Poligar are a type of light cavalry in Empire: Total War. They are available to the Maratha Confederacy with the Elite Units of the East DLC.
Description[]
Poligars are unusual: elite light cavalry who wear armour. Despite the extra weight, they are still a terrifyingly swift force on the battlefield.
They generally wear helmets and cuirasses, often of the highest quality; Indian weapon makers need acknowledge few equals. They carry swords, and have skill enough to use them well in melee. Poligars also have the speed to ride down light troops such as skirmishers, and to pursue broken enemies. They should not be thrown away attacking disciplined infantry in square: they require luck to break such a target.
Light cavalry were a fixed tradition of war in India, romanticised for their bravery and freebooting ways. Horsemanship was a prized and honoured skill throughout Indian society, as was fighting prowess. To make the most of both, Indian craftsmen produced some fascinating weapons, many of which were still in use in the 18th Century. The "patta", for example, was a gauntlet-sword: a blade built into an armoured glove, making it almost impossible for the user to be disarmed, other than by being literally "disarmed" and maimed. It had a horizontal grip like the Indian punch-dagger, something that looked like a Chicago gangster's brass knuckles crossed with a razor-sharp triangular knife.
General Information[]
Poligar are well-armored light cavalry, able to harass retreating foes effectively but also to fight in a prolonged melee if need be.
Poligar are marginally better than Barawardi in every category, and can be near-ubiquitously trained. They are more expensive to train and maintain, however.
Gallery[]
Elite Units of the East artwork