How do you beat skirmisher cavalry?

[paullus]

Well, dealing with skirmisher cav was one of the great frustration of commanders in ancient times, and they complained about it a lot. However, a lot of commanders had success with slingers. Another tactic (if you have timed battles, don't know if it'd work otherwise) is to ignore their field armies and assault their towns (also an ancient tactic). So if they attack you, you just deploy slingers (and catapulta if you have em) on the edges of your formation and ward the suckers off until the time is up or they decide to assault you.

I've wanted to try a feigned route, and try to drag em in, but I havent gotten up the nerve to try it in-game.

[Dooz]

I've wanted to try a feigned route, and try to drag em in, but I havent gotten up the nerve to try it in-game.

Why not try it in a custom battle? Although it'd be more fun and realistic trying it for the first time in an actual battle that counts, just as the real general would have eventually done.

One more minor thing, how do you indent paragraphs on this board without skipping a line?

I'd love to know as well. As far as I know though, you can't. Please someone prove me wrong.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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how do you indent paragraphs on this board without skipping a line?

Wrap your paragraph between 2sp or 3sp tags, to your liking. To indent it as a block, use the indent tag. Examples:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[3sp]Playing as Bactria I have been betyrayed by the Parthians. Forced to shift my focus from the conquest of India, I built an army of cavalry and brought the war to the homelands of my enemy. Eventually I destroyed them (gaining "Conquerer of Parthians" trait for Arsakes my lead general on the western front; cool as hell), but I was forced to overwhelm them with numbers and auto calc due to my inability to coordinate battles that consisted almost entirely of my skirmisher cavalry vs their skirmisher cavalry. I tried to contain them (impossible), I tried to trap them (too fast), I tried to shower them with missiles (they kill more of mine than I of theirs). I am ashamed to admit that were it not for autocalc I seriously doubt I would have been able to carry the day.[/3sp]

gives

   Playing as Bactria I have been betyrayed by the Parthians. Forced to shift my focus from the conquest of India, I built an army of cavalry and brought the war to the homelands of my enemy. Eventually I destroyed them (gaining "Conquerer of Parthians" trait for Arsakes my lead general on the western front; cool as hell), but I was forced to overwhelm them with numbers and auto calc due to my inability to coordinate battles that consisted almost entirely of my skirmisher cavalry vs their skirmisher cavalry. I tried to contain them (impossible), I tried to trap them (too fast), I tried to shower them with missiles (they kill more of mine than I of theirs). I am ashamed to admit that were it not for autocalc I seriously doubt I would have been able to carry the day.

while

[indent]Playing as Bactria I have been betyrayed by the Parthians. Forced to shift my focus from the conquest of India, I built an army of cavalry and brought the war to the homelands of my enemy. Eventually I destroyed them (gaining "Conquerer of Parthians" trait for Arsakes my lead general on the western front; cool as hell), but I was forced to overwhelm them with numbers and auto calc due to my inability to coordinate battles that consisted almost entirely of my skirmisher cavalry vs their skirmisher cavalry. I tried to contain them (impossible), I tried to trap them (too fast), I tried to shower them with missiles (they kill more of mine than I of theirs). I am ashamed to admit that were it not for autocalc I seriously doubt I would have been able to carry the day.[/indent]

results in

Playing as Bactria I have been betyrayed by the Parthians. Forced to shift my focus from the conquest of India, I built an army of cavalry and brought the war to the homelands of my enemy. Eventually I destroyed them (gaining "Conquerer of Parthians" trait for Arsakes my lead general on the western front; cool as hell), but I was forced to overwhelm them with numbers and auto calc due to my inability to coordinate battles that consisted almost entirely of my skirmisher cavalry vs their skirmisher cavalry. I tried to contain them (impossible), I tried to trap them (too fast), I tried to shower them with missiles (they kill more of mine than I of theirs). I am ashamed to admit that were it not for autocalc I seriously doubt I would have been able to carry the day.

