Calling ALL CAVALRY COMMANDERS !

[Czar Alexsandr]

Yeah it should be fun but I have'nt found it in the city I'm in right now, I'm hoping to get it eventually.

Ah I see. I just can't afford it quite yet. Too many unexpected expenses. -_-;

But the campaigns should offer some interesting things for us cavalry people. The Crusades campaigns look really good. The Egyptians and Turks both get a whole lot of units for fighting the Franks. The Britania campaign's biggest cavalry factions are probably Wales and Ireland. In the respect that they have more diversity than the Scots and English anyways. They both get a jineete type unit. And of course the Irish get the dreaded Mounted Calviermen. For the Tuetonic campaign it looks like the Lithuanian's and Novgorod will be the most interesting cavalry factions. And the America's of course Spain will be awesome but the indian tribes the Chicimec I believe, and the Apaches will have cavalry units. I kinda wanna use thosse Mounted Apache horuse archer guys... But I imagine the Turks or Egyptians in the Crusades campaign will be a good game for a cavalry nut. ^_^

[edyzmedieval]

Call me the Kataphraktoi Commander.
Or Kataphraktoi Dhoungarios. :knight:

[Czar Alexsandr]

edyz!

Excellent! Welcome to the thread full of fellow cavalry nuts!

What do you think about Byzantine cavalry? I'm a big fan of their horse archers, Kataphraktoi, and Latinkon. Have you played Kingdoms? I know the Byz get a new Kataphraktoi unit.

[Jason X]

advice please, cavalry dudes!

so the wife is away on a conference and i have thursday off work, the plan being to sit in my underpants all day and start a campaign with a new faction.

i have a preference high rep/high chiv/economic turtle type campaigns, but also a preference for missile cav.

should it be russia, poland or hungary?

or should i change and go for a high dread style this time?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Play either the Turks or Egypt. Don't be a nice boy but be the terror of the catholic world. Destroy those ancient relics the Byzantines. Let your horse archer armies rule the world!!!! :charge: :charge: :charge:

[Czar Alexsandr]

advice please, cavalry dudes!

so the wife is away on a conference and i have thursday off work, the plan being to sit in my underpants all day and start a campaign with a new faction.

i have a preference high rep/high chiv/economic turtle type campaigns, but also a preference for missile cav.

should it be russia, poland or hungary?

or should i change and go for a high dread style this time?

I reccomend Russia.

I always turtle with Russia and always go for chivalry. Chivalry is the way to go my friend. Russia will offer you plenty of fun. My border with Hungary and Poland is covered in heroic victories won just a few years apart from each other. Don't eliminate Poland or Hungry, try to reason with them, make them your vassels. It should be a rewarding experince. Currently my empire spans from Thorn in Poland, Bran in Hungary, and Yerevan in the middle east. It's plenty big enough that I'm starting to worry things might be getting too easy. ^_^ All the same though the Dane's are my enemy in the north and the Turks and the Mongols in the middle east. If you can make it to high period Russia it'll be tons of fun. Currently I'm enjoying the benifits of being the most advanced faction in the world. Muskets, cannons, etc. It's wonderful. And with such good cavalry... my general Syblslav got himself two heroic victories outside Krakow with my all cavalry army that has Dvor, tons of Cossaks, some highly veteran Kazaks, and Boyar sons. Russia's very rewarding, you end up taking over so much ground just cause your neighbors hate you. My reputation is trustworthy (getting better I think to.) and I'm always in the end report for best production, territory, population and overall. (Military and Finacial is thosse cursed Mongols...) You'll be stuck with Kazacks forever... but once you get Cossacks you'll know cavalry tactics so well from fighting with the inferior Kazacks... the world will be yours. (When you can use Kazacks good.. you know you've got light cavalry archer skirmishing down good. You can... counter Streltzky and Polish Nobles with a unit or two of thesse if you can figure it out.)

I highly reccomend Russia. It's a very unique faction

[Jason X]

@monsieur - merci! but my last two campaigns were turks and egypt

@czar - thanks. russia, eh? you do surprise me czar :beam: the thing putting me off russia was the relative difficulty in chiv-ing up your generals without crusades.

[Shahed]

Out of those I'd recommend Russia also. It makes for a great fun game. The vast distances make anything but cavalry seem very slow.

[Jason X]

sorted! *cossack dances into the sunrise*

[Czar Alexsandr]

@monsieur - merci! but my last two campaigns were turks and egypt

@czar - thanks. russia, eh? you do surprise me czar :beam: the thing putting me off russia was the relative difficulty in chiv-ing up your generals without crusades.

Why would I ever reccomend the Motherland? :laugh4:

Yeah it's hard to get your chivalry up by my general Kurtisa the Saint had full chivalry and full command. That guy was awesome. Maybe it'll make it a more challenging game in that regard? (I admit Kurtisa was a pretty rare example.. but Mikhail the Honourable, Zub the Chivalrous, and Kozel the Chivalrous were all pretty honurable fellows in my most recent campaign.)

[Lord Ovaat]

the plan being to sit in my underpants all day and start a campaign with a new faction.

:ahh: Dude! That's waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more info than we needed. The mental picture will haunt me for days.

Other than that, if you have Kingdoms, you gotta play Spain in Americas and use the Dragoons. They are so overpowered as to be absurd and laughable. Nothing stands before them, nor around them for that matter.

If you don't have Kingdoms, you may want to DL "Unspoken Knights" mod for the vanilla. It doesn't affect any of the vanilla campaign mechanism, and gives you instant access to both the Mongols and Timurids as playable factions on the normal campaign map. Both are a lot of fun. It also gives you a fictitious map with both Timurids and Mongols. That's also a lot of fun because the map is totally unknown. When you start your first campaign, you just don't know who or what is lurking in the shadows.

With standard vanilla, I actually like to use the Byzantine Vards. They hold their own, and are a terror to javelin horse because of greater range and more missles.

BTW, Unspoken Knight is CA, and his mod can be found here:


http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=1403

[Shahed]

Ah I see. I just can't afford it quite yet. Too many unexpected expenses. -_-;

But the campaigns should offer some interesting things for us cavalry people. The Crusades campaigns look really good. The Egyptians and Turks both get a whole lot of units for fighting the Franks. The Britania campaign's biggest cavalry factions are probably Wales and Ireland. In the respect that they have more diversity than the Scots and English anyways. They both get a jineete type unit. And of course the Irish get the dreaded Mounted Calviermen. For the Tuetonic campaign it looks like the Lithuanian's and Novgorod will be the most interesting cavalry factions. And the America's of course Spain will be awesome but the indian tribes the Chicimec I believe, and the Apaches will have cavalry units. I kinda wanna use thosse Mounted Apache horuse archer guys... But I imagine the Turks or Egyptians in the Crusades campaign will be a good game for a cavalry nut. ^_^

I think so too. I'm specially keen to try out the Apaches. A new fun twist. the Turks & Egys will be good as in vanilla, but the region map should theoretically make it more interesting.


Call me the Kataphraktoi Commander.
Or Kataphraktoi Dhoungarios. :knight:

Welcome aboard !


