My new tactic : Cavalry only

[homefry]

I'm playing as Spain and they have some awesome heavy cavalry.

They have tournaments that let you recruit cavalry with 3 exp points right out of the gate.

And then they have chvalric knights with stats as high as general's bodyguard.

Just line up half your army in a straight line and then bumrush the enemy while the other half flanks... almost immidiate rout.

[Marcus Scaurus]

I used to do the same with the Romans and Macedonians in RTW. These Light Lancers could smash away even the strongest legions. The tactic is fun, but not authentic.

[Grey Bahamut]

All-Heavy Cavalry armies are great, no doubt - they can crush full enemy stacks without suffering (usually) more than 40-80 casualties, while hundreds of enemy troops are massacred. However, they are horribly expensive, both to recruit and maintain, and are useless at sieges (who wants to have a stack of cavalry sitting around for 6-8 turns?) because they cant use ladders or rams, etc. Still awesome though!

[homefry]

All-Heavy Cavalry armies are great, no doubt - they can crush full enemy stacks without suffering (usually) more than 40-80 casualties, while hundreds of enemy troops are massacred. However, they are horribly expensive, both to recruit and maintain, and are useless at sieges (who wants to have a stack of cavalry sitting around for 6-8 turns?) because they cant use ladders or rams, etc. Still awesome though!

Actually my tactic is to have the cavalry in the sieges too. Because they travel faster, I have them quickly attack the settlement. This way, the enemy can't recruit more units.

Then I have the artillary units trail behind and bring down the gates and have my cavalry rush. I probably take more losses than if I had infantry, but it's still fun to roll with cavalry.

I just annihilated a mongol army in my first encounter with them. I'm playing with the largest unit sizes and just seeing all the cavalry units spread out on the battlefield looks glorious!

[homefry]

The tactic is fun, but not authentic.

Why so?

I'm sure that the generals back in the day would use this tactic if they had 2,000 cavalry units at their disposal.

[John I Tzimisces]

Why so?

I'm sure that the generals back in the day would use this tactic if they had 2,000 cavalry units at their disposal.

Erm.

They didn't.
So they didn't.

Therefore, it's not authentic.

Erm, actually, they usually had a whole lot MORE cavalry.
But not in the unrealistic proportions RTW players can have them.

[homefry]

Erm.

They didn't.
So they didn't.

Therefore, it's not authentic.

Erm, actually, they usually had a whole lot MORE cavalry.
But not in the unrealistic proportions RTW players can have them.

Erm, do you know why?

[John I Tzimisces]

Erm, do you know why?

Do I know why what?
Why no one used cavalry like some RTW players do?

[Kip]

I would guess massed heavy cavalry aren't too inaccurate, lots of accounts of battles I've read describe opening the battle with massive charges.

My new favorite tactic:

Assemble your line of infantry as normal, but place your cavalry in front along the entire length of the line, rather than on the flanks or rear. March the entire army towards the enemy; wait for their archers to react, then have your army run the rest of the distance. Charge your cavalry at the infantry behind their archers, leave them in melee for a few seconds, then withdraw and send your infantry into the new gaps in the formation.

At this point use your withdrawn cavalry as ordinary, to flank or hit the rear and to sweep up routers and archers.

I absolutely LOVE this tactic while playing as Jerusalem or Antioch in the Crusades campaign. Firstly, they have abundant knights available. Secondly, Egyptian/Turkish infantry usually can't withstand this assault, and once the main army is broken and routing, horse archers aren't so intimidating.

[Zeno of Citum]

Its nice if you don't want to play all your battles for to long, it can be horrible expensive tough. I usually have a mixed army but when the enemy doesn't have much of a chance (wich it never has) I almost only use cavalry to speed up things a bit.

[Lost Crusader]

My new favorite tactic:

Assemble your line of infantry as normal, but place your cavalry in front along the entire length of the line, rather than on the flanks or rear. March the entire army towards the enemy; wait for their archers to react, then have your army run the rest of the distance. Charge your cavalry at the infantry behind their archers, leave them in melee for a few seconds, then withdraw and send your infantry into the new gaps in the formation.

At this point use your withdrawn cavalry as ordinary, to flank or hit the rear and to sweep up routers and archers.

