavier troops by making excellent use of their low-cost javelins and the sheer speed of their horses. Due to their lack of armour and lightweight gear, they can outrun heavy cavalry while shooting backwards at their pursuers, or charge straight onto broken infantry formations right after a volley of javelins is hurled, which is an excellent way of opening a hell of a hole in the middle of any enemy formation.

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This last practice is best employed when used along with outflanking maneuvers, as open battle isn't even the forte of this highly agile amazon unit. The situation in which the Chestnut Skirmishers shine the most is at (like their name already states) skirmishes, in which they can simply pepper the enemy down and inflict several casualties with their javelins till they run out of ammo and retreat, only to later on attack again out of the blue.

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With this highly effective hit and run tactics, they weaken enemy numbers and morale without ever risking their necks too much, coming and going as they please. Only launching a full-fledged attack once the odds are finally deeply turned in their favor.