Dude! That's waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more info than we needed. The mental picture will haunt me for days.

Other than that, if you have Kingdoms, you gotta play Spain in Americas and use the Dragoons. They are so overpowered as to be absurd and laughable. Nothing stands before them, nor around them for that matter.

If you don't have Kingdoms, you may want to DL "Unspoken Knights" mod for the vanilla. It doesn't affect any of the vanilla campaign mechanism, and gives you instant access to both the Mongols and Timurids as playable factions on the normal campaign map. Both are a lot of fun. It also gives you a fictitious map with both Timurids and Mongols. That's also a lot of fun because the map is totally unknown. When you start your first campaign, you just don't know who or what is lurking in the shadows.

With standard vanilla, I actually like to use the Byzantine Vards. They hold their own, and are a terror to javelin horse because of greater range and more missles.

BTW, Unspoken Knight is CA, and his mod can be found here:

http://204.155.67.203/med2/M2TWLaunc...ual&StoryId=23

Excellent ! Thanks for the tip. I LOVE playing the Mongols & Timurids.
BTW is that link working ?. Did'nt work for me.

[Lord Ovaat]

OK, I fixed it, Sinan. Odd, though. It was working when I first posted. But the new one seems to work fine. Have fun.

[Shahed]

Cool thanks. Interesting mod, the map for the Tims is wierd, should be fun though. You know what would be cool ? A mini campaign in the steppe.

[Lord Ovaat]

Yeah, that would be nice, but doubt he'll add on to it. If they keep entertaining us with free mods, they'll go bankrupt. :laugh4: ......................:inquisitive: My Gawd! I'd be forced to get a ............ life.

Unspoken Knight made a few changes that I also enjoyed, like taking two turns for boats, the ability to actually recruit generals--and heavy infantry generals, and some other stuff. I had a ball with it, but haven't played it since Kingdoms came out. Not sure about the fictitious map (which I liked), but playing the Mongols on the normal campaign map became almost unmanageable. He built in the ability for them to build all manner of religious buildings, but you still couldn't recruit imams. Unrest was horrible. So I just added them to the export_building files for the Islamic churches. Worked much better. I think once I'm bored with Kingdoms--which won't be for awhile--I may try Darth's mod. Might be good for cav, and they've included two additional campaign maps. Ah, yes. The excitement of the unknown. I'll let you know if I try it.

[edyzmedieval]

edyz!

Excellent! Welcome to the thread full of fellow cavalry nuts!

What do you think about Byzantine cavalry? I'm a big fan of their horse archers, Kataphraktoi, and Latinkon. Have you played Kingdoms? I know the Byz get a new Kataphraktoi unit.

To be honest, 70% of my armies are made up of cavalry, 20% archers and just 10% infantry. My favourites are the Kataphraktoi (of course...) and also those Dvor Guard of the Russians are nasty, and the Qapukulu.

Byzantine Cavalry (unit) is kind of bad. I don't know why, it doesn't do it for me! Vardariotai are really useful units. Latinkon rout too easily. To me, they are just medium cavalry, and Byzantine Lancers are quite light cavalry.

I still have to receive my copy of Kingdoms. :furious3:

[Czar Alexsandr]

To be honest, 70% of my armies are made up of cavalry, 20% archers and just 10% infantry. My favourites are the Kataphraktoi (of course...) and also those Dvor Guard of the Russians are nasty, and the Qapukulu.

Byzantine Cavalry (unit) is kind of bad. I don't know why, it doesn't do it for me! Vardariotai are really useful units. Latinkon rout too easily. To me, they are just medium cavalry, and Byzantine Lancers are quite light cavalry.

I still have to receive my copy of Kingdoms. :furious3:

Well that's fine Edyz! I think we all use mixed forces. (I just have to have a all cavalry army to wreak havoc with, the horses have always been my favorite. I use as much cavalry as I can afford naturally to. Right now I have a powerful all cavalry army consisting of Dvor, Cossacks, Tsar's guard, and the general natuurally! It's based in Bran and can get to Sophia, Budapest, Krackow, or Constantinople in no time. I think I've pretty much got a stronghold on that region.)

I'll take that as a complement, what you said about my Dvor. :laugh4:

Byzantine Cavalry are by far not the best horse archers... -_-; Your Vardarotoi are infinitely better, Siphais, Mamluks, and Hungarian Nobles are all much better at switching from missle to meele. (Heck my Cossack's can probably beat the Byzantine Cavalry in a meele.) I think Byzantine Cavalry should have better stats, but hey the Vardarotoi is the best horse archer in the game so no worries. I agree about Latinikon and Byzantine Lancers to. They're not all that great. (Latinkion has the stats of a average chivalric knight unit I think.. ) Do you use Kataphraktoi much? I know they're stronger than Latinikon.

I don't have Kingdoms either. -_-; It's quite tragic.. I keep reading up on it and it looks good. Ton's of new cavalry and different locations... ah... ^_^ It'll be good.

[Shahed]

Greetings Everyone !

As Apache you have to wait a while to get your mounted Thunder Braves and when you finally do get them, your Generals remain on foot which is a handicap !?! Your General's hardly see any more action PLUS they reduce the movement points for your All Cavalry army.

Any ideas on how to fix this ?

[edyzmedieval]

Modding my friend, if it possible.

Ah yes of course. Long live Kataphraktoi armies. They destroy everything. The Archantopoulai in Kingdoms are even better, but even more expensive.

[Fisherking]

I have waited much too long to post here!

Cav and Horse Archers Rule!

The trouble with infantry is that they tend to think at 2mph.

I have been doing this from the beginnings of my TW experience and even with board games before computer games came into their own. I even did it as part of my real life military experience.

Mounted Combat takes much more thinking than just charge…that is unless you are using Kats in RTW but that was fun too. Hit and run, thrust and parry. Destroy the enemy’s will to fight by picking of a unit here or there until they all run away and you run them to ground. I have even out Mongoled the Mongols using all cav armies of the stronger horse archer types. I only wish that mounted infantry was portrayed in the game to give you a little more flexibility in how to deploy and what to use as bate. But I will continue to make full use of mounted arms what ever the next iteration brings to total war.

For those of you who are way over the top (I am a bit too old now) I will edit this and add the link of a Horse Archer Reenactment group near here who I have met.

Take care of your horse and he will take care of you.

[Death is yonder]

Hi guys,I'm kind of a noob to M2TW,don't know a lot of stuff,but I know for sure that Horse Archers kick everyone else as... err..butt.Until recently,i thought a heavy foot archer and infantry with one or two units of siege weapons was the way to go.
Then,the mongols came and totally owned my units:sweatdrop: .I've been trying HA ever since.The byzantine empire's horse archers such as vardariotai(not sure about spelling)and the skythikons own a lot.Most battles result in high kills and low casualties.The next time i faced the mongols,I won!With stunning kill to death ratios.
I'll just like to say that im now officially a HA addict.Mmmmmmmm... Russian HA against Eastern Catholic Infantry armies.I feel evil:laugh4: .

