In Defense of the ALL-Cav Force: a Pictorial Anatomy of Battles on HARD Setting
The purpose of this post is to provide a link, so that I do not get writer's cramp trying to re-defend the all-cav force every time another post pops up wondering if it is a viable option. All-cav forces can typically beat extraordinarily larger forces, as long as a few simple rules are followed. I will give those rules, below, and then give a pictorial journey into a few battles, to illustrate.
To those who would say, after reading the below, that the battle results I have posted are a fluke; I say this: These tactics have CONSISTENTLY worked WONDERFULLY for me in literally over a hundred battles covering all the following cases:
HARD setting, as the Gauls, against every faction, except Egypt and some other small Eastern factions. Light cav also gives excellent results.
HARD setting, as Carthaginians, using Sacred Band cavalry against Barbarians, mostly Gaul.
HARD setting, as Scipii, using Equites and/or Legionary Cavalry against virtually every faction.
VERY HARD setting, as Greek Cities, using mostly generals' cav, against the Romans.
EXCEPTIONS: Light cav has a tough time against forces with lots of heavy cav and gets creamed by heavy chariots (so Britons and Egypt can be a problem). Heavy cav has a rough time, but can often prevail against forces that include heavy chariots. I don't have any campaign experience with all-cav against Elephants, but think that the elephants would prevail. Luckily, going up against elephants with all-cav is a rare occurance for the factions I've played. Also, some super-elite infantry units with very high stamina are harder to tire out; but it can usually be done. Sometimes one must settle for attacking these units when they are only "Tired" or "Very Tired," instead of when they are "Exhausted." Happily, encounters with these units are rare.
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Tips and techniques for success with the all-cav force:
You want a long, drawn out battle. Cavalry, even light cavalry, can use their superior stamina to get the better of Spearmen, Chosen Swordsmen, and any other infantry unit, including specials like Druids, Head Hurlers, Archers, Naked Fanatics, and Screeching Women. I have even used all-cav successfully against Roman Legionary and Urban Cohort, and against Greece to take out stacks made up mostly of upgraded Hoplites and Armored Hoplites (see example, below). Here is how:
First, the short story. (Detailed story is below):
1.) Get attacked in a good spot.
2.) Run-rest, while the enemy runs.
3.) Pick off archers, cav, and skirmishers as early as possible
4.) Run the rest of the enemy for the entire battle.
5.) After at least 20 minutes, pick off light infantry.
6.) Pick off Heavy Infantry (H.I.).
Details:
1.) Pick good terrain. Although these techniques work well in open flat terrain, they work better on the hills. The ideal spot is very hilly, OPEN, with no forest or maybe a few small groves of trees in which to hide horses before the battle. Of course, the spot should ideally be picked so that is is a royal pain in the keester for the enemy to go around you on the campaign map.
2.) Do NOT attack on the campaign map. Get attacked. This is important. Fortunately, it is also very easy, since your horses look like easy lunch meat for most half-stacks or larger. (Sometimes you can attack a superior force on the campaign map and still get the desired effect of the enemy chasing you on the battle map.)
3.) Look at the mostly red force meter. Move your pointer over it to read the message, "Defeat is almost a certainty." Have a good laugh. Then run. Run, run, run. Run. Spend the first 20 minutes of a battle simply running away, with rest stops along the way. Make the enemy chase you. Run to remote locations and let your horses regain "Fresh" status while the enemy marches to get to you. Try to plan your route and rest spots to maximize the up-and-down hill climbing of the enemy units. I typically go around the map clockwise and rest in the corners until seconds before my force would become trapped or be archer's targets; then run off to the next corner.
4.) Pick off any cav units in these first 20 minutes that break with the main body to come get you. Make sure that any such foolish units meet with AT LEAST 3 simultaneous cav attacks from widely different directions (this ensures at least 2 of the attacks will be flank attacks).
5.) Pick off any archer/skirmisher units in these first 20 minutes, if you can do so safely. The ranged units will often stick tight to their protecting infantry, but you can usually get enough separation by splitting your force into two groups and running one group around the enemy's left flank and simultaneously running the other around their right. The enemy formation will always break into at least two groups and try to rearrange to meet you on both fronts. About 80% of the time the enemy's confusion combined with your cavalry's speed will give you an opening for one or 2 units to dart in and lay some heavy smack-down on the enemy's ranged units.
6.) Once the army is stripped of all its ranged and cav support, this is a cake walk. Run long distances across the map, then rest. Go up and down the hills, while the enemy chases you non-stop. About 30 minutes into the fight, every single enemy unit should be "Exhausted," and "(unhappy due to exhaustion)." Your cavalry should all be "Fresh," after each rest stop.
