getting missle cavalry to mele

[gaijinalways]

Greetings fellow MTW gamers,

After a layoff from PC games, I have returned with a vengence. I have one problem and have searched without success in past threads and in the guides. How do you get missile cavalries to melee? I will always get the bow and arrow symbol even when using the melee command, but I sometimes want my calavry to attack up close rather than engage in continued missile sniping.

My apologies, as I remember seeing this command before and have used it, but I haven't played MTW (always on expert) in over a year and a half.

[Tony Furze]

Press the alt key while attacking and the bow and arrow will change to a sword.
All the best and have fun!

[gaijinalways]

Thanks Tony, I just found this is one of the other Org guides, I had already read 2 of them, finally found it in the 3rd guide! Might be a good suggestion if the Org guides are ammended and have the commands near the beginning of their guides (I don't have the MTW guide, it didn't come with the version of MTW I bought).

[Deus ret.]

For best results, turn Skirmish off before engaging in melee.

[ajaxfetish]

Giving them the command to attack in melee automatically turns skirmish off. If you want them to auto-skirmish again afterwards you'll need to switch it back on yourself. The melee attack command (alt + attack) works the same for any ranged unit, whether it be foot archers, javelineers, or even naphtha throwers. Just be careful when you do order horse archers to attack hand-to-hand, though, as most of them are very weak melee fighters.

Ajax

[Kralizec]

The only horse archers that can fight in melee well are Boyars (Russian royal units), Steppe heavy cavalry (recruitable only on steppe provinces, imagine that) and Siphai of the Porte (sp - Late Turkish royals)
Byzantine cavalry can fight reasonably well in melee against mediocre or weak units.

As a rule of thumb, horse archers are better off fighting foot archers in melee then arrow duels- foot archers will win unless your HA have good armour. Beware that some foot archers (Ottoman infantry, Janissary infantry particulary) can fight well in melee.

[Mithrandir]

As above, and add the camel archers to shoot cav and then decimate them in melee ~D.

[Peasant Phill]

The only horse archers that can fight in melee well are Boyars (Russian royal units), Steppe heavy cavalry (recruitable only on steppe provinces, imagine that) and Siphai of the Porte (sp - Late Turkish royals)
Byzantine cavalry can fight reasonably well in melee against mediocre or weak units.

As a rule of thumb, horse archers are better off fighting foot archers in melee then arrow duels- foot archers will win unless your HA have good armour. Beware that some foot archers (Ottoman infantry, Janissary infantry particulary) can fight well in melee.

I agree with you that you shouldn't use HA for melee unless you can avoid it (and disregarding some exceptions).

BUT

if you use HA like they should be used (= harass, disrupt, isolate and fatigue) you can use them in melee. I've done it all the time with my turkoman HA against all possible infantry and sometimes cav (if I had support from another unit). It doesn't work for all HA but most of them can give the final blow to a unit as long as the unit is isolated, depleted enough, fatigued enough and low enough on moral.

[caravel]

Turcoman horse should usually always melee when taking on vanilla foot archers. You can also have your Turco's execute some surprise flank attacks and they're great for mopping up routing units of course.

[Sensei Warrior]

Giving them the command to attack in melee automatically turns skirmish off. If you want them to auto-skirmish again afterwards you'll need to switch it back on yourself. The melee attack command (alt + attack) works the same for any ranged unit, whether it be foot archers, javelineers, or even naphtha throwers. Just be careful when you do order horse archers to attack hand-to-hand, though, as most of them are very weak melee fighters.

Ajax

Do not forget about this! I was fighting a battle today as the Turks against the Eggies. The Eggies had 1 Ghulam Cav, 2 Peasants, and 1 Nubian Spear. I had 2 HA, (usually this is all I need). Well the battle started off well with my HAs peppering the Ghulam unit (which was the general btw). Well, the Nubians and one of the Peasants broke off to charge my HAs.

My one HA lobbed a couple of volleys into the attacking peasants and the Peasants looked like they were starting to waver, so I had my HA charge the Peasants and the Peasants immediately routed. I harassed them for a little and then went back to shooting the Ghulam Cav.

Unfortunately, while I was taking a peek at my other HA, the Eggies Ghulam Cav decided to charge the HA that was shooting at them. Well, the Ghulams slammed into my HA and decimated the unit. I ended up losing the battle.

My point? When I ordered my HA to melee with the Peasants the comp turned skirmish off. I forgot to turn it back on, thus my HA didn't maintain distance when the Ghulams charged them later on. Always keep an eye on what state your units are on to avoid situations like this.

[Roark]

Just like everyone above, I use Horse Archers to melee all the time.

It's usually after they've been shooting up a low-moderate morale unit in pairs. I charge them in from both sides and VOILA!! Instant rout. Mop up and move on to next unit.