How do you use cavalry?

[SMZ]

Lancers aren't as good as you might think. despite their enormous charge and great attack stats, i've seen militia defeat Sipahi's, and light infantry without stakes beat Winged Hussars!

only if the player doensn't pay attention - cavalry that gets bogged down will get slaughtered by the greater infantry numbers, larger target they present and (if playing on harder difficulties) the stat bonuses the AI gets... however, if you micro-manage your cavalry, they can still destroy armies

[Servius]

If you play as a western Euro nation that doesn't get lancers in their national army list, what's the most expeditious route to get lancers?

What are the regions where you can recruit lance-based cav?

[Prussian to the Iron]

i dont think that factions with no national lancers can recruit lancers. if they could, i would wager that maybe in north-west india or the southern ottoman empire for Sipahis?

[Prussian to the Iron]

only if the player doensn't pay attention - cavalry that gets bogged down will get slaughtered by the greater infantry numbers, larger target they present and (if playing on harder difficulties) the stat bonuses the AI gets... however, if you micro-manage your cavalry, they can still destroy armies

trust me; ive tried using the time-tested chrge-retreat-charge technique. no go.

[Marquis of Roland]

trust me; ive tried using the time-tested chrge-retreat-charge technique. no go.

You're probably doing something wrong then. Or maybe you're playing on VH battle difficulty where militia>guard infantry. Lancers being killed by militia in that manner is unheard of in my game (M battle, VH campaign).

If you're using carbine-armed cav to only chase down routers, you're not using them properly. They should be place behind your line infantry to create, along with light infantry in front of the line, 3 overlapping fields of fire. Chasing down routers should be secondary; in fact, heavy cavalry is better at chasing routers because they take almost no casualties while doing so.

I use 2 heavy cavalry and 2 light dragoons in my stack. The light dragoons form my third line that can fire without causing friendly casualties. The heavy cav protects my flanks from enemy cav, protects my artillery, attacks enemy artillery and specialist troops (grenadiers/light infantry).

There is only 1 type of unit you should be afraid of, and that is square-forming infantry (probably elephants too but you don't see too much of those). The fact that its still possible in the game to form square AFTER you've been charged makes any type of cav completely ineffectual against. Maybe they'll change that down the line more.

RTW ruined cav expectations for this game lol.

@Servius
You can recruit Uhlans in German/Austrian/Polish regions.

[Prussian to the Iron]

dude. everything you just said, yeah, it doesnt apply to me.

on E/E difficulty with 2 units of Bargir lancers versus a mughal unit of.......some gunpowder unit i cant remember. lost. one would think, a unit with no bayonets with 160 men who are non-proffesional versus 2 proffesional units of lancers adding up to 120 would lose. nope.

[Marten]

Mmmmh ... usage depends on faction. Playing as GB, my 2 Yeoman Squadrons from start get very old. I use them only for recon and chasing routers.

As France or Austria i always had 1 or 2 lancers ("ULANEN") in a stack, just for the "feel" and to engage other cavalry or artllery. Playing as Prussia,
2-3 units of hussars are always in my army. For the same reasons as the lancers in austrian armies.

All my armies are mostly made of line infantry and 12-pounders and howitzers, maybe 2 grenadier units - that's all.

And my "Jäger-Feldwebel" at the army always said: Infantry is the queen of the battlefield!

[Didz]

trust me; ive tried using the time-tested chrge-retreat-charge technique. no go.

I've noticed that too. Thankfully it looks like CA have finally removed this expliot from the game mechanic's. It still gives a slight benefit but its not so overpowered as it was in other versions. I remember watching my son defeat an entire army using this expliot and one cavalry unit.

However, I have noticed that charging cavalry through a formation seems to work as it would have historically. If you can find a unit which has lost cohesion due to crossing an obstical or being rushed around too much and actually target your cavalry to gallop, not at it, but through it, I found that nine times out of ten having the cavalry pass through them will cause panic and rout.

Once they have routed it just becomes a case of slaughtering them as they try and escape. This also has the advantage of keeping your horsemen moving so that they don't get bogged down in a pointless melee with infantry.

For me this tactic also has the added attraction of being the closest I can get to using TW cavalry in the way it was used in real battle.

[resonantblue]

I guess I'm more of a purist, but I'm not a fan of dragoons. I use them mainly for raiding towns on the campaign map as they can usually retreat out of danger and if attacked by a similarly sized force they can inflict some casualties without taking much damage and flee if needed.

light cavalry in ETW stinks. it's primary uses in real life - what made them so useful - are not within the scope of the game. recon, screening, foraging, raiding, attacking lines of communications, etc... they were serious force multipliers in real life, but not in ETW. but cuirassers are game changers.

if you're using 1 unit of cavalry and charging it into 1 unit of line infantry and wondering why cavalry sucks, you're doing it wrong. cavalry are still the decisive arm. they are just less decisive than in the medieval era and unlike that era, can not be decisive on their own. combined arms is the most effective way to win a battle in this era and cavalry is by far the best arm for achieving combined arms superiority. without it you lose the iniative completely. with it you can force your opponent to do what you want.

if you play a competent human opponent and don't bring any decent cavalry to the plate you're going to get crushed.

against the AI, you could honestly build an army of 19 artillery with cannister/frag and beat anything they can throw at you. or alternately 19 line infantry, fix bayonets and just charge. the AI in every single TW series has failed to operate the way a human operates by concentration and protecting flanks... instead committing forces piecemeal in the attack and defense.

[Didz]

Well the thing I use dragoons for mostly is keeping the civvies under control. Nothing quietens down the revolting peasants as effectively as a dragoon regiment garrisoned in their city.

[Lucius Verenus]

Another question is why GB don't have lancers.

Historically Two regiments of lancers existed in 1700 and another 2 by 1720, actually they still have them - 9th/12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wale's) and The Queen's Royal lancers (Amalgamated 5th,16th,17th,21st)

The 17th formed part of the Light brigade that made the infamous charge at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean war - which incidentally though shot at by Artillery on three sides managed to reach the guns they shouldn't have been attacking and drive back the Russian cavalry behind the guns. This was with c650 men in total.

Now that scenario might actually work in ETW given the rubbish guns.

For that matter I havent seen any Hussars either. Though the 8th was formed in 1693

As for what they do have in ETW, Dragoons is the best multipurpose cav unit

Somone else pointed out that in ETW cavalry will attack Formed Squares, bet Marshal Ney at Waterloo would have loved that -

Horses will NOT attack a line of sharp pointy things - having much more sense than humans

One day my sig will come

[Prussian to the Iron]

just because they had a ew units of cavalary doesn't justify giving them lancers. most nations dont have them either.

and if you use the AUM mod, many factions get more units (like hussars), mos t of which are non-faction specific (you can recruit blunderbuss shotgunners in moscow, london, and any city inbetween)