What's the point of dragoons?

[Assault Korps]

I mean, they seem like either inferior cavalry or inferior infantry. Maybe I'm not using them right.

[Holy Crow]

They're good as a light cavalry to run down routing troops, etc.; they make a good fast-deployment infantry that can fill a breach fast; but they're best for their garrison bonus: territories with universities, for example, can be problematic late game, and dragoons keep the rabble in line!

Light dragoons are murderous on the flanks, but have to operate alone when they run down routing troops: any cavalry with them will be subject to friendly fire!

[Diocle]

I mean, they seem like either inferior cavalry or inferior infantry. Maybe I'm not using them right.

Actually you're right, they were poor cavalry and less than average infantry, and this is historically accurate, but they were also the most useful kind of unit during the XVII and the XVIII centuries, because on the battlefield they were able to play almost any role: moving quicky to capture and hold points, they could defend buildings, close gaps in the battle line, set ambushes and take positions for flanking fire, they could march in advance, on the flanks and on the back of the army protecting its movement; in campaign they were very useful as scouts, as military police, as foraging units. They were very useful also as anti-guerrilla units. I think we could say they were like the airborne infantry used by Americans in Viet Nam.

.. Usually I do this: when I desperately need something on the battlefield but I don't know exactly what, then I call the Dragoons!

[Frunk]

Thread moved from Empire: Total War General Discussion.

[Assault Korps]

Ah, alright, I can see they have some uses. Slaughtering rabble (but not Riff Raff) is a need of mine. Friendly fire??? There's ff in this game? So my field pieces WERE shooting my general in the back of his head. God, that answers a few questions.

[poa]

my favorite unit: i stuff the schools with depleted dragoon regiments for the double suppress effect at a good price,
and dragoons do well on autoresolve.
they can also be effective cavalry but need some babysitting on manual battles

[Assault Korps]

That sounds like stuff I can use them for. I haven't had school problems though, as I usually don't develop school tech.

[Patronus]

Historically, they were used for a variety of purposes. Though they started off as basically mounted infantry, by the period of the American Revolution and the Napoleonic conflicts, they had in essence become light cavalry. As such, they were used to scout enemy units, to cover or guard friendly movements, to harass enemy logistics or vulnerable units, to quickly seize and occupy key positions. They were essentially used the same way we now use armored cav (think mechanized infantry) or air mobile units.

Unfortunately, the game engine of ETW is not nuanced enough to depict such warfare. So in game, their main use is to chase down routing enemy units and to harass enemy flanks or lone units. I personally find them much more useful than heavy cav because heavy cav charges rarely work (at least not in Darth Mod) on formed up infantry. So if I'm going to hire and employ cav, it will be for the purpose of harassment, chasing down routing enemy, and hit-and-run tactics. Dragoons and other light cav are much better suited to those actions.

[PikeStance]

Not light, but "medium" to heavy cavalry depending on the country.
Dragoons would be more useful if armies started off at a further distance. So,e time ago, I had a mod that started you out of sight of the enemy. I used my dragoons to hold key positions on the battle map.
In the game, they have policing modifier, so they are useful to preventing unrest.

[Alwyn]

Holy Crow, Diocle, poa, Patronus and PikeStance all made good points. (Yes, there is friendly fire - be careful about ordering artillery to fire canister at an enemy infantry unit which then charges into melee with one of your line infantry regiments, for example!)

Another possible - but dangerous - use of dragoons is to use them for a sudden surprise attack in a siege battle. Use artillery to make a breach on one side of the fort. Send infantry to threaten the breach (if I have them, I tend to move up light infantry or horse artillery to fire through the breach, since my soldiers tend to suffer severe casualties if they march into the breach). Meanwhile, the defenders usually forming a mass inside the breach, abandoning the walls. When the defenders come down from the walls, charge your dragoons to the far side of the fort, dismount them and tell them to climb the walls. If you have melee cavalry, send them to the far side as well - use your dragoons to seize a gate and charge your melee cavalry through the gate. This is dangerous because, if the defenders have a single regiment guarding the far wall, your dragoons will probably fail (unless you bring a lot of them). (Maybe this is an exploit rather than a fair tactic? I don't use it very often, because I use the Shokh Hates Sieges mod).

[Leonardo]

I always use Dragoons in a siege battle, because I can move them into some trees then I wait until they are hidden.

So when the time is right I dismount the Dragoons and let them assult the walls in a different section, because they can act as a support force behind the enemy like shooting the generals bodyguard into pieces.

I can also let them capture a building later in a battle, if necessary. The Dragoons can also use the fire by rank firing drill, while the Light Dragoons cannot instead the Light Dragoons is a skirmish cavalry.


Later in-game, when playing the early campaign, the Light Dragoons can also be trained, is similar to the indian Mounted Tribal Cavalry (not sure if I spell it correctly), and let them charge into the infantry.

Some nations will always be able to train Light Dragoons from the start in the late campaign.

[Alwyn]

We posted the same idea at the same time, Leonardo! You make good points.

[Patronus]

Not light, but "medium" to heavy cavalry depending on the country.

Semantics. They were light cavalry compared to the more dedicated cavalry (Lancers, Cuirassiers) of the time. Though they and other light cavalry, like Hussars, were often used for cavalry charges at times, they were easily outclassed by the heavier, more dedicate cavalry units.

[PikeStance]

Not semantics at all. They were called different things because they were different.

[Patronus]

Not semantics at all. They were called different things because they were different.

It is semantics to some degree, since they weren't really referred to as light or medium cavalry, but simply as Dragoons and the commanders knew how to use them appropriately (for the most part). But if you really want to nitpick, no, they weren't considered true heavy cavalry...as I stated earlier, there were other cavalry units that fulfilled that role. They were assigned harassment, scouting, guarding and flanking roles on the battlefield, though tactical necessity sometimes saw them being used for charges and anti-cavalry duties as well.