Cretan Archers!

[Hoffman]

ARRG!!! AAAGGGHHH!!! GRRRR!

That's pretty much all I have to say about them.
The Greeks always have 2-3 of them in their armies, which I wouldn't mind, I like having to form my army to counter an advantage of the enemy, however...

3 Units of Equites should ride down any light infantry unit : Skirmishers, Peltasts, Archers, Cretan Archers etc. etc. like grass.
Unfortunately this is not what is happening!
For some odd reason my Cavalry stops, and walks around inside the formation of the Cretan Archers instead of running around and skewering them like chickens.

Don't get me wrong, they are many a brave man, but when I manage (usually barely) to sneak my cavalry around to the Greek rear and hit their Archers, 144 Cavalry pretty generally should crush any unarmored group of people there.

Just recently I had my double silver Chevron Equites (My Favorite Cavalry Unit in 1st Legion) attack 1 group of Cretan Archers, now you'd think that inside twenty or thirty seconds the Archers would be running for their lives, right? They have no armor, are in a disadvantageous position and being charged by veteran Cavalry.
I look back to my battle line for just a moment to shift some reserves, when I look back my Cavalry has been reduced by 50%, I order them to retreat and hide, seeking to save my Veterans for another conflict, when the Cretan Archers attack and kill them to a man!
This is beyond insane! Light Infantry should not be able to have that sort of effect upon Veteran Cavalry charging downhill upon their rear!
Please look into this and help me to understand why my poor brave Cavalry are dead...
(Note, after this battle I barely managed to raise a decent fleet, landed a legion in the undefended portions of Greece and burned many towns and crushed many a greek army in vengeance for my Veterans... then I was ordered to take Caralis so my fun had to end.)

[Slaxx Hatmen]

I know how you feel, the same thing happend to me on RTR, the were the only unit that didint rout and i charged all my elite cav units at them and they suddenly drew there swords and scewered them all! My king just barely made it out alive.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

Cavalry in SPQR are weak. One of the cheapest anti-cavalry defences is two units of velites stacked on top of each other, kills nearly anything.

Ok, two points here:

For some odd reason my Cavalry stops, and walks around inside the formation of the Cretan Archers instead of running around and skewering them like chickens.

yup, their charge is over and they have now split the unit they were attacking into two. The pathfinder bit of the AI is now seriously confused as to which group to attack so just dithers around in the middle (and non-moving cavalry get wiped out). You'll often find the same effect if you are chasing routing units that have got strung out.

Please look into this and help me to understand why my poor brave Cavalry are dead...

You need 2 units of cavalry each in 3-4 ranks deep. First unit charges in closely followed by the second. As the first's charge is over move them out of the enemy unit as quickly as possible and then get them to charge again. Never let them get bogged down within a unit, they will die horribly.

Look at it this way, you have a guy on a horse charging at a bunch of archers, they're experienced, they've had this happen in the past. They therefore know that the worst thing they can do is run away. Their only hope is to stand and fight. If they can get the cavalry to stop then they know they can overwhelm them , pull them from their horses and kill them (or just shoot them with bows from 5 feet away).

You have to keep the cavalry moving or they die.

[lt1956]

Well the problem with Equites is that they are a weak cavalry compared to others. Also Cretans are an elite archer. I have no idea why you seem to be having issues. I fin most of the time cavalry slices right through Archers. Are you playing 5.0? Also the charge bonuses dont work good in 1.2 so in 1.5 it will be better. Cavalry functions better with the 1.5 patch. There are already negative bonuses for Archers when cavalry attack, so there isnt much more I can do. 5.0 is done now, 6.0 is for the 1.5 patch.

Lt

[panasonic]

ya, cretans just destroy equites. my solution is just to send in some unexperienced equites to at least bog down the cretans so that they dont kill my precious infantry and while thats happening destroy the enemy army so that i can win the battle without losing all my infantry units.

[MasterAdnin]

Dude, I charge my cavalry into them all the time and they don't get chopped down. The cretans fight for like a few seconds, and then rout. There are multiple strategies, one is charge 'em, run away, charge 'em, run away, repeat. That should work.

Adnan

[lt1956]

Also using a missile cavalry works well

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

missile cavalry are the best (hope we can keep them in 6!)

but attacking with two equites, one slightly behind the other always works.