Black Ram Iron Lance Knights

This Tudor formation takes the field as heavily armored horsemen, a mounted spearhead built around weight and momentum rather than numbers of foot. Their full name marks them as an iron-lance heavy cavalry outfit, and in the film adaptation their commander is identified as the warrior Gien.

The corps opens engagements with a thundering mounted charge, its leader riding at the point and cutting swaths through Midland infantry before the defenders can steady their line. That same reliance on the charge becomes their undoing when a stronger force meets it head-on, leaving the survivors to scatter.

The unit enters the record during a clash of the Hundred-Year War. After Tudor archers loose a volley into the Midland ranks, the heavy cavalry storms forward and slaughters many defenders. When Guts joins the fray they wheel toward him, and their commander trades blows with the mercenary, only for Guts to parry the strike, force his weapon back, and kill him in a single stroke before turning on the rest.

As one rider watches his comrades fall, he sees the Band of the Falcon and additional troops sweeping in to reinforce Midland. The mercenaries tear through the remaining lancers, and the few who live through the rout flee the field. In the film Egg of the King, the officer Guts cuts down is named Gien.