cavalry questions/suggestions (no ranged attack stuff)

[FliegerAD]

I finally had the chance of playing this great mod a bit more intensive.

At first a question/suggestion mix... the charge bonus of the cavalry seems to be a bit low, only the lancers enjoy some notable effect. While I can understand the advantage the lance offers and while I can understand how seldom cavalry charges were physical actually (but psychological), the heavy cavalry should have a heavy impact even without lances for the shock, which was desired and achieved historically by these heavy cavalry units.

The distance at which the cavalry charges in your mod is set too low, imo. It is still the vanilla value of 40m. The Prussian cavalry in attack generally was ordered to trot at 600m, to gallop at 300m if the enemy advances, 150m if not, and to ‘let go’ (Karriere in German, don’t know the English term) at 60m. One has to keep in mind, that charges were very often executed at Gallop and sometimes even in trot, for the Karriere was difficult to perform, especially in deeper formations. (Ortenburg: Heerwesen der Neuzeit, Vol.5, p.141f).
The increased charge distances are quite enjoyable in game, I have tested them a lot. You can maneuver as close to the enemy as you want, but the possibility of 'longer range' charges (which are historical) provides an additional tactical option. The necessary cohesion can be maintained, still. I for one love it.

The Prussian cavalry was a bit special in it's designations, you may know it, but since I have opened that topic anyway...
The reintroduced Prussian Ulanen were classified as heavy cavalry, consequently equipped with stronger horses and men (cf. Ortenburg, Vol.5, p.107f). The reason might be the Prussian experiments with Ulanen under Friedrich II., who used them as heavy cavalry. However, the heavy horses made them less nimble but more powerful in charge than the 'usual' Uhlans.
The Dragoner (Dragoons) on the other hand were issued with light horses and consequently classified as light cavalry.
The quality of the Uhlans' horses was lower than that of their cuirassier comrades' mounts, but the dragoons received excellent, although light horses.

There is an old Prussian book out there, Kaehler: Preußische Reiterei 1806-1876, Berlin 1879. It provides a lot of sources (i.e. documents from that time) for Prussian cavalry, some of which are now lost due to WWII. Very good read, if you can find it.

[Adherbal]

interesting points, I'll discuss it with the other Lordz

[FliegerAD]

Nice to hear.

[Mooncabbage]

Yay for constructive criticism! You coolness has been noted FliegerAD.

[Duke John]

Actually, those R:TW charge values are perfectly allright. Especially when you consider that our battlefields are quite a bit smaller than the real ones, so you should probably reduce your historical values. Below you can see how all the different speeds are accessible through the current interface with my historical values (they differ from yours because mine are from a different doctrine, just for comparision, nothing else):

• Trot after order to move; right-click on enemy and let the cavalry walk towards it.
• Gallop at 100 m; order the cavalry to run.
• Flat out gallap or 'wild charge' at 50 m; the automatic charge at 40 m (note the very small difference between the 2 values!)

Interesting points, I'll discuss it with the other Lordz

Discussed :wink:

Cheers,
DJ

[FliegerAD]

What about the other points?

[Duke John]

Ah yeah, that second point about 'heavy' ulans is indeed under discussion. The charge values remains something to be decided by overall game balance. We try to make the units act as historically correst as possible. Sadly that is not always possible because of the constraints of the game engine.