What? No cavalry thread? Here we go.
1) Is wedge a useful formation? Does it increase kills considerably, or otherwise confer results which make it worthwhile? If you can tear through an enemy formation it's got some use but what about those other times where the target is denser or the situation so busy the cavalry is likely to get tangled as it emerges?
2) Is it better to have a long, thin cavalry formation, or a slightly deeper one? This one should be assessed in terms of combat total, not just the charge. On the charge it's obvious that a long, 2 man deep formation does more damage because more men have a clear strike. However in melee they get shredded even faster than usual. So is the slight kill bonus worth the slight loss increase? What's the sweet spot for kills/durability on average?
3) How do the above apply to the different cavalry types? I suspect units with a higher charge value may do best in a thin formation with do or die tactics, whereas durable low charge value units like katana cavalry may be better off with with a three or or man deep formation because they find it harder to break a unit in a single blow.
4) I read that charge bonus has a 10 second cooldown, i.e. 10 seconds must pass after the end of your charge before you are eligible for that bonus again. Combine this with the fact that most cavalry is shredded in melee, and charge to recharge tactics are definitely the best option.
4a) How effective is a cavalry charge before that 10 second period has passed? If you pull back and charge in again after 8 seconds do you make a good impact or is it worth pulling further away to gain those extra 2 seconds?
4b) Can we figure out at what point is the charge deemed to be finished and the timer begins for reset? This is a key to determining when to pull your unit back and ready for the next charge.
5) As per all prior TW games charge is a separate state to running. A double click order gets a unit running; the charge state happens automatically once a set distance for target is reached. Unlike STW and MTW, Shogun 2 has issues of momentum, mass, unit penetration, and other things which muddy the waters when charging. Statistically speaking, is there much difference between running into a charge and walking into one?
I expect the MP people will have some good info to add on the formations.
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