Heavy Cavalry?

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Any tips for using them more effectively? So far all I've found them to be good for is slamming into the backs of already-occupied infantry or running down skirmishers or fleeing peasants; and aside from the heavy shock effect, the maneuverability of light cavalry seems to be better suited for these roles; I s'pose I just need to better instructed in their use... so teach me, oh wise ones.

[Orgath]

You can use Heavy Calvary just like you can use Light Calvary. Except Heavy Calvary is a little better for attacking Heavy Infantry and other strong troops

Edit: Ok well sometimes I keep my General next to my archers to keep enemy Calvary from flanking my archers.

[France]

Light cavalry would better suit you if prefer manueverability over damage or if your army has a weaker backbone to it. Heavy cavalry would be great for routing troops but probably could not catch them all.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Sorry Ogarth, I'll have to agree with France. My armies always have a strong backbone of heavy infantry (I shoot for those armour upgrades earlier in the game) and a line of archers to match. Light cavalry never catches less than 90% of those routing troops, still does an okay job of hammer-and-anvil if the enemy is refusing to rout, and can out-maneuver enemy reinforcements, thus rendering enemy archers useless.

Hobilars and Border Horse are shockingly effective when used correctly... especially with light mail and almost-full experience from chasing all those routing troops; as Scotland, my Border Horse regiments had all reached silver experience levels by the time I set my sights on mainland Europe.

[Orgath]

Sorry Ogarth, I'll have to agree with France.

:hmmm: I didn't realize France and I were in a disagreement.

[Sher Khan]

Moved to Battle Planning.

[HordeOfDoom]

Aside from generally being better at charging enemy formations etc. (as mentioned above) heavy cav is also valuable (if playing on vh/vh or online) to counter enemy cavalry (when they won't run them right into your spears). Try taking out the enemy's heavy cavalry with light cavalry

[sylviasama]

You had a fine thought in terms of charging them into the backs of infantry. I've found that cavalry are best used when charging already engaged infantry; however, I tend to use my cavalry almost exclusively for emergency counter-charges, so that might be another idea.

As for HEAVY cavalry specifically... They can be a fine way to break an enemy formation by charging them straight ahead, then following up with infantry once the enemy is softened up. Just don't do this to spears, of course.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

"Softening up" enemy formations with a cavalry charges seems to leave me with a lot of dead horsemen where archers could have done the same duty... and as for keeping the enemy cavalry off my flanks, I'll generally keep my archers close to my lines and have a regiment of defensive militia in reserve behind my line to repel flanking cavalry. For example: Main battle line formed by Highland Pikemen, with a unit of Nobles on either flank to herd the enemy towards my spearwall or charge in when the enemy starts to waver, and Highland Archers(which are actually decent marksmen) starting as skirmishers and retreating behind the pikemen. In reserve are two heavily mailed units of Spear Militia in case I get flanked by cavalry. Border Horse can be used as a hammer in a dire emergency, but are mainly used to keep skirmishers away from my vulnerable pikemen and run down routing troops.

[Landtuber]

Heavy cavalry used correctly can do way more than just soften up heavy infantry though. If you spread out your cavalry line so its as long as it can go while still being 2 ranks deep, a frontal charge into a unit of heavy infantry can COMPLETELY decimate it. Once my English Knights got at least into silver chevrons of experience, I could easily destroy an entire unit of heavy infantry with one charge, usually with 1 or 2 losses. Just have to spread out your guys so they all get max effect from the charge bonus.

Note this works best when the enemy is marching towards your lines, charging into a standing enemy generally results in about half the enemy being immediately wiped out with 8-9 losses on your side. Still pretty damn effective though. Just be quick calling your guys back (or even better, running them through the enemy to charge from behind).

[lsteve]

I only play the campaign game and still vanilla.
But I find heavy cavalry against heavy infantry (not spears) pretty effective. Especially against dismounted feudal knights / other dismounted units. Even a head-on charge almost kills the units with only few losses on your side.
In heavy cavalry against heavy cavalry, the one with the most guys mostly wins.
But in my Russia campaign now I have the perfect cheap/quick counter meissure for any heavy cavalry: Kazaks. They took down norse war clerics down in seconds. Now I have lots off 3-gold chevrons kazaks running around in Western Europe.

