Horse skirmishers

[jnabb22]

This might sound like a dumb question but I just started an iberian campaign, and I was wondering if there's a way to make your horse skirmishers attack after they use up all there javalins. Thanx in advance =D

[miotas]

if they have used their javelins up just right click and they will attack, however if you want to tell a group of them to attack you need to alt+right click. alt+right click can also be used to tell them to attack if they havent used their javelins up.

[seienchin]

They can atack at anytime.
Just press ALt and they Atack in Melee and dont shoot. It also automaticly takes of the skirmishing mode.
Actually skirmisher cavallery is excellent against other cavallery and can also make charges to rout the enemy. They just die like flies, but are easy to pull out. :book:

[jnabb22]

Wow thanks 4 the fast replys and I'll do that on the next battle thanks

[seienchin]

I just love Skirmisher cavallery. As a roman my most succesfull army had 6 numidian skirmishers and only mercenary spearmen, numidians and 2 phalangitai and they have beaten the crap out of more than 25 Ptolli armies.
With skirmisher cavallery you can circle around the enemy and launch huge atacks on one unit after another and then quickly retreat. Not to mention that 6 units of javelline throwers in the back of a unit just overkills everything.

[A Very Super Market]

Why the bugger do you play as the Romani then?

[seienchin]

Why the bugger do you play as the Romani then?
It was one army in my Empire...
But what do you expect of an army battling in the desserts in the polybian era??
Of course mercenaries and the allied numidians.

[miotas]

Just press ALt and they Atack in Melee and dont shoot.

they will actually continue to shoot right up until the point that they engage in melee

[seienchin]

they will actually continue to shoot right up until the point that they engage in melee
Unless you but the fire at will of, which I recommend cause they sometimes dont charge with there spears then.

[Anthologie]

when doing charges n' go, just assure yourself that your units has completly stopped before recharging. If not, you won't have the charge bonus.

[Africanvs]

I don't much care for horse skirmishers. I find they don't have enough range to not get slaughtered by the enemy's foot skirmishers, they typically can't survive well in melee with much of anything, and they don't carry a lot of ammo. Horse archers on the other hand, I love. On the other side of the coin, I hate facing horse skirmishers. They annoy me, then run away, and it's a pain to chase them down and kill them. The other posters have answered your question, but I couldn't resist throwing in my 2 cents about them in general.

[Ignopotens]

I'm on the same opinion, Africanvs, I rarely use them at all. I will always get horse archers if they are available over skirmisher cavalry.

[miotas]

they are good for chasing routers and killing ele's, although they aren't too likely to be seen in iberia

[Bucefalo]

Horse skirmishers are useful to debilitate a unit before charging in, they cause a lot more fast damage than a horse archer would case in the same time. So they are not to stay quiet while firing from afar, they are to run to an enemy unit flank, pepper it with javelins, and then chargin with your heavy cav who is just in front the enemy unit. The enemy unit will face the skirmishers because of the losses they have taken, and the heavy cav can charge to an easy fight.

[machinor]

I came to love horse skirmishers (hippakonstistai) in my Epeiros capaign, where they were my main weapon against Roman heavy infantry.

I don't much care for horse skirmishers. I find they don't have enough range to not get slaughtered by the enemy's foot skirmishers, they typically can't survive well in melee with much of anything, and they don't carry a lot of ammo. On the other side of the coin, I hate facing horse skirmishers. They annoy me, then run away, and it's a pain to chase them down and kill them.
The AI knows how to use them the right way. ~:) They are not meant to engage the enemy skirmishers but to harass enemy (heavy) infantry whom they can harass and then ride away. If the main lines engage and the enemy is already worn down and tired, you can charge the enemy rear with your light skirmisher cavalry thus delivering the final blow.
it takes a bit to get used to them but afterwards you'll never want to go into a battle without them.

[bobbin]

On the other side of the coin, I hate facing horse skirmishers. They annoy me, then run away, and it's a pain to chase them down and kill them. The other posters have answered your question, but I couldn't resist throwing in my 2 cents about them in general.

Thats why they are always the first target for my missle troops:smash::smash:

[Africanvs]

I came to love horse skirmishers (hippakonstistai) in my Epeiros capaign, where they were my main weapon against Roman heavy infantry.

