Aware of the by far the best cavalry unit ingame?

[Jamess14]

Surely some of you thought Parthian Cataphracts, right? Wrong. Cats have nothing on Pretorian Cav.
Same attack, virtually same defense, same CHARGE but with 20 more men and access to gold weapons and shields.

So how come a lot of times ppl say that most factions have cavalry superior to Romans and suggest it as one of the ways of beating them?

[Eshmunamesh]

So how come a lot of times ppl say that most factions have cavalry superior to Romans and suggest it as one of the ways of beating them?

It's all in the numbers. Non-Roman civilizations typically field a lot more cavalry then a Roman army would. Hence, the Roman cavalry can be overwhelmed quite easily then your horsemen would be free to roam the field.

I would say there are better cavalry yet though...They ride the steppes alongside the horse archers.
The Sarmatian Cavalry fielded by the Sarmatian faction are about as good as cataphracts, but they come in huge numbers like the rest of the Sarmatian horsemen. I played out a custom battle several times with several formations with a Sarmatian horse unit versus a cataphract one and lost no men several times... Something to ponder...

[Emperor Caesar]

[QUOTE=Eshmunamesh;7778037]It's all in the numbers. Non-Roman civilizations typically field a lot more cavalry then a Roman army would. Hence, the Roman cavalry can be overwhelmed quite easily then your horsemen would be free to roam the field.

Romans didn't need that much cavalry because the legionnairies could take on the best of the best

[Eshmunamesh]

Yes that is the idea. The legions were extraordinary.
Probably my favorite soldiers ever to walk to earth

[Jamess14]

I see where you're going with this but that refers to real life situations. In game, Rome's terrific economy allows it to field as much Pretorians as they want. That is how for instance my Spartan Hoplite gold weap/shield armies run amok. They do cost, but they tear everything apart.

[Scipio praeditus]

For the player this might be correct if he or she has no qualms with playing a-historical, but the AI recruits very few cavalry units and those are mostly of the weak strain.
It is also a rare occurance that a player has the patience to wait untill after the reforms (especially when playing a faction bordering roman territory), when the more powerfull Roman cavalry becomes available, which even then would still not be recruited in large numbers.

[Globalhead]

Surely some of you thought Parthian Cataphracts, right? Wrong. Cats have nothing on Pretorian Cav.
Same attack, virtually same defense, same CHARGE but with 20 more men and access to gold weapons and shields.

So how come a lot of times ppl say that most factions have cavalry superior to Romans and suggest it as one of the ways of beating them?

Well, perhaps the Roman Praetorians are super Elite cavalry, but usually not alot of them around. As for the other factions having superior cavalry, horse archer cavalry are just naughty...and can really hurt an infantry based army (even the Romans). Good luck in having your Praetorian Cavalry chase down some horse archers .

[chaplain118]

Take a stack of Praetorian cavalry against a stack of Persian cavalry. Same weapons, same armor, same defense. Go on, I'll wait for you to see the light.

[Jamess14]

I've done both a Sarmatian and a Parthian campaign recently. No need to tell me about the power of horse archers....I was clearly referring to melee cavalry.

And one thing you didn't take in to account.... pure HA armies are boring as . I should know, played 100 h+ with them.

[Emperor Caesar]

Romans definitley field the best cavalry I like to always put roman cavalry against Parthian cavalry and Roman cavalry win it with usually 30 men to spare

[Cannibalking]

Praetorian cav is and I wish Macedon had better cavalry. It's kind of weak. And better hoplites.

[rory o'kane]

Fair enough that Praetorian Cavalry is good - but if you're playing historically, you should only have a few units in the entire empire - too few to be unbalanced. Of course, you'll always have players who will "go Parthian" and build a couple of stacks of them and the Ala Sagittariorum, but that's up to them.

[cupoftea]

Cataphracts get armour piercing maces though.

[Cannibalking]

Cataphracts get armour piercing maces though.

That is true.... They can rips legion principe, hastati, and basic legions to shreads!