[Odin]

Hi guys,I'm kind of a noob to M2TW,don't know a lot of stuff,but I know for sure that Horse Archers kick everyone else as... err..butt.Until recently,i thought a heavy foot archer and infantry with one or two units of siege weapons was the way to go.
Then,the mongols came and totally owned my units:sweatdrop: .I've been trying HA ever since.The byzantine empire's horse archers such as vardariotai(not sure about spelling)and the skythikons own a lot.Most battles result in high kills and low casualties.The next time i faced the mongols,I won!With stunning kill to death ratios.
I'll just like to say that im now officially a HA addict.Mmmmmmmm... Russian HA against Eastern Catholic Infantry armies.I feel evil:laugh4: .

Welcome to the club, wait until you get Mounted Dvor cavalry, fun unit.

[Czar Alexsandr]

I would just like to say welcome to Death is yonder and Fisherking!

I agree with you Death is yonder about HA. HA, espesially the lighter faster guys, are deadly. (Especially when they have good stanima. Or.. very good stanima in the case of the Cossack Cavalry. :laugh4: Russia rules.)

Fisherking, your post was very interesting. It seems you're a natural cavalry man. I like the subtlety and skill required when handling the cavalry as well. Infantry is basically just a wind em up and let em go thing. :laugh4:

[Death is yonder]

Thanks for the welcome guys.I agree with u Czar Alexander that infantry are basically quite useless while playing Russia and Byzantine,well,until you get the heavier infantry for the Byzantines.The only job term i have for infantry is... cannon fodder.I just use them to hold the other calvary/infantry in place till i charge them in the rear.

[Czar Alexsandr]

I use Infantry as Russia, I just prefer to use cavalry. I have several all cavalry armies but most of my armies are missile units, infantry, and cavalry. With infantry + cavalry armies you just gotta position the cavalry and infantry right and plan for them to strike around the same time. I take the speed of infantry in mind when planning my strategy and have my cavalry run behind the enemy a distance I think they can close and do the same with my infantry. When my infantry gets close, I have them charge, have the cavarly charge , and the infantry and cavalry often find themselves surrounded by a routing army.

[marrow]

I have to admit that all-cav armies worked best with my Polish camp.
Loved Russia too, but it's the sheer punch of polish nobles that makes all the difference.

I would personally recommend Poland as possibly the most involving campaign there is for cavalry commanders. Russian camp is much fun too, but the starting position is very secure compared to Poland and allows for both quick expansion and turtling strategies, whereas the poles are forced to pull their socks up from the word go to make world domination feasible.

Polish nobles and strzelcy are available right from the start and both are excellent units although demanding some patience and skill. In right hands tho, both units will butcher quite a ridiculous amount of men in early wars against HRE. After the first 20 turns my initial stack of 6 strzelcy and 4 PN + 2 generals have gone up to 1 - 2 silver chevrons on average. And it's certified that they eat boyar sons for breakfast, tried and tested both in my Russian and Polish campaigns.

The cream gets a bit too thick later on though, once you start producing Hussars. I have tested it numerous times and a stack of 1 - 2 generals, 6 strzelcy, 4 polish nobles, 4 Hussars and 4 polish knights/guard (same stats anyway!) is a bit too far on the jedi side I'm afraid. Hussars are just too good for their own good. Maybe it's just me, but I smashed through Russians, the Byz, the Turks, Egyptians and the Mongols without much effort. I have found I have to impose limitations on my expansion because no one can stop that single stack! I saved that campaign some few weeks ago and I actually don't fancy coming back to it as I had already started auto-resolving battles...

Seriously tho - give polish cav a try and prepare to be amazed.

[Fisherking]

Marrow, hear-hear!

I totally agree that Poland is a cavalry powerhouse.

And if you liked it so well the next challenge is Hungry.

They do not have the depth of Poland but they do have the Hussars and Hungarian Nobles. HNs are an excellent unit even though a bit expensive. It is harder hitting as an archer but not armor piercing.
But for dismounted archers they have nice pavise crossbows that can lay down a base of fire giving your horse a free reign to envelope and flank the enemy.

They are both wonderful factions to play. Poland seems the easier to me...

[marrow]

I have given Hungary a go in the past, but then I had a system rebuild and lost the savegame, it was going quite well tho so I will definitely come back soon, cheers bro! :2thumbsup:

BTW, not sure if this has been covered this far, what is the benefit of barded horses? Some units (polish knights/guard) seem to ride barded steeds but they have no advantage in stats, does that extra bit of armour have any impact (speed, survivability and such).

[Czar Alexsandr]

Poland and Hungary are excellent Eastren European nations as well. The Eastrean European factiosns are great Cavalry centered factions. Poland has the Polish Knights, Polish Guard, Lithuanian Cavalry, Strelzky, and the mighty Polish Nobles at it's disposal. All excellent units. Although I must admit.. the Lituanian Cavalry, although a fine horse archer, is nothing like my Russian Horse archers. My Cossacks are a much bettern unit in my opinion. And the Hungarians, with their Hungarian Nobles, Magyar Cavalry, Hussars, and Royal Banderium is also a very good cavalry faction. But no javelien cavalry! With Russia I have the fleet Cossacks and the versitile Dvor and the Boyar Sons. Russia has a very nice selection of Cavalry late game. (I admit it takes forever, but I personally enjoy making a medeival Soviet Union. XD ) The super Heavy Tsar's Guard is the best fighter in the heavy cavalry arena hands down. (Although the charge is a bit low.) The Dvor fires it's arrows with a very high attack rating. (It's like a T-80.) The Cossack is speedy and well balanced. Nothing makes me happier then seeing my Cossacks are still just as energetic at the end of the battle as they were when it started. (This is after all arrows have been fired and they've coomited to melee and routed the enemy.) Boyar Sons are good. Though not as good as Polish Nobles, they are still very good. And with the Dismounted Dvor, Cossak Musketeers, and Basilisks to provide long ranged support for your cavalry... Well... let's just say Russia's a pretty good faction. :laugh4:

I have to try Poland and Hungary in earnest though, although of course my favorite faction is Russia. (It'll be likely to stay that way. Me and my Russians have some history.. )

By the way.. has anyone seen that there's a Calling all Infantry Commanders thread now? O_o? Any cavalry guys play Multiplayer? I'd like to see thosse Infantry nuts put in their place once and for all! :laugh4:

Them :whip: Us

[Shahed]

WELCOME ABOARD to those who just joined us !

Alex, Thanks for keeping this thread & this association alive ! and .. HAHA ! YEAH ! I saw the Infantry thread, thought that was funny, in a way, but I think the original poster meant well.... BUT gentlemen this is not a "us vs them" thing. Respect where it's due, all round.

It's 2 different playstyles.

We're all in here to enjoy the game, and share our passion for a pastime.
If others feel differently than us, that's fine ! Hell that's exactly what makes us different !

Perhaps we'll learn something from them ? Who knows ? Hell they sure learnt a LOAD from us, Just look at how much an average player learnt about how to deal with HA & Combined Arms All Cavalry Armies from Hunters All Their Lives by Doug-Thompson. We gave, (thank you everyone for what I learnt from you), to this community over the years and we continue to give.

