Cavalry

[wasgehtab]

Is it just me, or is the cavalry completly useless in this game?

-First off, they get tired way too fast. A horse should be able to run more then 500 metres....

-Too slow, you cant really make fank manoveurs...

-Die way too fast, when the enemy has some range units with spears or stones, 1 unit dies within 5 sec....

Playing battles makes me so angry because you cant do anything with them, for example you try to attack the enmy units with 2 horse range units, they go up to 5 metres in front of the enmy and get killed by thrown spears and stones...completly retarded

[Fanest]

lol cav is very very strong in this game and it seems ur not using them right, i suggest u to watch some online mp battles.

cav though is very vulnerable to javelins cuz javelins have bonus vs large(cav, elephants, camels)

here look at this battle listen to his commentary at the end

[Generaal Van Heutsz]

I can't do much with shock, melee is strong though, shock just seems to walk very very very slowly in battle

[RGA]

Horses move around at 4 different speeds (walk, trot, canter and gallop). In game they only have 2: either walk (the slowest) or gallop (the fastest but also most exhausting). The former is too slow for maneuver, running infantry could easily catch walking cavalry.

And cavalry in game doesn't have the mobility they had in real life. Horse archers didn't stand idle exchanging fire with foot archers, they would run around making themselves mobile and thus more difficult to hit targets. Shock cavalry didn't linger around fighting infantry in melee after charge, they would promptly retreat and charge again and again.

Cavalry in game is far from useless. They can be very deadly if use correctly (read: in a gamey manner). But applying real life cavalry tactic in game would lead to disastrous results.

[Searry]

Cav is very useful if you use it right. Avoid death traps and charge just when the time is right. Get light cav to kill those annoying archers. I've noticed a considerably lower number of casualties per battle if I have a few cavalry units with me.
Just don't buy the Persian mounted bowmen, they are useless.

[Fanest]

shock cav is useful for its purpose-killing infantry against melee cav they will fail miserably, there are also some cav units are just like javelin missile cav in general is useless

[WelshDragon]

As said, until it gets a boost, just ignore shock cav and use melee. It's good against other cav and can still hit from the rear.

The one thing that does bother me a bit is when I try to disengage my cav unit and half of it dies... THAT is a bit upsetting at times.

[the_mango55]

As said, until it gets a boost, just ignore shock cav and use melee. It's good against other cav and can still hit from the rear.

The one thing that does bother me a bit is when I try to disengage my cav unit and half of it dies... THAT is a bit upsetting at times.

I find this happens only if the enemy is not otherwise engaged.

Try charging shock cavalry into a unit and having melee cav (or infantry of some kind) timed to charge in just a few seconds after, then you can pull your shock cav out with very few casualties.

[MrHoon]

Calvary is ridiculously strong in this game, you just need to realize you cant use them like they do in the movies (aka charge into 7 groups of spearmen and expect them to live and win)
You have to realize while some initial charges appear to deal very little to no damage, the amount of -morale the enemy gets from a flanking charge from a bunch of Calvs break their formation and force them to break and rout. There were so many fights I won not because of pure manpower strength, but because of morale breaks.

Atleast this isnt like Shogun 2 where EVERY GODDAMN UNIT HAD LIKE +50 DAMAGE AGAINST CALV and all you could build were Bow Calvs.

You just hahve to balance the amount of calvs you have in your unit group. Honestly I found that having more than 2 shock calvs in my army was a complete waste of space. One thing I dont like is that shock calvs should all have fatigue resistance by default.

[wasgehtab]

I wasnt referring to shock cavalry but to the horse archers and light cavalry. I understand I cant order them to fight spear units, but moving them on the side of the enemy lines gets them killed immediately, cuz theyre too slow to get away from enemy slingers. It should be possible to outrun them enemy lines with cavalry even when they're close. In Rome II cavalry was actually better done in my oppinion
Also the horse archers shouldnt just stand in front of the enemy and excahnge javs but move around at great speat so they dont get killed.

[Y@$!N]

I've started to prefer using cav in my end game and supporting melee inf. I see most people online immediately going for opponent flanks with their cav

[Kjertesvein]

I assume you are playing the Huns, single player?

The single player cavalry choices are normally light when the campaign is at it's most intense. In that sense, I do agree that cavalry is more or less useless to take on enemy main line. The shock and missle cavalry of the early game are notoriously bad at absorbing missiles, because of their lack of shields ( which give them % chance to block missiles).

The thing to take advantage of is the horse archers range over the slinger range. From left to right, javelins, crossbows, archers, Germanic Archers.

Try to position your horse archers with their backs to the enemy, because turn speed for cavalry is slower in Attila than Rome 2.
Shoot one volley, kite, shoot, kite, etc.


A unit's ability to absorb missile fire is a combination of factors: vegitation, accuracy of the archer, shields, armor and health.

• If you stand in a forrest, then you'll take significant amount less damage.
• The shields on a unit can completely negate the damage from a projectile hitting that individual soldier. This is called Missile Block Chance ( MBC ) in the in-game encyclopedia. 20 MBC is 20% chance to block any projectile from the front and the left side of the unit. If the arrow or javelin hit your right or back side, then your shield does nothing. Think about this when deploying your cavalry, weather it's best to deploy on the right or left side of your main line. http://i.imgur.com/SXn3eIn.png?1
• If an arrow manages to hit an unshielded unit, then the damage is mitigated by the armor. Once the damage value is calculated, parts of the enemies health is depleted.
• Accuracy is Attila is a bit strange, but if you stretch out your unit to a thin line ( aka. spaghetti line ) then you are going to be hit by less arrows. This is because the game assume you will form a square block. However, if you form a thin line then only the units at the very center are being damaged. Horses have bigger hit boxes than infantry, but they also have more health. This means that cavalry can absorb more missiles, but once all the horsemen are low HP, then they are going to drop very fast.
  
  • Take also into account that units are not the actual soldier, but instead a cylinder called a hit-box. There isn't actually legs or head, but instead 4 sides to each soldier: left, right, front and back.

So basically, if the Sassanid's Elite Immortal Spearmen (with it's high hp, armor value and 70% MBC) is standing in a spaghetti line inside a forest, with it's Tower Shields towards the enemy skirmishers then it's going to take a long time to take it down. The highest Missile Block Chance belong to the Roman Auxillia Palatina and Seniores ( spearmen ) who can achive 100% missile block chance with their Defencive Testudo. On the other hand, a very light unshielded horse standing in a block formation is going to die very quickly.

Hope that helps a bit.

~Wille