Russian Missle Cavalry

[Krusadr]

Russkie players, what would you rather choose, Dvor Cav or Cossack Cav?
I like the cossacks cause of their speed but are outshot by the Dvor. What do you guys think?

[Krusadr]

c'mon guys, help out here

[Kalos]

I like Dvors. They double as heavy cavalry.

[Dagonet]

depends what you're using them for and against - dvor are really too expensive to be used as ha against things that shoot back, but as said before - double as decent heavy cav.

[Sher Khan]

Dvors are meant to be your heavy/medium cavalry with horse archer capabilities. Cossacks should be pure horse archers, and thus should be paired up with a heavy cavalry contingent when using them in an army. Dvors, however, can solo without the need for heavy cavalry backup. This way, they can engage the enemy from the flanks at the right moment, but stay away and decimate the enemy with archer fire.

That said, the Russians have a very capable, if very expensive, missle cavalry option when taking the field of battle.

Also, along with the Dvors, Cossacks, and Cuman/Tatar horsemen, the Russians can field Boyar's Sons, who as heavy javelinmen make excellent general assassins.

[TRAYURI]

Dvor are awesome but Byzantine Vardaratoi can beat them.

[ProneStar!]

thats because the vardaratoi are the best HA in the game, they have a great attack ranged and melee, not to mention great armor, they are fast enabling them to keep their distance from everything in the game(including other fast cav if you dont let them get to close). Once they run out of arrows they are very effective at flanking the enemy with a quick charge and then backing away. They are amazing at running down enemies as well. So once a unit routs they make sure that the unit doesnt come back.

As to the dvor or cossacks, i just prefer the cossack for their speed, and i will pair a few dvor with them as a damage sponge. Dismounted Dvor are probably the best russian infantry in vanilla as well. They have equal stats as the druzhina and boyar sons with the addition of a bow. The only infantry i use in late game are berdiche axemen, dismounted dvor, and cossack musketeers.

About the issue with the druzhina and boyar sons, i think the boyar sons should get a few javelins on foot to make them different from the druzhina a little.

[mbchudno]

I would take both in my stack. Dvor double as heavy cav, Cazaks Cav double as light cav. I would say they very well balanced with armor vs speed and all. And later in the game with very defense Kazaks really work well against armor piercing and gunpowder units who reduce or ignore shield/armor part.

[Khassaki]

Russkie players, what would you rather choose, Dvor Cav or Cossack Cav?
I like the cossacks cause of their speed but are outshot by the Dvor. What do you guys think?

Kazaks and Dvor, I never bother with Cossaks in vanilla.

That said though, my heavily moded Russians have Dvor on fast ponies with their stats cut back to those of Boyar sons replacing Boyar sons (cost of 850/210) and the Cossak skins on the Karzaks with the shield bonus added to their stats. Why? Because the Russian list is a rubbish historically as is.

[The Sundance Kid]

Yeah, pretty much what the others said, Dvor Cavalry back up as HC, and I refrain from using HA usually, I prefer infantry archers protected by further heavy infantry; never been a HA person, really...

Plus, you get more arrows per volley in the infantry, unmodded, and the infantry and HC do a more than capable job of defending them.

[mbchudno]

Melboy, you do, but they need to be supported unlike HA. All HA stack will have many more arrows per stack coming your way. Dismounted Dvor are wicked for defending though.