Had a brief game tonight as Teutons in the Kingdoms expansion, definetly not a great cav faction, although they have some BAD BAD BAD MEAN looking cav. And the map itself, not much of a cav map. It is do-able but be ready for lots of hills and trees. HOWEVER, LOADS & LOADS of infantry to utterly annihilate. Careful of woodsmen and other 2 Hander peasants-types they can do damage. I'd like to give a shot as Novogrod in this campaign, that should be fun! LOADS of Inf to shoot up (something the Teutons lack till Mounted Xbows & I have'nt seen those yet).

I did a few hours as Egypt the other day (Kingdoms) and WOW ! now that's defintely an ALL cav faction.

Will try Poland too...

MOUNT UP !!! WE RIDE ON !!!

[Mete Han]

Poland and Hungary are excellent Eastren European nations as well. The Eastrean European factiosns are great Cavalry centered factions. Poland has the Polish Knights, Polish Guard, Lithuanian Cavalry, Strelzky, and the mighty Polish Nobles at it's disposal. All excellent units. Although I must admit.. the Lituanian Cavalry, although a fine horse archer, is nothing like my Russian Horse archers. My Cossacks are a much bettern unit in my opinion. And the Hungarians, with their Hungarian Nobles, Magyar Cavalry, Hussars, and Royal Banderium is also a very good cavalry faction. But no javelien cavalry! With Russia I have the fleet Cossacks and the versitile Dvor and the Boyar Sons. Russia has a very nice selection of Cavalry late game. (I admit it takes forever, but I personally enjoy making a medeival Soviet Union. XD ) The super Heavy Tsar's Guard is the best fighter in the heavy cavalry arena hands down. (Although the charge is a bit low.) The Dvor fires it's arrows with a very high attack rating. (It's like a T-80.) The Cossack is speedy and well balanced. Nothing makes me happier then seeing my Cossacks are still just as energetic at the end of the battle as they were when it started. (This is after all arrows have been fired and they've coomited to melee and routed the enemy.) Boyar Sons are good. Though not as good as Polish Nobles, they are still very good. And with the Dismounted Dvor, Cossak Musketeers, and Basilisks to provide long ranged support for your cavalry... Well... let's just say Russia's a pretty good faction. :laugh4:

I have to try Poland and Hungary in earnest though, although of course my favorite faction is Russia. (It'll be likely to stay that way. Me and my Russians have some history.. )

By the way.. has anyone seen that there's a Calling all Infantry Commanders thread now? O_o? Any cavalry guys play Multiplayer? I'd like to see thosse Infantry nuts put in their place once and for all! :laugh4:

Them :whip: Us

The Polish, Hungarian and Russian and Byzantian (i doubt i spelled that right) HA units seem to have better stats than Turkish HA units. Especially the mediocre discipline and stamina of the Sipahis seems like a problem. However the advantage of the Sipahis is that their upkeep is much lower than their rival HA's. Only Cossack's have lower upkeep but then they are untrained and their pony is not heavy type as the Sipahis and also they do not have armour. So in the end there are two HA units that really can be the core unit of an army for you can use them in mass with thanx to thier lower upkeep: Sipahis and Cossack Cavalry. Sipahis are more meely oriented while the Cossacks are more manouverable. THe upkeep difference between Vardartorai (also the Dvor) and the Sipahi is 75 florins per turn. so in ten turns it makes 750 and if you have 20 unit it adds up to 15000 florins. With Cossak's the difference is even higher. So I would go for Cossack and Sipahi every time. THey will get the job done.

Apart from these the range of the camel gunners hurts you a lot in a battle especially if you are in the desert (which is usualy where you fight them) and get tired chasing them. Must be fun to use them against the Elephants.

[Czar Alexsandr]

Sinan

Thank you! I'm just suprised that this old thread's still getting people's attention. It seems there are a lot of cavalry fanatics out there and quite possibly even more!

I admit I may have come off as being a little biast against the Infantry commanders but... I mean't it all in the sense of friendly rivalry! :laugh4: eg. The Hundred Years war was all a friendly rivalry on what was better! Just kidding! ^_^ Yeah I'd just really like to see some competion's held between the two groups. It'd be good for both of us. We'd learn how to counter good infantry generals and they'd learn how to counter cavalry. I have the utmost respect for them and wish no ill will. They may play the game any way they chosse and I'm sure if I got on today they'd teach me a lesson or two. (I'd get em back though. O_- )


Mete Han

I totally agree with you. The Sipahi and Cossack Cavalry are excellent cavalry archers. Very versitile (Not to discount the great horse archers oth other factions like Hungary, Poland, Byzantium, and Egypt.) And of course it's not a horse archer, but the Camel Gunners could very well be the most dangerous missle cavalry unit. (Aside from Spanish Dragoons in Kingdoms which to my understanding are much better.) I have used Camel Gunners against the Timurids and the Mongols though. It makes your battles a lot easier. XD (Doesn't mean it's not fun. Nothing's better than sweeping across Eqypt for the sole purpose of defeating the only armies that can still present a challenge to you.)

[Fisherking]

As promised here is a link to the Horse Archers in Augsburg, which is near me. It is the link to the translated page…hope it works.


http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.steppenreiter.de/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsteppenreiter%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX


I was also wondering if anyone else actually has a horse. Mine is a gaited horse in keeping with what is/was desirable both then and now for me.

I don’t know how trotting horses gained such prominence but it sure makes for a hard ride.

Sorry, not posting pictures but she is a lovely 4 year old MFT (Missouri Foxtrotting Horse)

[imnothere]

hi fisherking,

you might want to check this out
http://community.livejournal.com/equestrian/ this is for horse-lovers - mostly pictures and some common problems in training and health.

despite being an infantry commander, yes i do like horses. just too poor to afford one.

(pity that horses cant learn how to cook....opps)

[Zajuts149]

POP QUIZ

Whose slogan is this ?

Silent as the forest, Steady as the mountain,
Swift as the wind, ATTACK LIKE FIRE !

Without using Google Gentlemen !

Takeda Shingen?

BTW, I've started to cross over to the Cavalry side. I started playing as the Turks, and boy I love those cheap, expendable Horse-archers. That way I can put a unit up at the border, face overwhelming odds from enemy Infantry and heavy Cav, inflict as much losses as possible, and then retreat for the loss:D. I even took Nicaea with just Cavalry:D(and a spy). My Sultan and som hired akinji thugs sneeked in at night and rained death on the enemy general and his town militia.

[Zajuts149]

Takeda Shingen?


Dang man, and without google as well:D That wild stab in the dark hit home..

[Dragunija]

I am cavarly person.I only tried demo of M2TW,but i love those Late Bodyguards in Pavia.So i mostly apply to RTW cav.Parthia and Cataphracts for the win! :charge: :charge:

Dragunija :charge:

[Boyar Son]

HELP!! :dizzy2: :dizzy2: :dizzy2:

I'm playing MTW2: kingdoms in the teutonic campaign. After reading how the German cav are unmatched in the game and everyone here says the order has "omg uber heavy infintry111" I started the campaign.

