Deerslayers

The Deerslayers were an elite force in the service of the Latin Empire. They were employed as Leo of Poitiers' personal guard and trained at Mongol tactics.
==History==
The Deerslayers of Syria were the elite of the realm of Bohemond , born from the desire to give his heir, Leo, a proper guard befitting of his skill with the bow and the horse. As such all men of the Deerslayers were extraordinarily skilled in the art of archery and the best horsemen that the lands of Outremer could offer. Often, all were picked personally by Leo and were good friends with the man they were to protect with their lives.
They fought with an eerie resemblance to the Mongols of the East, riding swiftly to unleash hails of arrows before dancing out of the range of enemy retribution, only to return with another volley of arrows when their foes retreat in fear of being strung out. Great formations of rotating circles, allowing for a continuous barrage to be unleashed, feinting withdrawals, and others make these men, originally the hunting companions of Prince Leo to become some of the most dangerous men Bohemond and Leo could call upon.
That is not to say they could not fight well in a melee. The Deerslayers were also impeccable in their skill with the sword and lance, and were devastating in a charge, though their limited numbers and the very small rate of new recruits for themselves meant they tended towards a more defensive and cautious mode of combat, fighting with some distance between themselves and the enemy and swiftly dispatching any enemy that got too close before they could reach a number too difficult to deal with.
These men first tasted action in the hills and mountains of Cilician Armenia, when Prince Leo led them and an army of his own to defeat the ever rebellious nobles of Armenia which had threatened the flank of the front against the Byzantine invasion . In this task they performed admirably, luring many a treacherous noble's forces out of positon and crushing the rebellion utterly. Prince Leo was showered in glory and battle experience, and the Deerslayers' star rose with the young Prince's.
Their greatest moment of triumph came at the Battle of Seleucia , where Prince Leo led his father's army to face the young Skantarios , and even as entire portions of the army deserted and fled, the Deerslayers remained stalwart and firm as they repeatedly charged into the fight, performing admirably well and presenting themselves honorably in the face of increasingly long odds. When their charge slew the Emperor of the Romans they had already lost much of their own, and in cutting themselves out of the battle many more fell to Byzantine arrows and swords. Of the hundreds that went into battle only a few dozen retreated with Leo east, but they had done what so few others had done in history, to kill a Byzantine emperor in battle.
Merged with what remained of the elite Mongolian riders who had sworn themselves to Leo, the Deerslayers' remained in the emloy of the House of Poitiers as the elite force of the Outremer
== References==
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/before-the-fall.36591/page-40#post-8389878
Category:Military