The Hittite Army At Qadesh

In the Osprey Book Qadesh 1300 B.C., its author vaguely mentions the numerical strength of the Hittite forces. He places these at about 2,500 chariots and 3500 to 37,000 foot soldiers. The foot soldiers may have been Hittite runners as well as Hittite Allies and regulars. Of the foot soldiers 2500 may have been runners supporting the chariots. A portion of the foot would have remained in the city and camp while the rest supported the attacks. Of the entire army at least half may well have been allies from the region. {It should be noted that other authors date Qadesh circa 1275 B.C.}.

The Egyptians it appears were able to counter attack the Hittite chariots inside the Egyptian camp. The Hittite chariots were busy sacking the place. The Hittites threw in their reserve corps of 1000 chariots too soon and this proved fatal to their intentions for victory. Also as more Egyptian divisions and units came into the area the Hittites moved the foot into the city and those chariots in the Egyptian camp were simply slaughtered.

As for actual Hittite units we can assume the following. The chariot units were probably decimal based in organization. Yadin mentions that there was a certain commonality to unit arrangement. Using the squadron and regiment and then battalion. We believe that the foot units could have company sized units of 100 men and that 300 men or more would make up a regiment or battalion. Like we do today battalions made regiments and regiments made brigades. How many men in a brigade? Perhaps 5000 to 10000. Brigades made up divisions like that of the Egyptians. Divisions made corps. The chariots might have been formed into 4 brigades of 600 plus each. Reserve might have had 1000 chariots with runners.

My general feeling is that the standard tactical unit for gaming purposes should be 300 and 1000 men for Hittite and Allied foot units. These seemed to play only a small part in the over all battle. The main strike force were the chariots. These were wasted once committed in the initial assault and pursuit of the Egyptians. The reserve was thrown in too soon. The foot units then became useful only for defending the town and the camp.

In reguard to modifiers the chariots Hittites should receive in melee an additional plus one as they were deadly when charging other chariots. So the modifier of 5 for chariots fighting mounted would go to 6 for Hittite chariots.