Now I'm in debt for expensive cav and and cannot retrain, and they drop dead in the moment of impact!!

these guys are really crapy and I doubt that Brit dude and his cav are going to be any better against lithuania, practicaly an all cav nation.

what unit is the best for: _powerful while not expensive_

:feedback: :feedback:

[LadyAnn]

Fellow Soldiers, Sipahi, Knights, Fursan, Guards, Cavalrymen and Women !



Often command all cavalry armies.
Favor Missile Cavalry or any Cavalry over all else.
Love Cavalry and everything about it, ingame and historically.
Have a great affection for horses.




I like to command men who happen to ride horses. I don't have any affection for horses!

Otherwise, count me in!

Btw, Furious has a mean all cav army in MTW/Vi (toward the end, near R:TW release).

Annie

[Old Geezer]

I love cavalry too, but find it necessary to have some infantry to capture cities and castles. Otherwise, the cavalry get hurt real bad by some cheap spear militia in the crowded streets. Units like Jinnets and Irish Squires get caught when they enter a setltement and I can't get them away from the enemy without them getting mauled while in open field battles they usually take no casualties. There is nothing quite so boring as trying for 10 minutes to catch a single horse archer with six heavy slow tired knights. I learned my lesson good and now always try and have at least one unit, even if very small, of fast cavalry in an army in a field battle.

[TheLastPrivate]

I usually take an all-cav army to start the siege, where a arty+inf+archer army would come in the next turn to finish them off.
If you don't start the siege who knows what it would produce in the next turn you don't siege it - Siege stuff asap, and all cav army is perfect for that.

[phonicsmonkey]

I usually take an all-cav army to start the siege, where a arty+inf+archer army would come in the next turn to finish them off.
If you don't start the siege who knows what it would produce in the next turn you don't siege it - Siege stuff asap, and all cav army is perfect for that.

Me too! I have a vanguard of all-cav stacks that sweep over the border and eliminate any enemy field armies before sieging their closest cities.

Then the second wave of invaders is an all-infantry stack full of spears and archers (along with Greek fire if I'm Byz) - they take over the siege from the cavalry commanders who gallop off into the sunset and leave the infantry behind to do the dirty work (once the third wave of artillery arrives to break down the walls and smash the towers.)

[Shahed]

HI ALL !


Dang man, and without google as well:D That wild stab in the dark hit home..

You got it ! Impressed that you read the thread all the way back. Salute !


I am cavarly person.I only tried demo of M2TW,but i love those Late Bodyguards in Pavia.So i mostly apply to RTW cav.Parthia and Cataphracts for the win! :charge: :charge:

Dragunija :charge:

WELCOME ABOARD !


HELP!! :dizzy2: :dizzy2: :dizzy2:

I'm playing MTW2: kingdoms in the teutonic campaign. After reading how the German cav are unmatched in the game and everyone here says the order has "omg uber heavy infintry111" I started the campaign.

Now I'm in debt for expensive cav and and cannot retrain, and they drop dead in the moment of impact!!

these guys are really crapy and I doubt that Brit dude and his cav are going to be any better against lithuania, practicaly an all cav nation.

what unit is the best for: _powerful while not expensive_

:feedback: :feedback:

You mean what's the best cavalry for Teutonic Order ? -> Mounted RitterBruder. Powerful but nor that expensive -> Christ Knights. Cheap & easy -> Knechten.

You should be fine with just a few cav as Teutonic Order. It's not really a good all cavalry nation as their best units are infantry. It's a great faction for heavy slow armies. There's a discussion about a few army compositions earlier here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=94838) (<-link). Copy paste :


https://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m78/ShahedK/M2TW%20Banners/Teutonic_Banner_1M.jpg

My standard army around turn 35 is something like this:


General's BodyGuard *1
Mounted RitterBruder * 3
Mounted HalfBruder or ChristKnights * 4
Prussian Archers or Livonian Auxilliaries * 4
Teutonic Order Foot Soldiers * 4
Sword Brethern, Dismounted HalfBruder or Dismounted RitterBruder* 4


There's a discussion about Clergymen here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=96011) (<-link).

Hope that helps.


I like to command men who happen to ride horses. I don't have any affection for horses!

Otherwise, count me in!

Btw, Furious has a mean all cav army in MTW/Vi (toward the end, near R:TW release).

Annie

Nice to see you Annie! You mean you like to command men!. :whip:
Don't worry once you're proficient at commanding men, you'll find horses a lot less intimidating.

:clown: !JUST KIDDING ! :clown:

Do you remember that army composition that Furious used ?
Please post it if you do, I don't remember it.

BTW are you still in Freedom Fighters ? Do they still have a website ?


I love cavalry too, but find it necessary to have some infantry to capture cities and castles. Otherwise, the cavalry get hurt real bad by some cheap spear militia in the crowded streets. Units like Jinnets and Irish Squires get caught when they enter a setltement and I can't get them away from the enemy without them getting mauled while in open field battles they usually take no casualties. There is nothing quite so boring as trying for 10 minutes to catch a single horse archer with six heavy slow tired knights. I learned my lesson good and now always try and have at least one unit, even if very small, of fast cavalry in an army in a field battle.

When capturing cities with missile cavalry, you shoot out the enemy to the last man. Then you charge from multiple sides, never head on in a street. This has been discussed at some length earlier in the thread IIRC. The key to not getting them engaged in prolonged melee is to watch them closely and keep them at a safe distance. If commanding melee cavalry, the same principle applies, many directions, charge in and disengage, repeat.

The way I deal with enemy horse archers is to shoot them down. It's a pain to have to run around the map after them, far easier to outshoot them. This can be achieved by using multiple units against a single enemy unit, and using manual fire, everyone shoots at the same time allowing more kills and reduced reaction time for enemy horse archers to go into Cantabrian Circle.


I usually take an all-cav army to start the siege, where a arty+inf+archer army would come in the next turn to finish them off.
If you don't start the siege who knows what it would produce in the next turn you don't siege it - Siege stuff asap, and all cav army is perfect for that.

Absolutely! Also spies are great, just make sure you have enough inside and open the gates, walk in from all sides. Not the best way but if you MUST take a city with an all cavalry army, it's good to have all gates open to allow for greater mobility.

SALUTE !

[Shahed]

NEW MEMBERS!

Gentlemen! please welcome Dragunija & our first female member LadyAnn of the Freedom Fighters !

For those of you who have never heard of her, she's quite a legend in Total War multiplayer since a few years ago.
A veteran, she's a good player, well spirited, sporting & competitive, a good leader better than most men could ever hope to be.

WELCOME ABOARD ! to you both!

[LadyAnn]

Freedom Fighters as a gaming group are still alive. Website is www.ffighters.co.uk. The Totalwar section is dormant though. Recently, only two of us occasionally play Samurai Wars on Sunday.

Been a while, so I don't remember the composition of Furious all cavalry army.