I also use this tactics a lot. Massive cav charge, then send the infantry to mop up. The only difference is that I use missiles or artillery the soften the enemy before the charge, if possible.

[Kip]

once the main army is broken and routing, horse archers aren't so intimidating.

The idea is NOT to wait until the missile cavalry is out of ammo, and rather provoke the battle. If you sit around and wait for them to expend their arrows, you will suffer tons of unnecessary casualties. Sure, they're gonna take some pot shots at your charging horsemen, but that's war.


haha and obviously you wouldn't use this tactic against pikemen, that would be suicide. For pikemen just engage with infantry from the front, and swing your cavalry to the rear. To the best of my knowledge, you won't encounter many pike armies with ranged cavalry, so your knights should be able to flank relatively unhassled.

And lastly, yes you will lose more horses on the charge against spearmen, but the idea of the tactic is it only takes one cavalry charge to cripple the main line, at which point your running infantry should be able to engage.

[avesta]

I would guess massed heavy cavalry aren't too inaccurate, lots of accounts of battles I've read describe opening the battle with massive charges.

My new favorite tactic:

Assemble your line of infantry as normal, but place your cavalry in front along the entire length of the line, rather than on the flanks or rear. March the entire army towards the enemy; wait for their archers to react, then have your army run the rest of the distance. Charge your cavalry at the infantry behind their archers, leave them in melee for a few seconds, then withdraw and send your infantry into the new gaps in the formation.

At this point use your withdrawn cavalry as ordinary, to flank or hit the rear and to sweep up routers and archers.

but won't your infantry lose cohesion as the cavalry withdraw and go though your infantry lines upon withdrawal?

[homefry]

The Mongols are nothing against my chivalric knights.

I'm playing on H/M, so the battles may be easier, but those mongols are tough on any setting.

[Druzhina]

The Mongols are nothing against my chivalric knights.

I'm playing on H/M, so the battles may be easier, but those mongols are tough on any setting.

What about the mongol missile cavalry and awesome bodyguard? Surely you have problems on them? Also you should try a custom battle with a full army of Chivalric knights vs a full army of Russian Tsar's guard. I'm pretty sure the chivalric knights would lose .

[homefry]

What about the mongol missile cavalry and awesome bodyguard? Surely you have problems on them? Also you should try a custom battle with a full army of Chivalric knights vs a full army of Russian Tsar's guard. I'm pretty sure the chivalric knights would lose .

The key to fighting the Mongols with my cavalry is to fight them in the open field. The flatter and clearer the better. Forests and hills screw up the charge and forests make it hard to see which units need to be killed.

The Mongols usually have 7-8 units of missile infantry. 5-6 units of cavalry easily take care of them.

Line up your cavalry in the longest line possible. Order the 2 left units to run towards the outsidie and the 2 right units to run towards the other outside. At the same time, have your cavalry charge the units straight ahead.

If it works out, the missile cavalry will skirmish towards the middle.

If a mongol missile cavalry skirmishes towards the outside. Don't chase them. Just get 2 of your cavalry to flank them. It takes more managing if this happens, but the chivalric knights hold their own against the infantry arhcers.

[Kip]

I'm too impatient to wait on my ranged units

Actually, I 100% agree with you. In my personal army buildup, I don't leave room for many powerful artillery or archer units though, so I wing my cavalry and pray

P.S. +Rep back at you

[Druzhina]

It's a great tactic against most units (espessially light infantry and archers), but what if you encounter loads of missile cavalry? You'd have to wait till they've run out of ammo then charge them meaning that you would get owned quite a bit from long range. Also a full heavy cavalry charge against a load of pikemen or Armoured Seargents would mean that you would loose quite a few cavalry in the charge.

[Lost Crusader]

Actually, I 100% agree with you. In my personal army buildup, I don't leave room for many powerful artillery or archer units though, so I wing my cavalry and pray

well, I also don't usually have artillery in my main armies. I like to keep my army as mobile as possible, and the artillery only slows it down. But if I happen to have some, I'll be happy to use it.

But I always have a few units of long range archers, usually four.

[Kahn]

They have tournaments that let you recruit cavalry with 3 exp points right out of the gate.

Just gotta take note of the pun. Out of the gate? Horses? Horse races?

+rep.

Fool.