Something cavalry really needs in a patch

[Reddington]

I haven't played too much ETW so far. I'm still playing through my first grand campaign as Austria and already twice so far I have run into an annyoing issue with the cavalry units.

After I break an enemy army in a battle, I'll immediately send my cavalry units to chase down as many of the enemies as I can for extra experience. The problem is, twice so far when I did this one or two cavalry units have completely ignored the cavalry stakes and ran straight into them while chasing an enemy hundreds of feet away from the stakes. This is a problem because in my last battle I had a full stack against 2 Line Infantry and about 6-8 Armed Citizens. The Line Infantry put down the stakes before the battle but I wasn't worried, I just wanted to get as much exp for my units as I could.

After the enemy lines broke I sent in my cavalry. The 2 carbineer units that went to the right run directly into them. Before I can tell the carbineers to withdraw and avoid more casualties I have lost 69/90 men because they were dumb enough to run right into wooden stakes. I really hope CA patches the battle AI to avoid immobile death traps when the target is not in their vicinity, othrewise I just have to babysit 45 cavalrymen, when I should be directing a battle.

[pevergreen]

Its not too hard to avoid a line of stationary stakes.

This would kill any amount of micro the game has.

[Fisherking]

I see nothing wrong with killing cavalry which charges into stakes.

But you know what! It is not just at the charge!

In M2 they could walk through them just fine, but not in this game!

If a horseman gets to close to a stake they will inevitability through themselves upon it to die. I won’t tell you that horses aren’t that dumb, it’s a game thing. But walking by them should not be a deadly matter.

With horse artillery if you loose a horse you loose three and a gun. I have marched my horses around trying to miss where they have been placed at choke points, and at a walk I might add and all in single file. If the spot is too narrow the first guy is going to die. I think they may be just a bit too deadly!

I can live with it, but is sure is not my favorite feature.

[Polemists]

I assume do to the fact calvary used to be immensely over powered they are not substantially under powdered. They are almost useless in melee combat, horrible in a charge, and die on just about anything, against just about anything. They also have very poor morale from what I have seen.

Still they are useful for making half the ai chase you with 5 calvary units, but that is about it.

On occassion Horses do something that impresses me, but most of the time calvary is best brought to the battle in very small quantities. Like Artillery.

[foop]

I see nothing wrong with killing cavalry which charges into stakes.

But you know what! It is not just at the charge!

I agree. If you charge your cavalry into stakes, you deserve to lose them. At walking pace, they should avoid the obstacle.

I find this particularly annoying when the AI puts one tiny unit half way across the map, on its own, protected by stakes and then, as soon as the battle starts, runs it to someone else. This leaves some stakes miles from nowhere and hard to see unless you zoom in. I've been walking a unit of cavalry back from chasing routers and checked back up on them, only to see the last of the line blindly stumbling into the stakes and dying.

Gah! Didn't you notice the 44 horses in front of you slowly impaling themselves on the great big wooden stakes? Is there even any room left on the stakes after you've squashed 44 other horses onto them?

[Fisherking]

The stakes seem to vanish after killing a horse, but that is no consolation when your line of horsemen all march blithely into them.

It may be just my opinion but horsemen this time out are weak enough without having them be suicidal to go with it.

I would have them be able to walk past stakes and charge through if you are on the back side of them…they should be one way obstacles.

[IvarrWolfsong]

the only impressive thing I have seen from cavalry in the game so far is ulhans charge the rear of infantry that is taking cover against a wall. You will kill almost the entire unit on the charge.
They can also be usefull for killing arty but it takes a lot of micro

[Sheogorath]

As I said in other topics, cavalry in this era had a few particular uses and were not much good outside of them.

The age of frontal cavalry charges is over and done. It's impressive, and a good way to waste a lot of horses, but wont be much use in terms of changing the course of the battle.

Cavalry are rather like the air force. Their main purpose is 'shock and awe', and supporting the ground forces. Cavalry do not win battles.

Charge from the flanks or the rear, preferably against an already engaged enemy who cant turn to face your men.

A simultaneous charge from infantry (from the front) and cavalry (from the rear) is good enough to route just about anybody.

[A Very Super Market]

I like to catch early Line Infantry while they are reloading.... :D

Nar, but seriously, cavalry certainly has diminished in usefulness, but the prestige associated with them remains. Also, if you have cavalry, but they don't, it still comes down to tactics because you have less men in total.

[Callahan9119]

Man, this thread quickly went off topic.

I think the OP was complaining about cavalry just running into stakes and dying when there is nobody within shouting distance of them. They should become "inactive" if a unit isnt a certain distance from them.

Micro is fine, but I'm sure all of us send our cav after routers, then turn our attentions back to those that are still a threat. Nobody wants their cav being decimated by some lonely stakes because the cavalry couldnt decide by themselves to change their course by a few meters while chasing 12 enemy fleeing to the hills.

[antisocialmunky]

The Line Infantry spike walls only kill running cav and its not even instantanious. Horses have to keep runing a little bit after hitting it to die. Walk speed horses will just jump over them. Also, if you put them right infront of fort gates if you're going to give up the wall, cavalry will be able to run through them like they weren't there.

[geala]

For me it's ok that fast moving cavalry will impale itself even if nobody is near the stakes. Moving fast on a horse is dangerous. Slow moving cavalry should not be affected.

One ot thing I have to say: I've a completely different opinion about cavalry than f.e. Sheogorath. Cavalry of the 18th c. was often the battle winning arm of the army and direct assaults against infantry formations were often successful. They were more often successful than in (late) medieval battles. Often also they were not successful but in war nothing was and is for sure.

[pdoyle007]

I've had good success with my cavalry on the fringes of the maps taking out the native american tribes and some Indian units, especially when they are large in number but under powered (using the TW2 method of grouping units together and attacking flank or rear.

I haven't tried against the European big boys but I have taken a decent amount of provinces which means my income is up and when I start to recruit more infantry my tech will be higher

[Grumfoss]

I have had my General killed while walking along a line of stakes?? His unit was moving into position to flank an enemy when his unit passed by a line of stakes(not going through the stakes but along the length of the line) and half of the unit died including my General. GGrrrrr. I would have thought that the line could simply have split to go around the stakes and not try to go through them.

[Megas Methuselah]

Another thing:

Playing multiplayer, my opponent flanked me with his cavalry. However, I thought I was well-protected, as I charged his line infatry who were behind a wall of stakes. So, there was the enemy's wall of stakes protecting the whole rear of my infantry. Despite this, the enemy cavalry charged right through their own stakes without suffering any casualties, and broke my infantry.



What is this?! Stakes should hurt all charging cavalry, including allied ones. Stakes are just pieces of wood in the ground, and should have no understanding of the differences between friend and foe.

[antisocialmunky]

Hmmm. Stakes just seem really bugger.

[IvarrWolfsong]

Cavalry charge over and done with? Hmmm I guess no one told Napoleon