All Cavalry Armies

[Joven]

I have been playing MTW on & off for quite some time now. (Bought it when the orginial MTW was released, and I just purchased the VI mod.)

I have a personal mod where it the build time is increased to: Peasant units 1 year. All infantry (Except specials, those units whom orginally take 2 years) take 2 years to build
All Cavalry and special infantry takes 3 years to build.

I have read time and time again how people boo hoo all Cavalry armies.
Personally I have found them to be un-stopable against the AI as an assualt. By dividing my forces in to a mainline and a flank I have even routed a mostly spear using AI enemy. Granted Casualties where high, but acceptable. Just turn off auto combine armies option, move in a defensive force to the taken provence and send your assualt army back to the rear for refitting.

Now for online play all Cavalry armies are suicide, that is understood.

[Orda Khan]

Now for online play all Cavalry armies are suicide, that is understood.

I have seen some very effective all cav armies in MP. Spear units were a total waste of time so cav was usually countered with more cav. This and the endless CMAA and FMAA is what made VI MP so dull

.....Orda

[buujin]

I try to only play vi mp on a 6k florrins now ...

This makes units like spears and foot knights become a lot more usefull.
I also find there are many more variables where as in 10k people just spam the use of the most cost effective units.

[Joven]

I play on expert. It takes me awhile to build up my all cavalry assault force. My usual strategy is to conquer a good number of easily guarded territory then to start building up my assault forces and my defense forces.

Assualt forces consist of 12 heavy cavalry and 4 light cavalry (for riding down other units of light cavalry.

Defensive forces consit of 4 units of heavy cavalry, 4 units of Pavise Arbalests or best archers available if they are not available, 4 units of artillery and 4 units of the best spearmen available.

Attack Tactics are simple. Manouver the enemy into a position where they are easily flanked or better yet, caught bettwen my forces.

Defensive Tactics are find a nice position, rain down artillery fire on the enemy while they close the distance. Use the archers to soften them up, maybe even driving some units off. Use the spears to pin the attacker in place and of course flank them with cavalry.

[DisruptorX]

I try to only play vi mp on a 6k florrins now ...

This makes units like spears and foot knights become a lot more usefull.
I also find there are many more variables where as in 10k people just spam the use of the most cost effective units.

6k is still kind of high, I think. I would always play it 5k or less.

The only reason Spears are bad is because in high points, you can just take pikes/bills/whathaveyou. In Viking era mp, armoured spearmen are extremely usefull, they die really slowly.

The again, I play for fun, so spamming one unit is not a tactic I've ever tried... sounds like RTW singleplayer

[Orda Khan]

........And to think some of us tried and tried to promote 5k to produce a better game, only to be ignored by the majority who loved their 15k or 10k games

..........Orda

[barocca]

people have got past the "fun" of winning too easily and now want a challenge in MP

this is good

[kongxinga]

Speaking as a relative noob 5k sounds great. Eggies are very hard to play on 15K, because your infantry needs to be at least 1 valour higher than the Western CMAA or FMAA to counter them effectivvely. Add that to the fact that you will still lose 1 on 1 (eg A v4 Agyssinian Guard will lose to a V3 FMAA or V2CMAA) yet it costs more than that particular Western unit you are fighting because of the ramping costs for Valouring up.

5K would probably force a lot of units to be V0, which means my cheaper Eggy units could now have their actual advantage of cheap cost effectivneness back! I gotta go try it out.

[Maximus the Meek]

I like the make it more realistic, so I always mix my armies. Even Ghenghis Khan had some foot troops :)

[PittBull260]

all cavarly armies are good and very usefull

the Mongols of course specialize in it, half heavy mongol cavalry, half mongol light cavalry

u cna easily flank the enemy with the light cavalry while the heavy ones keep them busy in front, thats how i win numerous battles :)

[Maximus the Meek]

how do you attack the spearmen with the heavy calvary. Do you outflank them and attack them from the side?

[PittBull260]

how do you attack the spearmen with the heavy calvary. Do you outflank them and attack them from the side?

spearmen vs cavalry are nothing when u got one unit attacking from front and the other from back

just use heavy cavalry at front they can hold off spearmen long enough until your quick light cavalry gets them from the back

[Orda Khan]

Speaking as a relative noob 5k sounds great. Eggies are very hard to play on 15K, because your infantry needs to be at least 1 valour higher than the Western CMAA or FMAA to counter them effectivvely. Add that to the fact that you will still lose 1 on 1 (eg A v4 Agyssinian Guard will lose to a V3 FMAA or V2CMAA) yet it costs more than that particular Western unit you are fighting because of the ramping costs for Valouring up.

5K would probably force a lot of units to be V0, which means my cheaper Eggy units could now have their actual advantage of cheap cost effectivneness back! I gotta go try it out.

Exactly. I never enjoyed the Euro armies and preferred using Moslem factions. These were always at a disadvantage because of the insistance of playing MP at 10k per army. At equal skill level, the Euro player would win and hence we saw endless Euro cav/sword armies.

............Orda

[scaddenp]

I like the make it more realistic, so I always mix my armies. Even Ghenghis Khan had some foot troops :)

Yes, some but especially in eastern campaigns but for many battles it was only cavalry because army was travelling too fast for infantry.

[Patron]

If every man had 3 horses, I don't think transporting foot soldiers would be a problem. It would simply make logistics more difficult, which isn't much of a problem when you can get loads of food through pillage.

[scaddenp]

If every man had 3 horses, I don't think transporting foot soldiers would be a problem.

Well you travelled faster by changing mounts when one was tired. Leaving aside the possibilities, they simply didnt. Can anyone point me to a reference for use of Mongol infantry in the western campaigns other than prisoners pushed in front as arrow-fodder and artillery/engineers?