Portuguese Cavalry is a type of medium cavalry in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
Armed with straight swords, these cavalry are competent troops.
Portuguese horses, although hardy and reliable, are neither large nor fast enough to be used for heavy or light cavalry. For this reason, they are used as mounts in a kind of all-purpose cavalry, slower than light cavalry and weaker than most heavy cavalry units. Despite this lack of specialisation, they are still useful on the battlefield and fight courageously. They must be deployed with a little care, as charging them into well-trained line infantry squares will only lead to heavy losses.
Historically, cavalry regiments were the weakest arm of the Portuguese forces. They had difficulty raising effective cavalry due to Portugal’s lack of natural resources required to produce remounts. It was hard to find enough forage to sustain the horses, and the native animals were not large, or swift. As a result, Portuguese cavalry was never organised as specialised regiments and failed to fulfil the needed tactical roles. To be fair, Portugal simply did not have the spare land required for large herds of horses.
General Information[]
Portuguese Cavalry are unusual in that they are one of the few cavalry types in Napoleon: Total War that are classified as neither light nor heavy cavalry. They are simply listed as "cavalry" by the game, though they may be more accurately termed as "medium cavalry": they lack the stamina and speed of light cavalry, and do not have the formidable melee and defensive statistics of heavy cavalry, but instead fall somewhere in between. Portuguese Cavalry are thus capable of disrupting enemy formations and chasing routing units, but they pay for this with a lack of specialization.
Portuguese Cavalry hold the dubious distinction of being the worst medium cavalry in Napoleon: Total War (and arguably the worst cavalry overall), being statistically inferior to Chevauxlégers or Line Cavalry as well as lacking both the stamina of light cavalry and the staying power of heavy cavalry. Nevertheless, they are the only cavalry (aside from General's Staff) that Portugal can field, and serve the roles that cavalry fill, albeit poorly. One saving grace is their relatively lower cost, allowing Portugal to invest money in more worthy parts of its armed forces, particularly its infantry.
In The Peninsular Campaign, Great Britain may train these units if it obtains Portuguese regions. There's little reason to train them, however, as Great Britain has many superior alternatives.