Horse Archers

[SleepySteve]

I was conquering Anatolia and the Holy Lands today as Venice and decided I would train up some horse archers and give them a go. I have always avoided using them, not sure why actually. So I engage an Fatimid army and I got crushed... They had light cav that easily chased down my skirmisher cav, I actually almost screamed at the tv when I noticed they were hardly even firing. I find it strange since I have routinely heard people talking about their godlike abilities, and honestly they are slightly annoying to fight against. But wow I just failed it hard... I am wondering if they have perhaps been nerfed in SS? I am sure my first mistake was leaving skirmish mode on.. Does anyone have any good tactics/army composition suggestions on how to use them? Thanks.

[Nightbringer]

Well, Fatimids would probably be one of the more difficult opponents to use them against because light horse counter them pretty well. The thing to do with them is to use whatever heavy cav you have to take out enemy light cav, then maneuver your horse archers behind the enemy infantry line where they can hit them in the rear.

[Shaun]

In my experience horse archers are better against Western opponents who don't have suitable light cavalry to chase them down. For fighting against horse archer and light cavalry armies I prefer masses of infantry - armoured spearmen to fend off cavalry attacks and foot archers, who come in much greater numbers than their horse counterparts - to shoot up the enemy horse archers. I find battles where both sides have large amounts of cavalry very unwieldy, so I avoid them by making sure only one side has large cavalry numbers.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

i hope you did not leave them on skirmisher mode, that really reduces their abilities.

[Hidden Sage]

i hope you did not leave them on skirmisher mode, that really reduces their abilities.

Depends on the horse archer. Javelineer cavalry are basically useless in skirmish mode, as the range for javelins is less than the skirmish-retreat trigger. And I've noticed that some archer cavalry won't fire while in forced retreat from that mode. But the ones that do-- well, it's basically a good way to ensure they don't get caught up by enemy cavalry while you weren't paying attention, and since they rarely need to be that close anyway, it won't really affect their abilities the rest of the time.

[Shaun]

I've often found the skirmish function to be useless at preventing the enemy from getting too close to your skirmisher cavalry - I've even had heavy infantry catch up on my horse archers before when not looking.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

I've often found the skirmish function to be useless at preventing the enemy from getting too close to your skirmisher cavalry - I've even had heavy infantry catch up on my horse archers before when not looking.

I have had similar experiences, its not working properly for me most of the time, so I just manually control them instead.

[Strengelicher]

I was conquering Anatolia and the Holy Lands today as Venice and decided I would train up some horse archers and give them a go. I have always avoided using them, not sure why actually. So I engage an Fatimid army and I got crushed... They had light cav that easily chased down my skirmisher cav, I actually almost screamed at the tv when I noticed they were hardly even firing. I find it strange since I have routinely heard people talking about their godlike abilities, and honestly they are slightly annoying to fight against. But wow I just failed it hard... I am wondering if they have perhaps been nerfed in SS? I am sure my first mistake was leaving skirmish mode on.. Does anyone have any good tactics/army composition suggestions on how to use them? Thanks.

Horse archers come in different types and quality, be sure to know what you have and what you are up against. I do not know which type of horse archers you were speaking of - maybe the Turkopole mercenaries recruitable in the Levant in the late era campaign? They are quite powerful and "fast moving", in other words a unit worth having. Watch out for light cavalry that also has the ability "fast moving", as they are likely to catch and eradicate your horse archers. To counter these, you either need a numerical advantage of horse archers (so you can shoot them to pieces before they catch you), or you must bring them into firing or melee range for one of your other units (eg heavy cav).

It is a must to bring horse archers into a favorable position and maximise their effect - try to place them on elevations atop the enemy or in his rear. Their speed will help you do this. They are also extremely useful for intercepting an enemy army on the march, especially if they are low on missile troops. In contrast to Baltic Warrior, I have occasionally had good experiences with them on skirmish mode. However, micromanagement leads to better results.

I like adding one or two units of Turkopoles to my armies to add tactical possibilities. If infantry units are locked into each other in a melee, the Turkopoles can be brought around them much faster than any other unit (infantry being slower and regular cav needing to veer in a wider arch to gain momentum). Firing into the rear of an enemy unit locked in melee is very likely to make it rout (otherwise, it is also very deadly). Also, the Turkopoles can protect my heavies from other skirmishers (eg Bedouin cavalry, whose javelins are deadly to heavy troops, but which lack armour to withstand arrow fire). Turkopoles are also great for chasing down fleeing enemy units (also cav).

When composing an army, I will either add one or two Turkopole units to a balanced army or I will add many to a cavalry-only army. The latter will have the great advantage of being very mobile, since there is no slow infantry "core" that will turn into a sitting duck. With a cavalry-only army, first lure out the enemy cav and destroy it. The infantry will be quite helpless afterwards.

[KiKiweaky]

I hate fighting horse archers even when the computer uses them, I much prefer the heavy infantry/heavy cavalry combination of the western armies clad in plate to the lighter more mobile units favored by the eastern armies. Though I did enjoy a stint playing as Turkey as they not only get very good heavy infantry and cavalry they also have horse archers and light cavalry to back them up.

You may have suffered from the command delay or whatever it is, I'm sure you'll know what I mean. If you give a move order to a unit that has stopped moving as the enemy sounds a war horn and charges its already too late. I haven't played as Venice so I don't know what they're horse archers are going to be like but the Seljuk Sultanate are bound to have far superior light cavalry and horse archers to Venice mayhaps that was also likely part of the problem.

[Studpuffin]

I love horse archers and use them in combination with just about everything described above. Typically I send them around wide to encircle my enemy's general and fire exclusively on him. The slower cavalry of the general can't catch the horse archers, and he'll not be able to stay near the fight while my mainline crushes his army he's not near. Keep a unit of heavy cavalry close, charge with the light horse archers, then crash into their rear with the heavy cavalry and you'll have the general route or die pretty quickly.