Cav overpowered?

[King Beowulf]

As the title says.

Bought this game yesterday and all-in-all I am enjoying it, but wow are the generals overpowered...romance is self-explanatory. In records every battle is a breeze even on legendary difficulty.

The issue is cav seem to be practically unstoppable. Every single fight with the AI is simply charging a modest line of infantry into theirs and hammering into the back of them with cavalry and into their archers. I'm not saying this shouldn't be effective - because it should it's a completely valid strategy. However...spears don't do nearly enough damage it's as if cav don't actually have a real counter unless charging stationary spears, when you're allowed three generals in your army you basically have godlike cavalry and it's an instant win.

Is anyone else experiencing this? I feel that part of the issue actually is that the AI can't seem to cope both in the composition of their army and also reacting on the battlefield.

[JupiterMoneta]

I agree, and have been thinking a lot for a solution of this, but can't find any. The best thing would be to raise cavalry upkeep for the player, but keep it the same for the AI so they won't neglect it. In any case, there should be a hard counter for the very powerful archers. Cavalry fulfills this role quite well, but with spears being so ineffective countering them it is a bit of a one-sided affair. Yet cavalry seems already quite nerfed out of the box with their woeful speed.

It's a tricky situation, but at least it isn't as bad as the balance in Rome 2 and Attila.

[somatophylakes]

it's not so op, it's crucial to have cav on each army composition, but it can be decimated by archers and can easily be countered by halberdiers or just simple pikemen, so it must be used wisely to avoid wasting it. Generals are a little bit too op, i agree with that, but haven't experienced something like they win the battle alone against enemy units.

[BreadBuax]

Archers and cavalry are just absurd in this game, combined with the fact that only players knows how to exploit/counter them, it goes from merely good to extremely op.

There should be a mod that scales generals body guard based on its level, weaker at lv1-4 and slowly scales up into a proper heavy cavalry unit.

[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]

I actually like it a lot. I seems that it is something they learned from Total War Arena. Yes Cav is devastating against Archers and non-spear infantry but the most spear units are devastating against cav and if you have a formation it pretty unbeatable by cav. On the other hand try to attack a huge group of archers with cav that is targeting your cav. If it is not shielded cav it's a nightmare and even with shilds its quite dangerous for them. I don't think they are to strong or OP it is just that the impact of the rock paper scissors principle became more noticable. I actually like the result. Charging and destroying a group of Archers before running away is actually tactic now while in earlier games you had to run them down for ages and if there was a support unit they would always get you.

As for Archers etc.: The only flaw i see that they are alway unprotected on the back and that the AI don't select units for their protection. On Legendary and VH they act quite clever though and don't target units in turtle formation etc. They go for unprotected units and especially your ranged units.

[Trobalov]

Cavalry is now so amazing that it can stand even head on charges against non braced spears and some of them even in prolonged melee.

It also makes sense considering both Dong Zhuo/ Lubu Xiliang cavs and Cao Cao's elit cavs helped them conquer and win crucial battles.

[lonewolf371]

The biggest issue is that the AI can't counter cavalry. The AI should be better at using spearmen to screen cavalry. Light cavalry should have a bigger role in terms of engaging heavy cavalry prior to retreating and drawing the heavies away from the main battle. And lastly, the AI should be a little more vigorous at flanking your cavalry charges should you commit too early.

With these changes in place, prior to flanking with your own cavalry, you should have to commit and win a cavalry-on-cavalry battle or successfully draw the enemy cavalry away from the field. This would make cavalry much less OP.

[Iskar]

I have actually experienced the AI to reliably aim for my flanks and archers with their cav, forcing me to keep my own cav or other infantry in reserve to counter them. I play rather defensively, however, and the AI may be worse at reacting to more aggressive tactics.

That being said, cav charges are strong, but that is what they are supposed to be versus armies consisting largely of armed peasants, and since the enemy cav is strong as well, I don't see much of a problem.