[robbo]

Any tips for using them more effectively? So far all I've found them to be good for is slamming into the backs of already-occupied infantry or running down skirmishers or fleeing peasants;

As you say that's a job for light cavalry. I see a lot of people using heavy cavalry to do jobs that light cavalry can do just as well.

I really like to use heavy cavalry at the beginning of battles to charge straight into the enemies front line. If you've got good heavy cavalry don't be scared to do it, even if you're charging head on into spear militia. The reason why I find it works well is because 95% of the time the enemy is advancing towards you and if you catch a moving target, then you can usually smash right through the entire unit. As soon as the momentum of the charge has died, retreat the same way they went in. If the enemy doesn't pursue but carries on advancing, regroup and repeat.

Chances are that the enemy will pursue. If they do then, keep your cavalry out of melee and head towards your archers. These will pick off an already weakened front line leaving what's left of the enemy army demoralised and easy prey for your heavy infantry.

The other role heavy cavalry can be used for is anti-cavalry, particular if your unit has AP weapons.

Bear in mind though, that a front line charge is more effective with high quality cavalry. As Scotland, Feudal Knights can get the job done, but do expect some losses.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Thanks a ton, Robbo... +Rep for that.

All great ideas... I'll definitely give that a shot tomorrow. I think I'm going to restart my England campaign... my infantry-based tactics tend to leave me lagging behind in the decisiveness department, especially when those Feudal Knights go MOWING through my Billmen.

The French won't know what hit 'em!

[Sodbuster]

If you want to try a campaign with a faction that has good heavy cavalry, try Spain. Chivalric Knights, Santiago Knights, Gendarmes, and Conquistadores are Spain's late period cavalry. They also have Jinetes and Mounted Crossbows, which are both solid units. The rest of their roster is good as well, but the cavalry is where they really stand out.

[Grimmy]

When engaging a line of inf with your own inf, heavy cav can be used to start a rout chain among the enemy inf. Hit one enemy inf flank hard with a charge then have your heavy cav work it's way right down the line.

Most often, by the time I've pushed my cav through the second, or maybe the third, enemy inf unit, the rest of the bad guys are breaking and turning to run right down the line away from my cav. Kinda like a zipper.

And in those times when you're outmatched heavily in numbers, sending a heavy cav unit smashing right into the enemy middle units on the inf line can start and inside out peel sort of rout chain.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Personally, I despise Spain... I like my heavy infantry.

These tactics are working great; I've got my early Mailed Knights upgraded to heavier armour, so I think I'm covered until France starts coming after me with those Feudals. As for Denmark and Scotland... well, let's just say they're wondering where half their provinces went. I've been drawing their infantry-based armies into the field, holding and trampling their shock troops, and blitzing their cities with cheap militia.

[robbo]

Besides anything else, charging cavalry into the front of a unit rather than it's rear once engaged, just looks so much cooler.




600 Knights Templar up against just under 2000 JHI. Obviously I edited the numbers (150 per unit) for the sake of getting the original screenshot but it's fair to say the charge did a fair bit of damage

One thing I've got to stress though is the need to pull the cavalry out immediately after they run out of steam. I actually had 600 cavalry in total (you can only see a portion of them here) and decided to leave them in the thick of things once the charge died out. They were slaughtered down to the last man.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

So very shiny... +rep for that photo!

How'd you get the lighting like that?

[Sorkenlol]

I usually go with 4 units of cavalry, 2 for each side, and then I flank them from behind when they're fifty or so meters away from the archers stakes. The biggest problem is the enemies cavalry, they always seem to get in the way as they camp on the sides of their armies.

Archers are what wins my battle, usually bring 10 units of archers or more.

[Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh]

Dude! +rep. That image is now my desktop background!