How do you use Horse Archers?

[Uniema]

Everyone says they like Horse Archers, and that they are so great... but honestly what am I doing differant?

I dont see where you can compare Horse Archers to regular cavlary? 3 units of knights can route a decent sized army with 50% loses on both sides, or 3 units of horse archers can inflict 30% casulaties with arrows, then get slaughterd in close combat when they run out?

Only time I see Horse Archers of any use is with Calvary, and even then they have only so much ammo and theres not a huge chance you be able to pull off the agro off you main force.

So how do you use Horse Archers? How can I win battles with um?

Right now I ride out with um... they fire 2-3 times then I have to turn off auto-fire and make um sit back while my main force is trapped in hand2hand. With calvary I can do a few charges, fall back let my main army get into it, the charge them from behind, effectively ending the fight and winning the battle.

With horse archers I could do that, but they would charge, kill a few, then turn back to firing missiles.

[Duke Lysander]

Cav Archers.. make em circle always....
i always go after the general unit with 2 horse archers... kills general 80% of the time... then army routs easy....
I flank and send Horse Archers on the sides when they run out of arrows.. you move them behind the enemy and charge on the undefended Backside units... not head on of course they die then..

[Zhou]

Everyone says they like Horse Archers, and that they are so great... but honestly what am I doing differant?

I dont see where you can compare Horse Archers to regular cavlary? 3 units of knights can route a decent sized army with 50% loses on both sides, or 3 units of horse archers can inflict 30% casulaties with arrows, then get slaughterd in close combat when they run out?

Only time I see Horse Archers of any use is with Calvary, and even then they have only so much ammo and theres not a huge chance you be able to pull off the agro off you main force.

So how do you use Horse Archers? How can I win battles with um?

Right now I ride out with um... they fire 2-3 times then I have to turn off auto-fire and make um sit back while my main force is trapped in hand2hand. With calvary I can do a few charges, fall back let my main army get into it, the charge them from behind, effectively ending the fight and winning the battle.

With horse archers I could do that, but they would charge, kill a few, then turn back to firing missiles.

Here's what I wrote up for this question asked by someone else in a Russian strategy thread. Please note that this is tailored to an all-cav army specifically.

Some basic battle tactics using horse archers:

Have some heavy cavalry readily available (your General units are great) to hold the center. Place units of horse archers along the left and right flanks. When the battle begins, immediately send out your horse archers and begin showering the enemy formation with arrows, but move them always to the FLANKS and REAR of the enemy troops as they will do more damage this way. Once the opposing army has marched within your heavy cavalry's charging distance, order a charge. From this point on you have two options:

1) After the charge is completed, you can let your heavy cavalry continue to engage the enemy troops and charge them from the rear with your light cavalry. If the opposing army is comprised of low-morale troops and have been sufficiently damaged by your heavy cavalry, they should rout almost immediately in this case. If not, you're in for a fight and will have to wait and see.

2) Disengage your heavy cavalry immediately after the charge is over and move them to a safe distance on the double. Repeat the charge again. This is best used when the enemy army has a lot of higher morale troops (heavy infantry like dismounted knights). Keep repeating the charge until the opposing force is whittled down and their morale begins to drop. Charge one last time and then send your horse archers (who may be out of arrows by now) to charge the rear and the enemy troops should break.

A couple of notes though...you should and focus on killing the enemy general as soon as possible when using these types of tactics. Don't try and use your light cavalry to do this as it will cause them considerable casualties. This is where Boyar Sons (javelin missile cavalry) come in handy as their javelins are amazing against armored targets. Have a couple units of them unload their javelins on a General's Bodyguard and that unit will be mostly (or completely) destroyed and you can just use your Boyar Sons to finish up the enemy General. Remember though, you're trying to cause a rout of the enemy army as opposed to killing every one of them because there is no way they can outrun your light cavalry and this will minimalize your loses.

[mikeon]

Heavy Cavalry along with your horse archers. It is very effective, rather than focus on the horse archers as you send them along the flanks, the enemy will keep marching towards the heavy cavalry waiting for them. Guess they are more of a threat.

The only problems I have are enemy horse archers, I try to lure them away and trap them then go back to the main force. One time, I was able to use 6 units of horse archers to completely encircle a full stack of spearmen, cavalry, and siege engines. They had no idea where to fire and kept going around in circles, especially the siege engines.

[parvus]

horse archers r rly good if used well. get them to harass the enemy at the flanks, engage the enemy, charge at the back.

[Ippius]

Draw them out with the bait (horse archers) then pummel them at the back with heavy cavalry. If they don't fall for the trick fire at them till u lose all ur ammo!

[MosMus]

ya, cav archers are a little complicated, I dont play those kind of factions but from experience I can tell you that a good way to fight with horse archers is to attack with infantry and while the infatry is fighting you go around and net them from the back, that way they get scared and run (depends on the level you are playing)