Annie

[Shahed]

GREETINGS ALL !

Few sigs I made a long time ago, they're not that great but if anyone wants to use them feel free.
I've kept them within the 10kb rule, original screens were from an earlier build of Broken Crescent.

https://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m78/ShahedK/M2TW%20Signatures/CCA2.jpg

https://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m78/ShahedK/M2TW%20Signatures/CCA1.jpg

https://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m78/ShahedK/M2TW%20Signatures/CCA3.jpg

Also the Broken Crecent Mod for M2:TW has been released. Haven't tried it yet but it should be great for all cavalry fans.

SALUTE!

[marrow]

Nice, how does one set them up as signatures (pardon my ignorance...)?
Cheers mate!

[Mete Han]

Nice, how does one set them up as signatures (pardon my ignorance...)?
Cheers mate!

yeah I'd like to learn that as well!!! I cant even post pictures in posts (that sounds awful).

[manwithplanx]

:knight: < :charge:

Cavalry Commander Manwithplanx reporting in.

I loved the Parthians in RTW and love the eastern factions in M2TW.

Nothing beats watching a cavalry line rush into a group of frightened swordsman as they look at their doom.

[MerlinusCDXX]

Dihqan Merlinus reporting for duty.

Era; Hellenistic
Occupation; General's Bodyguard
Mount; Full Lamellar Armored Warhorse
Weapon; Kontos, Composite Bow
Opponent Best Against; The poor dumb footslogger
Nation; Pahlavan (Parthian) Empire
Game; RTW (EB 1.0)

Era; Medieval
Occupation; Cataphract Lancer
Mount; Full Lamellar Armored Warhorse
Weapon; Lance, Mace
Opponent Best Against; anyone without a spear or a decent mount
Nation; Khwarezm Shah
Game; M2TW (Broken Crescent 1.05)

Era; Medieval
Occupation; Templar Knight
Mount; Barded Charger
Weapon; Lance, Sword
Opponent Best Against; anyone, I'll f**ckin' kill 'em all in the name of God
Nation; Order of Knights Templar
Game; M2TW Kingdoms (Stainless Steel 5.1)

...hmmm, I always seem to be playing these cavalry heavy factions...I guess cav IS king

[Czar Alexsandr]

The Cavalry Commanders have grown while I was gone. That's great! Welcome Dragunija, LadyAnn, Manwithplanx, and MerlinusCDXX!

I haven't been up to too much. When I get around to playing Medieval Total War lately, which happens a lot less with me going to college, I make sure to play as one of my favorite cavalry factions and defeat much larger armies with my elite skilled cavalry. XD Lately Russia, Byzantium, and Egypt have been the factions I've been playing as. I may consider playing as Poland or Hungary as well. (The Turks are always a viable option too... ) I tried playing as Spain but my computer is having problems where it crashes a few turns into my Spanish campaigns... oh well. At least I can always play as my Russians. XD

[Tristrem]

I recently decided to start playing again. I download stainless steel 5.0 for kingdoms and what a difference. I started a new campaign as the turks. I must say this is a good mod, while I still win almost every battle on vh, it takes a bit more finness than a vanilla campaign. Anyone else have similair experiences?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I'll join in. I love to use cavalry. In FA:TW (I know, for Rome, but waiting for M2TW port), I always play as Rohan for just that reason.

[Czar Alexsandr]

Welcome Evil_Maniac From Mars . I'm sure you'll make a welcome addition to our merry horde of cavalry fanatics.

Rohan eh? I've heard of that Mod I think. I'd like to play as Rohan too. They're not unlike my Rus. XD

[Monsieur Alphonse]

In my campaign as the Turks the Mongols entered the game very early and found me ill prepared. They sacked Mosul but then found the son of the Sultan on their way reinforced by three other armies. The Turkish armies were all cavalry armies made out of some generals, a couple of Quapukulu and horse archers (Sipahi and Turkomens). The Mongols had their usually armies with halve cavalry and halve inferior lifeforms aka infantry. I controlled the crown prince's army and let the AI control the two reinforcements. Although there were four of mine armies and five Mongol ones only (ah-um) six armies took part in the battle. All in all there were 9622 men on the battle field. 4478 mostly fresh Turks against 5144 battle hardened Mongols.
https://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4318/image00196qm7.jpg

The battle starts. Six stacks on or entering the battlefield.
https://img513.imageshack.us/img513/9382/image00197cp0.jpg
With six stacks on the battlefield there was considerable lag so I let the HAs on the loose and focused on my task and that was to kill the Mongol generals.
I gathered my heavy cavalry and charged the first Mongol general.
https://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6851/image00198vu6.jpg

The battlefield was littered with corpses but my main gaol the three Mongol generals were dead.
https://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7611/image00200cl1.jpg

VICTORY!!
https://img114.imageshack.us/img114/6830/image00201qe9.jpg

I was impressed by the allied AI. I didn't lose a lot of generals in suicide attacks.

After that battle the remaning Mongols were defeated in a some small battles. I retrained my armies and waited for the next wave. The Turkish version of "Wacht am Rhein"

https://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6374/image00212ld5.jpg

Cavalry rules the world.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Playing as the Turks has restored my faith in cavalry, having been very disappointed with the Byzantines.

I'm not a cavalry commander specifically, I tend to roleplay factions. So as Venice, I had largely infantry militia armies. As Sicily, however, I used largely cavalry armies, and my Norman Knights did 99% of the combat, usually doing a couple of formed charged with Muslim Archers softening the enemy from behind my knights.

As the Byzantines, I was hoping for horse archer/heavy cav armies, but I was pretty disappointed by them TBH. In the end I relied quite heavily on mercs, which are plentiful enough in Turkey thankfully, before I got some good infantry such as Varangians and Dismounted Lancers later on.

Playing as the Turks though, I have used largely cavalry armies. In the early game, my stacks were maybe 3 Spear or Saracen Militia, 4 or so Turkish Archers, maybe 1 or 2 Turkish or Merc Afghan Javelinmen, and the rest Sipahis/Turkomans. I would basically form a giant horse-shoe shape as the enemy approach, and most foes would be routed as they hit my infantry line, none escaping my HA obviously.:skull:

Since the Mongols arrived, I have used more balanced armies with plenty of Ottoman Infantry, however I haven't had as much success as I would have liked against the Mongols, they haven't been lured to the river crossing as in previous campaigns, and have now decided at around turn 105 to head towards Adana. I've been having trouble around there recently, and fought about 6 stacks from 4 factions on Crusade to Antioch.:sweatdrop:

So progress has been slower than I would have liked, I only have 27(?) regions and I'm aiming for domination in the 226 turns.

Anyway, back to cavalry. I'm builiding a New Model Army of 1x General, 6x Ottoman Infantry, 6x Sipahis, 6x Qapukulu, and a siege weapon to help in the fight against the Mongols. Qapukulu come with +1 exp thanks to me capturing a Swordsmiths HQ in Bran.:2thumbsup: So I'm hoping for success against the Mongols with this army. Any tips on how I could use it effectively?:help:

As for my favourite heavy cav, Qapukulu are basically everything Kataphractoi should have been. 13/18 compared to 10/16 - no contest. For light cav its probably Stradiots/Albanian Cavalry, they just look cool, they're fast moving, and they have the AP mace, excellent for sweeping onto enemy Generals. The best missile cav I've found so far are Vardariotai, they're just brilliant and you get them so early on.