They can be used together:

[indent][3sp]Playing as Bactria I have been betyrayed by the Parthians. Forced to shift my focus from the conquest of India, I built an army of cavalry and brought the war to the homelands of my enemy. Eventually I destroyed them (gaining "Conquerer of Parthians" trait for Arsakes my lead general on the western front; cool as hell), but I was forced to overwhelm them with numbers and auto calc due to my inability to coordinate battles that consisted almost entirely of my skirmisher cavalry vs their skirmisher cavalry. I tried to contain them (impossible), I tried to trap them (too fast), I tried to shower them with missiles (they kill more of mine than I of theirs). I am ashamed to admit that were it not for autocalc I seriously doubt I would have been able to carry the day.[/3sp][/indent]

   Playing as Bactria I have been betyrayed by the Parthians. Forced to shift my focus from the conquest of India, I built an army of cavalry and brought the war to the homelands of my enemy. Eventually I destroyed them (gaining "Conquerer of Parthians" trait for Arsakes my lead general on the western front; cool as hell), but I was forced to overwhelm them with numbers and auto calc due to my inability to coordinate battles that consisted almost entirely of my skirmisher cavalry vs their skirmisher cavalry. I tried to contain them (impossible), I tried to trap them (too fast), I tried to shower them with missiles (they kill more of mine than I of theirs). I am ashamed to admit that were it not for autocalc I seriously doubt I would have been able to carry the day.

It might be worth trying to see if multiple cascading 2sp/3sp codes work for further indentation.

A detailed list of available tags can be found here.

Hth!
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[Mouzafphaerre]

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It might be worth trying to see if multiple cascading 2sp/3sp codes work for further indentation.

Well...

         Playing as Bactria I have been betyrayed by the Parthians. Forced to shift my focus from the conquest of India, I built an army of cavalry and brought the war to the homelands of my enemy. Eventually I destroyed them (gaining "Conquerer of Parthians" trait for Arsakes my lead general on the western front; cool as hell), but I was forced to overwhelm them with numbers and auto calc due to my inability to coordinate battles that consisted almost entirely of my skirmisher cavalry vs their skirmisher cavalry. I tried to contain them (impossible), I tried to trap them (too fast), I tried to shower them with missiles (they kill more of mine than I of theirs). I am ashamed to admit that were it not for autocalc I seriously doubt I would have been able to carry the day.

It works!
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[Dooz]

Thank you Mouzafphaerre! Very useful indeed.

[Zero1]

I find that large amounts of those Iranian troops with the spears and composite bows decimate horse archers and the like.

[Malrubius]

Eranshar Arshtbara come in very handy for this, I think. You keep them in loose formation for better protection from the missiles, fire-at-will, but guard mode instead of skirmish. They won't be able to charge these spear-armed men and you can trade arrows with them fairly effectively.

Maybe try this (but it is one of those micromanage tactics, and would be difficult on a crowded battlefield):
Use your horse archers to pick out an enemy unit and manuever so the enemy is between your arshtbara and your cav. Use your cav to "push" the horse archers towards your infantry. You will probably need to use your other horse archers to keep the rest of the enemy at bay, so you can cut them out one at a time.

Another possibility:
If you have few to no horse archers, and have to attack with your infantry, try to use 'bound and overwatch' tactics, advancing one unit towards the horse archers while another is stationary and fires at them. If you have a phalanx, have it slowly advance forward--it will draw a lot of ineffective fire and keep your own archers alive long enough to wear the enemy down. If the cav charges, halt your phalanx and let them kill themselves on your pikes.

My best luck has been just taking their cities, as suggested. Horse archers are not made for defending settlements, and your bound and overwatch advance will work wonders, unless they completely abandon the town square.

[Zero1]

I've had lots of success against horse archers, basically what I do is raise a big army made largely of Eranshars for the sole purpose of fighting off horse archers.

I march them all out in a big line in loose and guard mode, order them to fire at will and more often then not they win the day, outshooting the mounted archers.

Another tactic I find useful for later when I had more money, I'd add a few pezhetairoi to the mix and march them out in front of my Eranshars. The horse archers will shoot the Pezhetairoi head on who take few casualties while the Eranshar tucked safely behind them unload their arrows. The horse archers innevitably take more casualties then they dish out this way, and either rout, die, or dwindle in number to the point of ineffectiveness.