Horse Archers are the #%^est Thing Alive

[UhOhIt'sAnArrow]

Ok so here's where I stand.

Horse archers pretty much own, they can run away and keep killing you and outflank and all that. Then when they run out of ammo most have good enough stats to do some damage at melee.

So how do you kill it? There's really no way except to shoot back at them or run them onto the edge of the field.

So basically post any tips or any strategies you've used against or with horse archers, because even though they are . . . they're still pretty valuable.

[Sher Khan]

Two things:

Do not get surrounded or flanked in any way by horsearchers. Doing so will spell doom for your army as arrow fire from multiple angles will both kill and demoralize your army far more than you'd expect.

Unless equipped with fast-moving cavalry, do not attempt to chase down horsearchers. It'll be a waste of life for your units, and worse, it'll open up holes for the enemy to use.

[Kratos]

Artillery and LOTS of missile troops (longbowmen if available) should do the trick.

[UhOhIt'sAnArrow]

Lol sher you always post on my stuff. yay friends lol and im not a peasant anymore wo!

[Sher Khan]

Lol, congrats. I'm just here to answer questions, so just ask away.

[suntaiguy23]

i tend to try and keep my man facing the fronts to the HA, sure your bound to take casualtys but the units shields should absorb some of the pain, i also keep the general close during this time just fight ur battle with them in mind...never ever try to chase them as that will spell doom for any unit, also armored units force them to waste amunition as "MOST" HA lack AP attribute, once they run outta ammo, most ha are pretty much screwed

[skullman86]

The way I fight cavalry archers is with better cavalry archers .Other than that I just kind of take the punishment and go for easier targets to lower the whole army's morale.Maybe get some archers to keep them busy while your infantry kills everything else then sometimes it will just grant you victory because you've demoralized them so much.The only time cavalry archers have an unbeatable advantage (against me anyway) is when like 80%+ of the army is made up of them, in this case I consider it cheap on the AI's part or whoever I am playing so I wouldn't call it a legit fight (it's almost as lame as fielding an entire army of artillery elephants ).

[Captian Marcus Cornelius]

The way I fight cavalry archers is with better cavalry archers

or Reiters

[Cataclysm]

or Reiters

Reiters range is way too small to be of any use.

[LordSaradain]

If you cant beat them... join them!


Any foot missile units work, you need some support if the HA's charge though(light cav).

[Mythlacar]

Other then the afforementioned strategy of using Better calvary archers I know a few small tricks...

A) Bait the enemy into attacking you on a mountain on the campaign map, deploy your men on a mountain and wait for them to attack. Horse archers rely on open field to flank and destroy.

B) If you have longbowmen, fully encircle your men with sharpened stakes, and put your heavy infantry just behind the stakes, with all your bowmen in the middle. If all goes well the heavy infantry (The kind with high defense if possible) will absorb most of the blow, then when they run out of ammo they charge and impale themselves upon your stakes!

C) Gunpowder units in a long thin line are also good, usually they will rout or kill Horse Archers with four to five volleys (Total, not each)

[JaM]

Pavise crosbowmens are quite good in killing horsearchers

[-=Unholy=-]

HA can be a real pain, but longbow men make short work of them

[chewy]

HA always loses to foot archers simple as that

[Janissary]

Horse Archers can't be beaten. Only way to neutralize your losses is by using many archers vs horse archers, but even that would't work, since a good player would hit and run and keep on harrasing you.

[Condottiere SOG]

I like my mounted crossbowmen better. They are like mounted riflemen.

[Brenil]

Horse Archers can't be beaten. Only way to neutralize your losses is by using many archers vs horse archers, but even that would't work, since a good player would hit and run and keep on harrasing you.

That's not entirely true. Light cavalry is also a good counter to most horse archers as they can move just as fast (sometimes faster, depends on the light cavalry and horse archer) as the horse archers and in most cases, assuming they're quality light cavalry, out melee them.

A solid archer line is also superior to horse archers. Skilled archery units, such as Longbows, Pavise (Genoese) Crossbows, and so forth, absolutely murder horse archers (since they wear little to no armor).

It really depends.

Since I usually focus on infantry-based armies, I've found the best way to defeat horse archer armies is not to play on their strengthes and to exploit their weaknesses.

The weakness of horse archers is thus:

Low armor
Low armor penetration
Need for wide plains
Easily tire (except for the most elite ones)
Expensive and not easily replaced

So in an open battlefield, the idea is to setup a solid defensive line, securing your flanks and letting your archers/crossbows do all the work. Hit and runs will not work against a prepared position, especially if you have superior archers with long range missiles.