Bear in mind though I have still to play as the Russians or Egpytians, they could find themselves in the above rankings...

[phonicsmonkey]

Caledonian Rhyfelwyr, the Byzantines are better in Kingdoms: Crusades as they get an extra couple of heavy cav. I like their horse archers, but only with upgraded armour - fully upgraded Byzantine Cav give great bang for the buck! Mongols beware...

But to all on this thread who love cavalry, check out Broken Crescent!

Even the AI fields all-cav stacks....

[Monsieur Alphonse]

@ Caledonian.


Anyway, back to cavalry. I'm building a New Model Army of 1x General, 6x Ottoman Infantry, 6x Sipahis, 6x Qapukulu, and a siege weapon to help in the fight against the Mongols.

I would skip the Ottoman infantry and replace them with Turkomans. Those Ottomans are too slow and to vulnerable too cavalry charges. Your army should be 1/3 heavy cavalry, 1/3 heavy horse archers (Sipahis) and 1/3 medium horse archers (Turkomans) . Having some 14 horse archers means that you have more fire power then the Mongol horse archers. Your HAs should go after theirs. Use your heavy cavalry to charge at the Kahn, he is your primary goal. Once he is dead you can use your remaining Quapakulu to kill his (heavy) lancers. His infantry is only a nuisance because they carry bows but they can easily be overcome by a mass charge with any cavalry.

If you are prepared like I was for the second and third waves you can attack the Mongols while the are still spread out. Or you wait until they have concentrated their forces to fight a huge battle.

I fought several smaller battles in the same stile and it is real fun. My Quapukulu had armor and weapon upgrades but my horse archers were fresh from military school. I never expected to win because I feared the worst relying on the AI. My goal was to kill the Kahn and his generals. I was really surprised that my allies did very well. I lost one battle where mine two stacks were attacked by three Mongol stacks, but it was a Pyrrhus victory for the Mongols because they lost two of their three generals and a lot of men they couldn't replace where my training centers could spill out some fresh HAs. In the end I last on average one third of my armies while defeating the Mongols. The four experienced all cavalry stacks were transported to the Western front and made mince meat of those infidels.

[Jason X]

Caledonian Rhyfelwyr, it's not a cav tactic but there was a great post on TWC a while back on a turkish army to take on the mongols in the open - it did rely on using janissary archers for the stakes though, which many regard as an exploit.

i tried it and you can easily slaughter two or two and a half mongol stacks in one battle in any terrain - you funnel them using the stakes (you need 6-8 jan archers), a couple of dismounted sip lancers backed by jan infantry to plug gaps and qupukulus to kill the generals/heavy lancers.

When TWC is back up again i'll post a link.

[Old Geezer]

After trying to develop skill as a commander of cavalry for the past several months I am about to attack a stack of Mongols with a full all cavalry stack somewhere northeast of Kiev. I have some gold chevroned mailed knights upgraded Hospitalers, Gendarmes, Alans, and mounted sergeants. I think that I should let them approach me so that my heavier units won't become tired as soon and if possible on higher ground. Should I spread out in a single line or double up. Where would you recommend that I put the heavies? Should the light units be spread out so when they (the Alans) charge the HAs they won't get hit as much? Do the heavy units need to fear the Mongol Horse Archers? Should I send in a screen of light cavalry (acting like skirmishers) and follow up with heavier units to smash the archers? Should I concentrate on destroying their HAs first, their heavy cavalry, their foot troops, or thier general?

[Ramses II CP]

Definitely go single line. The biggest problem with cavalry effectiveness in battle is that they spend most of their time shuffling around not even fighting, so you have to work hard to get more than the first 10-15 men in a unit to actually swing their swords.

I'd put heavy cavalry in the middle, medium and light cavalry with lances for a charge around the edges, and fast horse cavalry, or cavalry without lances in position to sweep behind the enemy and drive off their archers.

Don't worry about enemy horse archers until you've crushed their infantry and heavy cavalry. Unless you have a lot of fast cavalry you'll need to use wide formations of multiple companies to pin and trap the enemy HA and preven them skirmishing away.

:egypt:

[Old Geezer]

Thanks for the quick reply Ramses. What you suggest is basically what I have done with combined forces. I guess it won't be so important to target their artillery since I won't have any slow moving infantry.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Caledonian Rhyfelwyr, it's not a cav tactic but there was a great post on TWC a while back on a turkish army to take on the mongols in the open - it did rely on using janissary archers for the stakes though, which many regard as an exploit.

i tried it and you can easily slaughter two or two and a half mongol stacks in one battle in any terrain - you funnel them using the stakes (you need 6-8 jan archers), a couple of dismounted sip lancers backed by jan infantry to plug gaps and qupukulus to kill the generals/heavy lancers.

When TWC is back up again i'll post a link.

Janissary Archers?

[Jason X]

janissary archers = top end turkish archers with stakes.

here's a link to that post (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1545257&postcount=7) (though twcenter is still down)

[Rhyfelwyr]

Linky isn't working. Sorry to turn attention away from cavalry, but how do I recruit the Janisarry Archers? Is it from a city like the Janissary Hvy Infantry?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

You can recruit them from the army barracks in cities. The one that costs 12,000 florins.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Thanks guys, just started building an Army Barracks in Antioch, but it has been besieged by Mongols.

[Gray Beard]

Contrary to the statement above I think the Byzantine Vards are the best cavalry unit in the game.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Rohan eh? I've heard of that Mod I think. I'd like to play as Rohan too. They're not unlike my Rus. XD

http://www.thefourthage.org/

It's quite a sight to see a massive wall of cavalry charging a line of Orkish bows and short spears.

[Jammer]

Contrary to the statement above I think the Byzantine Vards are the best cavalry unit in the game.

Amen, brother!

Vards can go stirrup to stirrup with mailed knights, are fast, and pound-for-pound one of the meanest units available early.

:charge: Flying Purple People Eaters!

[Rhyfelwyr]

Just tried my first all cavalry battle - and it was a big success!

Fighting the Mongols, one of their typical second wave stacks, with Rocket Launchers etc. I had an army of 1x General's Bodyguard (a crappy 16-year old), 6x Qapukulu, 6x Turkomans, and 7x Sipahis. Qapukulu and Bodyguard mopped up all the Mongol Infantry and Foot Archers, followed by the General when he decided to join in. On each flank, a combination of Sipahis and Turkomans took out the enemy HA and a couple of units continued round and took out the siege weapons. In the end 33% lost (reduced to 28% after end battle), and just about 100% of the enemies.