7.) As your "Exhausted" opponent climbs a hill to meet you, run two or three "Fresh" units around a flank enemy unit and position one unit to the enemy's side and another to the unit's backside. Have one or two more units ready uphill, in front of the enemy unit. Make sure all units have enough distance from the enemy to gather up enough steam to get the charge bonus. Using careful timing and the pause button (and this takes a only a little bit of practice) run the backside unit, the side unit and the front unit into the enemy unit. Timing is important, especially for spears. Time the attacks so that the side and rear arrive simultaneously, and the front attack arrives about 2 seconds later. The enemy unit should rout instantly, typically BEFORE the frontal assault arrives. Break off your rear assault just as the front one hits. If the frontal assault does not rout the unit, IMMEDIATELY disengage, re-setup, and try again.
8.) If the enemy unit starts "Fighting to the death" immediately withdraw at least one unit, to allow the enemy unit to rout. Be careful to not let your horses chase routers into other enemy units or to otherwise come into contact with non-routed enemy units. Break off any assaults when your horses get winded and are near non-routed enemy. It takes less than a second for non-routed spears to rout your winded cavalry, especially light cavalry. Run away. Let the routers clear their comrades and then kill them. Then rest before attempting to rout another enemy unit. Excercise patience.
9.) Use your general for the heavy lifting: If you have to take on an enemy general, use the simultaneous charge idea, but try to make sure it is your general that does the frontal assault; and have at least 3 of your light cav or 2 heavy cav units helping with attacks to the back and both flanks.
10.) Variations to get even better results:
A.) Hide all horses in a corner grove of trees until needed, and use your general to run the enemy ragged;
B.) When your group of cavalry takes off for the next rest stop (remember, always RUN between rest stops); if it is safe to do so (no archers nearby), pick one unit and toggle the run/walk command for just this unit to "walk," while it is still very close to the enemy lines. Typically one brash enemy unit, typically light infantry, will give chase. Toggle run/walk to stay just ahead of the enemy unit and entice it to chase all the way to your waiting group of "Fresh" cavalry. If the enemy unit is "Exhausted," you should know what to do next.
C.) If you have enough maneuvering room, run/walk one of your cav that has been targeted by an enemy, so that the enemy follows you downhill or across the hill. Run other cavalry downhill into the backs and sides of the enemy unit (as described before, make sure that there are multiple simultaneous charges into the same enemy unit).
11.) I don't often run into Horse archers or Chariot archers (hereafter referred to collectively as "HA"). When I do, I assign at least three cav to attack. The middle one attacks straight on and the other two run a parallel course slightly ahead of the middle unit and wide out to the side, to turn back the inevitable HA attempt to escape to the side. Eventually the HA gets trapped against the battlefield boundary and then quickly routs with typically less than 1/3 of its force remaining. If I have lots of HA enemies and lots of cav, I just do a 6 to 8 unit wide screen, forcing every HA on the map into the same side or corner, and then butcher them all until they rout. Although dealing with them is straightforward and quick, HA cause more casualties than any other unit that I commonly deal with.
12.) Retrain often, using the latest technology available (Blacksmith, Armorer, Foundry). Soon your cavalry's experience will be in silver chevron territory (your general may be in gold), and they will be more deadly and rout less easily.
Following the steps above, on HARD battle setting, I typically can totally annihilate full stacks of conventional mix armies (8 H.I., 6 L.I., 1 archer, 2 skirmisher, 2 cav, and 1 general's cav) while suffering less than 15% casualties, even with inexperienced light cavalry.
Move up to upgraded heavy cavalry as soon as you are able.
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The detailed examples below, use heavy cavalry. I do not have a detailed and accurate account of a light cav battle on hand; but to give some confidence that the results shown for heavy cav can also be achieved, for the most part, by light cav: Here is one picture for your perusal. It is from my current campaign as Gauls on HARD/HARD dificulty settings. The force shown has won literally dozens of victories, mostly heroic, and mostly against Germania and Dacia forces that included lots of heavy infantry and/or spears. The battle shown, where we are only outnumbered by one or two hundred, will be far easier than the average difficulty of the encounters this force has faced.
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Example battles: Gaul All-heavy-cav force against Greek cav-killers (various grades of Hoplites).
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Fresh off of a Heroic victory, our merry band of Gaul Noble cav is immediately attacked by a second Greek force that is just as big as the one that was just annihilated....
Below we see a texbook perfect set up for a simultaneous cav charge on a superior, yet isolated, unit. I wouldn't do this to an infantry unit, yet; because the unit is not exhausted. But it is near impossible to exhaust a general without also exhausting my cav; so might as well kill him while we are all fresh.
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great victory.
Originally Posted by Shaun
, I did that because I find that microing cav is so fun to do but with infantry it is just a PITA, also if I attack with my cav stacks I break them into groups of two and then charge them in one group at a time in a semi blob to annilhate units and then quickly get out and choose a new target. To do this right you need to first go around the flank and take out the weak archer/ artillery in the back for the line units to start feeling the effects on their morale and then when you can't do that safely anymore you charge the flank closest to you right on the end, and just keep working your way up the flank. I used this against an almost full roman stack earlier and their line infantry routed like peasants after I charged them.