The AI knows how to use them the right way. ~:) They are not meant to engage the enemy skirmishers but to harass enemy (heavy) infantry whom they can harass and then ride away. If the main lines engage and the enemy is already worn down and tired, you can charge the enemy rear with your light skirmisher cavalry thus delivering the final blow.
it takes a bit to get used to them but afterwards you'll never want to go into a battle without them.

That's exactly it. I usually get distracted by other parts of the battle and forget to micromanage my skirmisher cavalry. If you can use them how they are supposed to be used then they can be a great asset. The AI can do this, because they can operate every unit at the same time. Funny they are great at using their skirmisher cavalry but so bad at using their generals without suiciding them, hehe. For me they are more trouble that they are worth. When I say the enemy foot skirmishers eat them for lunch, I mean that when I charge them in to throw some javelins, the enemy usually sends missile units at them, be it archers (who also knock them down because they are almost always lacking armor) or skirmishers. The only thing I find them useful for is riding down fleeing enemies. They have the speed and they'll usually kill some of them with missiles before they actually catch them.

[antisocialmunky]

I usually use them in skirmish mode to distract enemy H-Cavalry in online games.

[Nachtmeister]

That's exactly it. I usually get distracted by other parts of the battle and forget to micromanage my skirmisher cavalry. If you can use them how they are supposed to be used then they can be a great asset. The AI can do this, because they can operate every unit at the same time. Funny they are great at using their skirmisher cavalry but so bad at using their generals without suiciding them, hehe. For me they are more trouble that they are worth. When I say the enemy foot skirmishers eat them for lunch, I mean that when I charge them in to throw some javelins, the enemy usually sends missile units at them, be it archers (who also knock them down because they are almost always lacking armor) or skirmishers. The only thing I find them useful for is riding down fleeing enemies. They have the speed and they'll usually kill some of them with missiles before they actually catch them.

I have the same problem, but I usually use quick-pause very frequently. This neutralizes the AI advantage in micro-management. It also keeps casualties to a minimum.

For the multiplayer-kind of game antisocialmunky is referring to, everything is totally different of course.

[Prussian to the Iron]

hold alt and then right click(or double right click) on the unit you want them to engage. keep in mind though, that skirmisher cavalry are even worse than normal cavalry in prolonged combat. if you really want to use them effectively for melee, then simply charge, retreat and reform, charge again, retreat and reform, etc.

[Nachtmeister]

hold alt and then right click(or double right click) on the unit you want them to engage. keep in mind though, that skirmisher cavalry are even worse than normal cavalry in prolonged combat. if you really want to use them effectively for melee, then simply charge, retreat and reform, charge again, retreat and reform, etc.

For hippakontistai this may hold true due to their positively dismal defense stats.
However, with hetairoi aspidophoroi, equites campanici, hippeis tarantinoi and the likes, they are actually better in melee than lancer cavalry due to their sword-and-shield combination. They deal melee damage faster and have a better chance at blocking than - for comparison - hippeis xystophoroi. Using them as charge cavalry may sort of work, but it will never be the real deal. I would use them for hacking akontistai or leves or slingers/archers to pieces, preferrably with a 2:1 unit ratio to my advantage (defeat in detail) which is quite possible because of cavalry's mobility advantage.
Here, a second charge after the initial attack is out of the question for obvious reasons...:skull:
Thus, skirmisher cavalry is much more effective against missile units than assault cavalry can ever be (unless you have such a huge force of lancers that they can rout any fresh unit with the first charge, but then why install EB in the first place :laugh4:).
Otherwise - use them for combined cavalry attacks:

Throw javelins with skirmisher cavalry, retreat, charge in with lancer cavalry, charge in with skirmisher cavalry, retreat with lancer cavalry - by this time it may well pay off to leave the skirmisher cavalry in the melee until the enemy routs. When this happens, the charge cavalry is already formed up to rear-charge the next enemy unit which will probably break instantly because it's morale is reduced by "fleeing comrades". And so forth. Then, the skirmisher cavalry's efficiency at killing routing units comes in. This efficiency remains sound even after casualties ranging around 50%. Only if their numbers drop to around ten soldiers do they seriously slow down with the kills per minute when chasing enemies...

[seienchin]

I use them to stretch the enemy lines and than charge small groops of enemies with them and they instantly rout or get killed. Their moving is just superior to other cavallery and they beat nearly every other cavallery in melee, which is different to horse archers.

[antisocialmunky]

Campanian Cavalry are some of the best medium cavalry in the game. The Romans actually have quite good medium cavalry during the Imperial Era as well.