Charging properly

[kataric]

Hey guys,

I've been playing the game for a while and from time to time i notice discrepancies with how my cavalry charges.

I was playing as HRE one day and on the first move I took the northmost captain and had him seige that northern city, before the danes could get it.

I assaulted the city the next turn with 1 ram and 2 ladders.

I think my units ended up being something like 1 armored sergeant, 1 spear militia, 2 peasant archers, 1 mailed knights and 1 mounted sergeants.

I had 1 of the archers flank around the right side of the castle and run in and out of bow range to draw off 2 of their units to that side of the castle.

I then took the militia and on the exact opposite side of the castle from where my ladder feint was, I started climbing up. Luckily they could only get some peasant archers over there by the time i had men halfway up the ladder.

During all of this, my other peasant archers were moving the ram up to the gates and eventually smashed through it.

I then immediately charged my cav to get inside the walls and take the town center causing the AI to pull units off the ramparts and down to retake the square. I also brought my armored sergeants in and had them run in the square and engage a unit of spear milita.

At this point I ran my mailed knights around the city so that they would avoid the pursuing other unit of spear militia and brought peasant archers in to melee attack from behind while I moved my mailed cav just out of range to form up for a charge. I had them reform and charge at least 3 times before the spearmen broke, but at least 1 of those times they didn't lower their lances and trumpet.

I noticed that 1 of my pesant archers managed to get on the other side of his current unit's main position and in between the cav and the spearmen they were attacking. Does something happen when the charge is obstructed by even 1/80th of a friendly unit? Is there something else i can do to make my cavalry charge actually charge?

Also, it seems that my cav takes fairly heavy loses when I pull them back after a charge. Do i need to pull them back faster? Does alt-clicking make things work better?

I took the castle pretty easily in the end. I sat my spearmen back and my cav and put arches on the ramparts firing into the square to wipe out the rest of the enemy. I'd still like to know what else i can do to improve my cavalry charges.

Thanks.

[Lord Raneus]

Are you fully patched? I recall bugged charges in Vanilla.

I also think that you need a certain distance to lower lances, and as a whole, cavalry just aren't as effective in cities.

[erasmus777]

What's the best formation for cavalry? Should they be spread out in as long a line as possible? Or grouped together more closely, say with 3 rows?

[Thompson45cal.]

Cavalry charges are tough to master. It's all about timing and seeing (if lucky) the weak point in your enemy. As far as a charge it's self goes. I do it like this.

I get my cav pointed in the right direction 1st prior to selecting my target. Lot of times I'll select points in front or behind my intended target. When my cavalry has closed to charging range, I select my target (sometimes in multi-player cavalry can act really weird) sometimes even holding down the alt button as I select. Once my cav has impacted the target I watch it's icon..... it'll show the cav attacking and moving.....to a point to where it only shows the cav attacking...(as it has been stopped and is now only attacking) at that point is when I retreat my cavalry far enough back to elude the enemys counter but trying to stay close enough for another charge.

Charging into qaulity archers/crsbow or muskets does bad things to your cavalry units, unless of course they are distracted by another target (like your horsearchers or mounted crossbow).

Cavalry during a seige I employ only for pushing through plugs or countering opposing cavalry (so I make it strong, both attacking and defending).

Standard battles. I deploy mine in spread formation if the enemy has artillery, while waiting in the wings, once they're needed in battle for whatever purpose I tighten um up. In a no artillery situation, I leave them in tight formation, and stretch them as far as they'll go. Once in action cavalry tends to clump up during the running from A to B. I've seldom if ever used the arrow shaped formation with them.(forgot what it was called "brainfart")

I try to keep my cavalry forces close to home, they do need infantry support, and visa versa.

Hope to see ya in the game.
Thompson45cal.