That was the last Mongol full stack, and since then I've finished the rest off.:2thumbsup:

I absolutedly love Qapukulu, their maces make all that Mongol armour negligible, and they look so cool, especially with the +1 armour upgrade that gives some mail covering their face. The Turks would be my favourite faction if it wasn't for their unfortunate starting position taking the brunt of the eastern hordes 2/3 of the time. Hopefully the Timurids will arrive in Sarkel.:yes:

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Just tried my first all cavalry battle - and it was a big success!

Fighting the Mongols, one of their typical second wave stacks, with Rocket Launchers etc. I had an army of 1x General's Bodyguard (a crappy 16-year old), 6x Qapukulu, 6x Turkomans, and 7x Sipahis. Qapukulu and Bodyguard mopped up all the Mongol Infantry and Foot Archers, followed by the General when he decided to join in. On each flank, a combination of Sipahis and Turkomans took out the enemy HA and a couple of units continued round and took out the siege weapons. In the end 33% lost (reduced to 28% after end battle), and just about 100% of the enemies.

That was the last Mongol full stack, and since then I've finished the rest off.:2thumbsup:

I absolutedly love Qapukulu, their maces make all that Mongol armour negligible, and they look so cool, especially with the +1 armour upgrade that gives some mail covering their face. The Turks would be my favourite faction if it wasn't for their unfortunate starting position taking the brunt of the eastern hordes 2/3 of the time. Hopefully the Timurids will arrive in Sarkel.:yes:

Congratulations. You are now a true cavalry commander.

What I don't understand is why you don't like the Turkish starting position. It is actual a great position. You get all the fun: crusades, Mongols and last but not least the Timurid Panzer Armee. These are the real challenges of M2. In my last campaign as the Turks the fun was over when I beat the Mongols. My armies marched through western Europa as a knife through butter. I have 85 to 90 regions and the rest will be captured soon. Waiting for the Timurids will boring until they arrive.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Well I'm at around Turn 135, Black Death just started, and I only own around 32 regions, although I admittedly turtled to prepare for the Mongol invasion.

Just got the Army Barracks in Baghdad, and will soon have it also in Edessa and Damascus (and also Budapest but that's less relevant right now), so there will be Timurid kebabs all round when they arrive.

And another cavalry associated misconception, or at least in the past to me, was that they would be pretty useless at defending during bridge battles and river crossings. But this is definitely not the case, HA reign death on enemies crossing bridges, they do not have issues with shooting at 89 degree angles that plagued infantry xbows in the same situation, and do not suffer from having to rush in shiltrom formation to defend the bridge as with many infantry, resulting in them failing to form up in time to meet the enemy. In a recent river defence battle against the Milanese at one of those bridges just to the east of Zagreb, I lost something like 20 men and killed over 1,000. Some of their pavise xbow militia tried to do their reloading animation but got shot so often they could not pull it off!:2thumbsup:

However, high quality cavalry armies are hard to fight with your own. I just lost around 40% of an army, including my General, fighting an equally sized Polish force, which had many Polish Nobles (the single most annoying unit in the game, except Elephants). Their javelins made light work of my armour.:shame:

Reading that post in the TWC now...

[Lord Chu]

I do enjoy the :charge: :charge: :charge:

I usually use armies that employ a lot of cavalry as the main offensive weapon!
I generally use decent infantry to hold the enemy in place and then outmaneuver them with superior numbers of cavalry. This works very well in RTW as the cavalry is overpowered. I tend to find that cavalry is less effective in M2TW, but it still remains a powerful weapon if used correctly.

Barbarian Noble Cavalry / Knights / Cataphracts are my favorites.

I haven't had much success with horse archers though...I get in trouble during the sieges though I can see how they can be useful. Horse Archers just aren't really my style. Egyptian Chariot Archers are a different story however! They provide excellent back up to the all around powerful Egyptian forces. I would have to say that Egypt was my favorite faction in RTW!

[Beggarman]

I'm mostly an Infantry guy, as I love the poor bloody beggars. But on occasion, I do like to use my cavalry, and I enjoy them greatly. My favorite's are probably the Turks, because Siphahi are simply amazing. Well protected, capable in melee and excellent shots. And when you get Qapakulu, it's just so much fun. :)

But my real point for posting this is to remark on the "double-armed" cavalry: historically, many eastern cavalry were armed with both bow and lance. This isn't even a rarity, but a remarkably common sight in the east. Byzantine cavalry in particular were known for being double armed, as were Persian Clibinarii. As to what you do with the bow? Well, if you're smart, you have a bow case that also has a quiver, and you hang it from your saddle, to protect the bow from rain(composite bows, due to their construction, are VERY susceptible to humidity). Very common piece of gear.

[Beggarman]

Can I officially join the Cavalry commanders now? I jsut got done with a battle against the mongols, where my crazy good Sultan Mustafa the Holy Warrior(Command 8, Chiv 9) pounced on a a small mongol stack(Cmd 3, Dread 0 I think, heavy lancers, light lancers, heavy horse archers, mongol infantry, mongol foot archers) and a full stack(Decent general, like CMd 7 or so, Dread 5, lots of horse archers and foot archers, not so much heavy cavalry) with a full stack of cavalry... except for two Dismounted sipahi and 1 ottoman infantry(who, honestly, I forgot were even IN the army...).

My force was 11 Sipahi Lancers, 5 Sipahi, Body Guard, and the notorious Dismounted sipahi and ottoman infantry. End result? 88 mongols left, 275 Turks left. Ransomed the good general, then rode him down with ANOTHER stack of sipahi lancers, and ransomed him again. Made something like 14k off those battles. Move my Sultan into a good sidez stack of cavalry, and hired some Khwazims, Turcomans and Bedouins to buff up the ranks.

Thessalonica and Corinth fell to a 4 body guard, all cav force(I used a few militia and halberd units to speed up the assault on Corinth, but fought a field battle for Thessalonica against a militia army from the Byzies. I'm not using ALL cavalry ALL the time, but it's working out pretty sweet against the mongols. I can't really exhibit much control when fighting them, as the large battles with multiple stacks reinforcing slow my laptop to a crawl. But I've elminited two of the mongol armies, and two are in the process of assaulting Antoich.

Antioch is defended by infantry, but I hope to use my saracens and halberds to mow down the mongol hordes: the guy assaulting is their Khan, who is, as usual, utter tripe for stats. His army is bout 4 units of mongol infantry, and a whole bunch of horse archers and lancers. I'm hoping to murder it in the streets, probably lose to the reinforcing army(lots of mongol infantry in it), and gut both stacks. If I can cause massive casaulties, losing antoich won't be a terrible problem: i have the armies nearby to wipe out the last free-roaming mongol army(other than the remnants of the two already smashed, which are like 20 strong... so no sweat), and then put Antioch under siege and re-take it.

[phonicsmonkey]

with a full stack of cavalry... except for two Dismounted sipahi and 1 ottoman infantry(who, honestly, I forgot were even IN the army...).


Sounds like you qualify! :clown:

I'm not sure whether Sinan is around in this forum anymore to update the list in the first post - he's been gone from the org for a while but I did see him in the TWS2 forum the other day. Maybe he'll revive the Cavalry Corps over there?

Anyway welcome to the gang!