How to win if your only cavalry is missle?

[Blue_worm]

Greetings. Can you please advise me on how to use missle cavalry in the absence of real cavalry? It is early in the byzantine empire and I have no real cavalry to buy, the only cavalry to purchase is all missle cavalry. Other than using my general, how do I make these missle horses charge through an army instead of just running up to them and running back prepeatedly? Especially in tight spaces like when I invade castles? Thanks. blue_worm

[Zhou]

Welcome to the forums Blue.

Regarding your question...first, let's address the issue that you specifically raised in your post (how to have missile cavalry switch to their alternate weapon). Select your horse archers, hold down the Alt button and right click on the enemy unit to have them use their swords instead of firing arrows.

Okay, let's address your other, broader question, the one pertaining to how to use missile cavalry effectively. Horse archers are some of the most "unbalanced" units in the game in that an effectively managed battle, you simply cannot be beaten if the opposing army is composed primarily of infantry and heavy cavalry. The main trick is to micromanage your horse archers intensely. I usually turn off skirmish mode (as it tends to make your units not follow orders under certain conditions). I then divide up my units into two equal-sized groups. Once the battle begins, I will send them to the flanks of the enemy army and will begin to move them towards the rear. During this time, I bring up my General unit(s) to face the front. If the enemy army has opposing horse archers I target those first to either kill them or rout them before they do too much damage to my own troops. If the other army has lots of archers, I will usually charge and scatter them with my General(s). The point here is not to kill them all necessarily, but just to rout them so that they pose no threat to your missile cavalry. While this is going on, have your horse archers focus fire on the backs of the enemy line infantry or heavy cavalry. Keep this up until your troops run out of ammunition. By this time, the enemy should be severely weakened. If they had any heavy cavalry and tried to attack your horse archers that way, you should have lead them around the battle map as their horses are too slow to catch yours. In any case, once your own troops run out of ammunition, send them charging into the backs of the enemy infantry/general while your own General(s) charge the front. This will start a chain rout. Here's an example of the power of missile cavalry (you can easily subsitute the Druzhinas [heavy cavalry] with General units...and yes, this is on VH/VH):

[claudius2007]

Zhou's post is indeed very true. I am not Byzantine, but Moorish and I make use of missile cavalry a lot too. The two squads tactic is extremely useful especially before infatry engagement. It basically tilts the balance of forces in your favour most of the times. The General too, if used wisely, can provide a great favour to your infantry with sensible charges.
Keep it up guys good topic.

[Blue_worm]

Thank you very much for your answer Zhou. It was very informative. I attempted custom battles to see, and indeed two missle cavalry can defeat a general/heavy cavalry in an open field. Strangely enough I could not get a single missle cavalry to defeat a single general (although it is kind of close..). And thanks for that alt- tip, that was what I really needed too. I have a further question on the same topic if I may. Would you use the same horse-cavalry strategy to defeat a general inside a castle? I find it's very tricky defeating the general in his caste, the rules are much different. Thanks blue_worm

[Zhou]

Thank you very much for your answer Zhou. It was very informative. I attempted custom battles to see, and indeed two missle cavalry can defeat a general/heavy cavalry in an open field. Strangely enough I could not get a single missle cavalry to defeat a single general (although it is kind of close..). And thanks for that alt- tip, that was what I really needed too. I have a further question on the same topic if I may. Would you use the same horse-cavalry strategy to defeat a general inside a castle? I find it's very tricky defeating the general in his caste, the rules are much different. Thanks blue_worm

Yeah I agree with you here. Using missile cavalry effectively is much harder in castles because of the confined quarters and horrible pathfinding. But to answer your answer strictly, no, I do not use all horse archer based armies to attack castles. My usual campaign strategy with an eastern faction (they're the ones who usually have large missile cavalry unit rosters) is to have one army that is all cavalry to go in first and wipe out any opposing enemy field armies before I send in a second, infantry-based army to assault the town/castle. Now if you can't really do that with your early troops (byzantine spearmen aren't so hot in melee are they), then you have two options.

Option 1:

Send a VERY SMALL cavalry army to besiege a city (I usually do it with 1 Generals Unit and 2 Missile Cavalry). Make sure that your horse archers are your lowest tier ones (they have a lower auto-calc value). Most of the time, the enemy will sally forth when you besiege their city because the odds are stacked against you. When they do sally out, simply defeat them in the open field. Note that you may lose many generals this way and the success rate isn't all that high, but on the plus side, you'll gain lots of experience in using missile cavalry appropriately, lots of heroic victories (if you win of course), and can potentially train up some very nicely "traited" generals.

Option 2:

Use a large missile cavalry army to assault the town. Hire an unmounted mercenary unit to open the gates for you with a ram or just use a spy. This is not the most efficient way, and depending on the size and composition of the enemy garrison, you may very well lose. In this case, I would use your "medium horse archers" (Byzantine Cavalry/Valdratoi [however you spell it] would work) who also have a fairly decent melee attack/defense trait in the attack. While they lose speed in the open ground, they're all around better options for you as they can hold their own in melee and usually have a higher missile attack as well. You need to use your General unit(s) to break through the enemy's formation at the gates if they decide to try and hold there. After that, send in your horse archers and go for the flanks through the side streets. Make sure skirmish mode is turned OFF. Always try and trap the enemy formation in a sandwich between your cavalry as this will cause them to rout much faster. The AI will often times do the same to you, in which case it's mostly a waiting game to see which unit breaks first. If they don't defend the gates, send your heavier horse archers down the central avenue with your General as support and try and draw the enemy troops from the town square, preferrably to past an intersection point. Have units waiting a fair distance away on the side streets (if they are too close, the AI will try and counter you). Once you've engaged the enemy troops in the main avenue, send your parallel/flanking units down their respective avenues and hit the rear of the enemy formation. Note that the AI will usually have a few units in reserve and try to counter one of the flanking manuevers, but not both. Remember, your main goal here is to draw the enemy out of the town square and to kill his general unit as this will begin a chain rout. Some of your medium horse archers are actually fairly decent in melee combat, so don't be afraid to use them, especially if they're relatively experienced units. I've used Jinetes (which should be able to kill off a General unit in a 1vs1 actually...test it out) like this before and it's worked with only minimal casualties. Try and keep your main avenue force of missile cavalry away from melee contact for as long as possible too so they can whither down the enemy troops first. I have a feeling this strategy works on smaller unit sizes...pathfinding is too clunky on Huge settings.

Hope this helps.

[parvus]

with my french archers, i use up all my ammo and if i get fired upon, i use cantabrian circle. then i use them to charge on the weakened enemy flanks!

[Serious Spamurai]

You should keep your HA out of close combat, each army should have 2-3 genereals bodyguards in it to act as heavy support. Split your army HAs into 2 forces as mentioned before, can get away with using less on the enemies right flank as they have no shields on that side and therefore are more vulnerable to misslie fire. Ride them up on the enemies flank and shoot, remember to use your general, when the enemy are advancing to attack your HAs their formation will get disrupted by arrow fire, this is when you get you general to charge, he will have little trouble breaking the enemy units. Charging with HAs is only advisable against wavering troops, they will break on impact and flee, otherwise you poorly equipped HAs wil be easily destroyed or suffer heavy casualties.
Make sure you focus misslie fire on small parts of the enemy line, this will make a weak spot that can be easily exploited with by your general.
Another trick with HAs is to leave fire at will on and Alt + Click a fleeing enemy unit your troops will chase after them firing their bows, when they get close they will engage in Close combat, this is very useful at chasing fleeing cavalry, many an enemy general has fallen to a volley of arrows whilst fleeing.