How to deal with Horse Archers

[Vanderdecken]

Okay, so maybe I've fought the Mongols once or twice, to know how to pick off these units, but what do you when there is a whole stack of nothing but horse archers? The Byzantines, in their computer wisdom, made a whole stack of nothing but crack vandotori horse archers and they, of course, rebelled, now what? They are draining much needed income from Thessolonica and I don't have any type of strategy for defeating them. What is the best way to ensure victory with the least amount of casulaties? By the way I am playing as Sicily.

[thursgun]

In open fields archers/xbowmen are your only chance, hopefully with armor upgrades. It's the best I can think of anyway =/

[John Doe]

Full stack of spearmen and autoresolve is another good way.

[Supermoler]

Full stack longbowmen: put stakes, make a very big distance between stakes and your army. They will come close to you, but first die in stakes

My English strategy againts Mongols.

edit: uh, you are Sicily? Then make a lot of light and heavy cavarly:
Send light ones after cav archers, when they reach them will start fight, then send heavy cav to help light.

[... where did it run?]

Vardariotai. These are actually bigger sore in the ... than mongol hvy archers. IMO it's 2nd best HA after Dvor. And you won't catch them up with light cav, becouse their mount speed is the highest avalible "Fast Pony".

Bunch of pavise x-bows.

Or just mass of spearmen and autoresolve, but this would be boring, right?

[Riley!]

I use a wall of spear men with a lot of archers behind them so the spear men spike the horses and the archers can bow down left overs!

[shikaka]

If you take enough crossbows and archers you should be ok. (1 archer for 1 enemy horse archer makes it easy, you can use less if you take crossbows or arquebusiers)


Also light cavalry + heavy cavalry will work. (catch them with light cav to start melee fight, this will delay them until the knights get there)


The AI is also not to bright with horse archers, you can usually push them into a corner with a wide enough battle line.


edit: if they enter cantabrian circle, you can charge them with cav

[Riley!]

If you take enough crossbows and archers you should be ok. (1 archer for 1 enemy horse archer makes it easy, you can use less if you take crossbows or arquebusiers)


Also light cavalry + heavy cavalry will work. (catch them with light cav to start melee fight, this will delay them until the knights get there)


The AI is also not to bright with horse archers, you can usually push them into a corner with a wide enough battle line.


edit: if they enter cantabrian circle, you can charge them with cav

In my opinion, The AI are a lot better at doing everything but capturing in the game which is why ,(I am not trying to ruin your point) I usually use 3 Archers for 1 Enemy Horse Archer and 1 or 2 Crossbowmen for each Enemy Horse Archer!

[midget_roxx]

Archer spam or get some light cavalry and arquebusiers. The guns fire on the HA weakening their moral and light cavalry force a route. Although it usually works best with musketeers so I'm not sure if arquebusiers will do the job :/

[Ishan]

@OP
A similar thread on it. Read a post or two if something is left here.

[Shasqua]

If you're Sicily, use Norman Knights with armour and weapon upgrades. They'll cream horse archers when they catch them. Pavise Crossbowmen will also mow down HAs with ease.

[Scelesticfish]

Light cavalry and horse archers. Pin them with the light cavalry and then fight fire with fire. It works for me most of the time

[Lysimachus]

Don't use crossbowmen because it takes them longer to reload than regular archers. Musketeers/arquebusiers are useless too because they reform after losing casualties so they'll be reforming constantly without even getting a volley against the Vardariotai.

Long range archers and spearmen, or light cavalry and spearmen would be the best way to beat them in my opinion; use your cavalry to charge them and then rush your spearmen in to the melee to start picking off the enemy horsemen.

[Mountain_Commander]

Hmmm I always used heavy calvary to chase them. They will keep running but they are out of the main battle so you can focus on that. If and when the heavy calvary catch them they whoop them.

[Ishan]

Hmmm I always used heavy calvary to chase them. They will keep running but they are out of the main battle so you can focus on that. If and when the heavy calvary catch them they whoop them.

Chasing them with heavy cal is a very bad idea imo. Use light cavalry and they will catch'em and engage them in melee while one can concentrate on the main battle and then take'em out when noone is left.

[Mountain_Commander]

Chasing them with heavy cal is a very bad idea imo. Use light cavalry and they will catch'em and engage them in melee while one can concentrate on the main battle and then take'em out when noone is left.

Yes better idea. Light calvary is the way to go I agree.

[Vanderdecken]

Only problem with that is that the entire army is horse archers.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Sicily has horse archers as well. They are called mounted crossbows. If you can train them (you need the highest tier marksmen range) and support them with some medium cavalry (Mailed Knights), then it is easy. Just hunt them down.

If you can't train them then you need lots of Pavise Crossbows. They out range the HA's and will shoot them to pieces. They need some support of spearmen and medium cavalry.

[... where did it run?]

People are missing the point. Vardariotai are "Fast moving" just like light cav >.< . Light cav won't catch them up.

[shikaka]

People are missing the point. Vardariotai are "Fast moving" just like light cav >.< . Light cav won't catch them up.

They can be forced to the side of the battlefield though, because the skirmish AI is not really good.

edit: i use horse archers often, they are my favourite. However, I usually turn skirmish off, as the AI cannot be trusted. If you manage them yourself you will get better results.