The military history of Algeria covers a vast time period and complex events. It interacts with multiple military events in the region for independence and stability.
Independence from Carthage
The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the city-state of Carthage. During these wars the Algerians took the opportunity to become independent of Carthage, and Algerian kingdoms were established.
Roman Africa
Al-Andalus
Horses, but few chariots which were largely obsolete, gave scouts, raiders, and rare armored riders an advantage in speed, momentum behind each forward blow during a charge, and height to reach over the shields of opposing infantry. One helpful aspect of chariots was that after a very successful raid that found much plunder but not much resistance or pursuit, a raiding party could fill the basket of the chariot and haul plunder with it.
Alternatively, a good archer could stockpile bundles of pre-positioned quivers full of arrows under piles of sand, circle a small enemy formation, taunt them into pursuit if they were ill-disciplined, then shoot arrows while retreating. Then, they could roll on back to the buried bundles of arrows, then keep shooting.
Roman auxiliaries performed this kind of attack while hiding the fact that a larger force of infantry encamped a few miles away. For all the enemy knew, it was just another raid. A chariot provided a stable platform so that with a separate driver, an archer did not have to be as specially trained as nomadic horse archers often were, and had room for more spare quivers to hang off the rim of the basket.
Light cavalry could chase down a retreating chariot while covered with a shield, often made from wicker, leather or rawhide. The Roman Empire employed North African horsemen for this, and used them during fighting with raiding tribes, the Macedonian Wars, and the Roman–Parthian Wars. Successor states did the same against raids, and the more ambitious chased raiding parties all the way back to their hideouts. Some did not bother for fear of ambush.
Eventually, one man, one horse became the rule due to the maneuverability of a less encumbered horse and the added expense of building and maintaining a chariot. Some chariot designs enabled a team to stop, unhook the horses, leave the chariot behind in a chosen spot and mount the horses to fight as cavalry.
If they had infantry along, the infantrymen could lock the wheels of multiple chariots thus freed as barricades, though this risked damage to the chariot itself. A solid axeblow to the wheelspokes can render a chariot useless if they are wooden. A spearman or an axeman could stand in the basket for added height to strike at oncoming enemies more effectively, or a foot archer or slinger if they have shield-bearers in front. Armies invading the area later on often came from regions where chariotry had already been abandoned.
Watchtowers were common.
The hot climate and the centuries of upheaval during and after the collapse of western Roman central authority meant the shortest-lived successor states did not have an opportunity to develop heavy cavalry along the lines of Byzantine cataphracts. Camels, mules and other pack animals were used for logistics. Heat made water sources of great importance.
Tribal warfare continued on the Algerian Desert. Some tribes voluntarily accepted Islam when they met to trade. Larger, more organized expeditions southward encountered indigenous west African cultures, formed new trade links, drew maps which circulated farther north, and wrote down observations. They gradually spread cattle and the horse, although many tribes already had one or both.
Dynasty fought dynasty. Rebels rose up. Some men went north to the coast or to islands in the Mediterranean and took up piracy, or to help hold the frontier in Iberia. A few ships occasionally went east to fight in wars against the Byzantine Empire. They learned to avoid ships carrying Greek fire. Trade with states to the east brought Damascus steel weapons.
Ottoman Algeria
By the time of Ottoman Dynasty rule, black powder weapons had already become a common feature of warfare around the Mediterranean world. Swords, such as the Nimcha, were still in use. Helmet wearing varied considerably, and many men who could afford a good helmet still did not wear one, a turban providing sufficient protection against one or two swordblows that might get past their guard, as well as shade from the sun, while being cooler especially if watered down and with more free airflow than steel permits.