Clash of Rhyfles: Tollyn Maeryn Bicycle Dragoons (6 models total)

3 Mounted and 3 dismounted models (not pictured) 6 Models total!

Painted by @varundin28

Tollyn Maeryn Bicycle Dragoons
The Tollyn Maeryn Bicycle Dragoons are equipped with military bicycles as a cost-effective alternative to cadier-mounted infantry. The bicycle requires no feed, no veterinary care, no remount program, and no specialized handling beyond basic mechanical maintenance that any reasonably competent rhyfler could learn in an afternoon. What it requires instead is considerable leg strength and a tolerance for hills, both of which Maer Braech's recruits generally possessed in adequate supply.

The large front wheel covers ground efficiently with each pedal stroke, allowing experienced Dragoons to maintain speeds that outpace marching infantry by a significant margin across favorable terrain. The bicycle’s limitations become apparent on poor roads, steep grades, and anything resembling mud. A Dragoon company moving along a prepared road arrives at its destination faster and less exhausted than equivalent foot infantry; the same company attempting cross-country movement arrives later, considerably more exhausted, and often pushing their bicycles rather than riding them.

Dragoon companies typically operate as rapid-response forces, using Maer Braech's road network to shift between threatened sectors faster than marching reserves could manage. They arrive at the point of fight, dismount, and fight as standard infantry, the bicycle provides strategic mobility rather than tactical advantage.

Within the broader Crusader alliance structure, Bicycle Dragoon companies have occasionally drawn skepticism from conventional cavalry officers who question whether pedal-powered rhyflers genuinely constitute a mounted arm. Dragoon commanders respond to this skepticism by pointing to deployment times, operational costs, and the straightforward observation that their Dragoons consistently arrive where they are needed before the alternatives. They are also fond of noting that a bicycle, whatever its limitations compared to a cadier, has never bitten a supply sergeant, kicked through the side of an ammunition wagon, or headbutted an Ailthean tractor.