Yet the most ideal situation is not to fight them in the open to begin with. Bottle them up a in valley, bridge, river crossing, or best of all, a city/castle.

Horse archers are hardly unbeatable (even in multiplayer), they just require a different way of thinking.

[UhOhIt'sAnArrow]

That's not entirely true. Light cavalry is also a good counter to most horse archers as they can move just as fast (sometimes faster, depends on the light cavalry and horse archer) as the horse archers and in most cases, assuming they're quality light cavalry, out melee them.

A solid archer line is also superior to horse archers. Skilled archery units, such as Longbows, Pavise (Genoese) Crossbows, and so forth, absolutely murder horse archers (since they wear little to no armor).

It really depends.

Since I usually focus on infantry-based armies, I've found the best way to defeat horse archer armies is not to play on their strengthes and to exploit their weaknesses.

The weakness of horse archers is thus:

Low armor
Low armor penetration
Need for wide plains
Easily tire (except for the most elite ones)
Expensive and not easily replaced

So in an open battlefield, the idea is to setup a solid defensive line, securing your flanks and letting your archers/crossbows do all the work. Hit and runs will not work against a prepared position, especially if you have superior archers with long range missiles.

Yet the most ideal situation is not to fight them in the open to begin with. Bottle them up a in valley, bridge, river crossing, or best of all, a city/castle.

Horse archers are hardly unbeatable (even in multiplayer), they just require a different way of thinking.

Very good point, Horse Archers are a bit pricey. And I guess there really is no secret to them. My advice from my new attacking of the Turks is to just stay away from open battle. Go inbetween hills and mountains or go straight for the settlements. Luckily most people with ranged cavalry are near coastal settlements so it's easy to just go straight for their settlements. But yeah good point there with the needing of fields because I would have to say that is the number one way to kill them. [+ rep]

[Zhou]

That's not entirely true. Light cavalry is also a good counter to most horse archers as they can move just as fast (sometimes faster, depends on the light cavalry and horse archer) as the horse archers and in most cases, assuming they're quality light cavalry, out melee them.

A solid archer line is also superior to horse archers. Skilled archery units, such as Longbows, Pavise (Genoese) Crossbows, and so forth, absolutely murder horse archers (since they wear little to no armor).

It really depends.

Since I usually focus on infantry-based armies, I've found the best way to defeat horse archer armies is not to play on their strengthes and to exploit their weaknesses.

The weakness of horse archers is thus:

Low armor
Low armor penetration
Need for wide plains
Easily tire (except for the most elite ones)
Expensive and not easily replaced

So in an open battlefield, the idea is to setup a solid defensive line, securing your flanks and letting your archers/crossbows do all the work. Hit and runs will not work against a prepared position, especially if you have superior archers with long range missiles.

Yet the most ideal situation is not to fight them in the open to begin with. Bottle them up a in valley, bridge, river crossing, or best of all, a city/castle.

Horse archers are hardly unbeatable (even in multiplayer), they just require a different way of thinking.

This strategy works great against horse archer-only armies, but things will get messy if you mix in heavy cavalry along with horse archers as the heavy cavalry will be a major threat to foot archers. Also, given the way charge works in this game (and assuming that the player, not the AI, can pull off a successful charge), any infantry, minus pikemen, trying to protect the archers will be toast. Of course, this threat can be negated by using archers who have the plant stakes capability, however, that is a very restrictive measure as only the English from the Western European factions have easy access to archer units with that capability. I suppose that one could hire mercenaries from Northern Italy as well.

I also agree that horse archers have low armor penetration, but a "player" using said army will simply send them to shoot at the enemy infantry from the flanks and rear where armor is less of a factor. And while light cavalry can keep up with horse archers, they will also be whittled down by constant arrow fire, which will ultimately damage their morale and cause a rout shortly after melee engagement.

I think the prime time for horse archer armies would be the early and high eras. By the time the gunpowder age comes about, horse archers should be much less of a problem as pikemen and musketeers can effectively counter the army I described above. Historically speaking, this is also why they became less of a factor in eastern armies and also why the early-adoption of firearms allowed the Ottomans to defeat the Mamluks, who still largely relied on horse archers, in open battle.

[Bucephales]

all of you really got it all down, and i do commend you on your strategic thinking. i didnt see any body say this however, and i find it works great. its a variation of what brenil siad. put all your light cav on 'loose' and out flank and melee. i use 2 light cav for every HA, and only suffer about 15 to 20 casualties at most. the only trouble with fighting more than 5 or 6 sets of HA is that the battle gets huge, and people get tired. I use this method when deep in enemy territory and dont have a lot of spies forward and cant afford any enemy regrouping during campaign. but on homesoil, its all MY terrain and i choose the graveyard.