Chariots or Cavalry?

[Rhyfelwyr]

What do you find to be the most effective?

I've had two sessions playing RTW, one when I was younger and had just come off Age of Empires, and now more recently having played M2TW and going back through the TW series.

In the past, I always thought chariots were hopeless. They seemed to die very quickly once bogged down at all, and were poor at chasing routers and doing other cavalry duties. Meanwhile cavalry charges seemed to be absolutedly deadly, basically any cavalry unit with a spear could annihilate any infantry unit not in phalanx formation.

But now I have more experience I pay a lot more attention to morale, rather than MTW/STW style RPS unit matchups. And this is when chariots really show their worth. Right now I'm playing as Britannia, and a couple of units of chariots on either flank will almost insta-rout Gallic armies of Swordsmen and even Chosen Swordsmen. Chariots are also particularly effective on flanks since their scythe blades massacre enemy cavalry, so long as you keep your chariots moving.

So now I am a real chariot fan. I tend to get some Barbarian Cavalry Mercenaries just to catch routers, but other than that I will happily take chariots over any cavalry unit when facing an infantry army (since they only frighten infantry). Unless of course they are Cataphracts, my last campaign was as Parthia.

[CountMRVHS]

Well, if I absolutely *had* to choose, I'd say Cavalry is generally more effective: horses kill better than chariots in RTW. Cav is generally a little faster or more efficient at catching routers, as you noted.

Of course, the question is a bit problematic because you generally don't get a choice, depending on your faction. If you're the Brits, you have to use chariots, unless you're using mercs. As the Seleucids, I was never impressed with the Scythed chariots (maybe they'll do better now that I removed that annoying "can_run_amok" attribute), and Seleucid cavalry is way better anyway. As the Egyptians.... well, I never ever ever play the Egyptians, out of sheer annoyance at their tendency to run rampant over the lower right corner of the map.

If I'm facing Roman legionaries, I'd rather have some high charge-value cav than chariots.

All that said, I love chariots, for the reasons you described. The British are one of my favorite factions, in part because of the chariots. I recently had a battle outside Samarobriva that consisted of my faction leader, 2 units of heavy chariots, and 2 units of light chariots, vs. 1 unit of (Julii) Praetorian Cohorts, 1 unit of Legionary cohorts, and 1 unit of Early legionary cohorts. Since I was attacking, I flanked & harrassed with the light chariots, drew out the cohorts one by one, and then slammed them with my heavy chariots. Took some losses, but I won.

One thing I always want to try is a full-on charge by some heavy chariots, followed immediately by charging infantry to take advantage of the broken lines. The chariots would tend to take losses, but my screaming woad-painted warriors would pour into the gaps and waste the enemy -- *if* I timed it right. Your tactic of flanking with chariots is more feasible & less of a timing nightmare.

Be glad you're playing the later versions: In the earliest versions of RTW, I would consistently lose my British family members in battle because of the fragility of their chariots. Thanks to increased hp, things are a bit better now. They're not tanks, but they can mix it up a bit more.

One last thing to wrap up this too-long-already post: a great thing to do as Britain is take Ireland and then just build, not doing any invading. Wait for the Julii to work their way up to you through Gaul and then you'll be able to fight some epic battles against high-tech Roman troops -- much more of a challenge than fighting your continental barbarian cousins!

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I'm uncertain as to whether it is just me, but I've always found R:TW chariot killing power to be exceedingly low in comparison to their cavalry counterparts. I'm probably using them wrongly, but they always seems to charge in, get bogged down in troops (mainly knocking them over rather than killing them), and then getting killed themselves if I allow them to go in for a period of hand to hand combat.

Regardless of whether I try to move the chariots out of the way before they get to this stage, they still don't kill half as many men as a cavalry unit would be able to do so in even the initial charge. They may be slightly faster, but speed isn't always everything. This does, however, make them slightly better as cavalry archers than the standard type.

As said already though, they do have the advantage of fear, which can be critical in a lower powered Barbarian (British) army. The fear tactic is often important here - warcry (increase attack), combined with chants (increase allied morale and decrease enemy morale) and chariots (decrease enemy morale), can be critical to willing a Barbarian battle if used at the right times in the right places. As long as there is no threat to your own flanks, it's easy enough to move around their rears and just stand there to send them fleeing. This tactic can also be used, albeit a little more difficultly, in an Egyptian force.

In all honesty though, I'm not sure whether the above does actually give them an edge over cavalry. They could serve pretty much the same purpose in a Barbarian army - although chariots cause fear, horses can charge into flanks and cause pretty much the same level of morale problems, as well as casualties, as a chariot who is standing there. If a chariot were to do this, then it would be instantly massacred and be running away after a mere few seconds of combat. Essentially, horses are able to multi task much more than chariots, which probably gives them an edge over them.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I'm still playing unpatched thanks to Vista, so my chariots are still very fragile (lost a 10 star faction leader ).

But the morale impact of chariots is much greater than a cavalry charge. Even walking by chariots enemy units can be reduced to 'shaken'. So if you flank with chariots one unit can rout half an enemies line.

[Quirinus]

I'd pick chariots, their ability to trigger mass routs is amazing to behold. One trick I've found is to not click on the targeted unit, but to click beyond it instead. This way the chariots will (hopefully) move through the unit and out of harm instead of being bogged down and hacked down, followed by (as CountMRVHS noted) a mass charge.

I like cavalry too, but I just like chariots more. (Elephants are even more awesome, chariots on steroids, but that's another discussion.)

Another way I like to use chariots (which is admittedly an exploit) is in auto-resolve. I stick maybe a half-stack of them in a city with a Blacksmith when I don't want to expand on certain fronts. For example, in one Egyptian game, I conquered Tarentum, shipped some chariots there (with some garrison troops and a decent young general) and sallied forth every time the Romans attacked. The way they pull victories against the odds are incredible. That way I kept the Romans at bay indefinitely while I expanded on other fronts.

[Rhyfelwyr]

So chariots are overpowered in auto-calc? But it doesn't show in the battle odds, just the results?

Glad to see another chariot fan anyway.

[Spartan198]

Cavalry are more flexible.

[Zasz1234]

Cavalry are better all around, and can be used on their own. Chariots are not the best on their own, except vs skirmishers and cavalry one on one. They shine when backed up by cavalry or infantry. Charging a couple of Chariot units through (the key is to charge through not into, then the chariots just die) the back of the enemy army formation followed by some cavalry. The chariots cause major fear and absolutely shoot to hell any formation the enemy had, making and all too sweet target for your cavalry.

I consider them essential for fighting my field battles. If noting else sacrifice them just to sow the confusion and fear. Hopefully a couple will survive to retrain!