here comes the cavalry..

[Cras]

I am playing a campeign, and I have to much money and was upgrading some legions where I replaced light cavalry with heavy cavalry.
I put all the left over light cavalry in one army and just for fun sake I complemented the army with more light cavalry, since I didnt know what to expect I didnt add a general in case the all cavalry legion would show a poor performence.

This army was attacked by the huns, the light cavalry legion was spread out like a line with a diamond square in the middle. I decided that since some of the other units had spearman I would attack the units in teams of 2 cavalry units, working my way from the hun's outside inwards. I found that I could attack a lot of their army this way... well to cut things short... I massacred the huns, in seconds.. it was incredible, I didnt even had big losses.

After crushing this army the second hun army attacked me... they were given the same fate in also a very short time... the same went for their 3rd army... it was unbelievable.. so easy, so fast and for them,.. so devestating.

yesterday I tried the same thing with only 4 heavy cavalry against about 2/3 of a full legion (yes there were a.o. 6 peasant units in it and only one general) and that too was defeated using the same tactic, two pair of 2 units attacking them from the ouside working inwards... I was SO suprised, never realised the power of cavalry... that is different now...

Of course this doesnt work for attacking a city, but as a back up support legion... they move quite fast over the map, distance in a battle or fighting uphill seems to have a lesser effect, and if you loose some men, merge the units and just add 1 or 2, the legion is easily replenished.

try it... and it's an awesome site to engage all that cavalry 20 x 108 + 1 in a battle... pity they didnt have a special sound file for a fight like that... the sound mustbe defning!

enjoy....

[aw89]

You can do the same to an infantry heavy army with one unit of heavy cav, not two units to one, but just galloping past its flank and charging before it can turn. General units are perfect for this. it is cheesy though

[Dutch_guy]

this reminds me of MP cav. spamming , which I don't really like to say the least.

I don't use all infatry/archer/cav. armies, just don't like them. I prefer balanced armies with a solid heavy infantry core.

I do agree that Horse heavy armies in the hands of a competent ( read: Human ) player is practically unstopable.

[x-dANGEr]

Yes they are, a box shaped phalanx (R: TW) or Shield Wall (BI) would stop them..

[A.Saturnus]

Hmm, did any of the armies you tried this on have some anti-cav in them like heavy spearmen?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I did something like this. I had moved my bounderies as the WRE up into Dacia and was fortifying the border with watch towers using a young General. On impulse I highered some Sarmation Armoured Archers and some Alans, ling and heavy and went rebel hunting. Its a bit harder with a mostly infantry enemy but its still great fun.

After all, how do the think the Huns got so far?

[Cras]

@ Asaturnus

yes they had many spearman. But taking a frontal charge of 2 Cavalry units is painful for any unit. what also happens is dat a lot of units rout,... which has a cascade effect... they al start to route.
such a nice site... all those little white flags and nearly 2000 horseman to kill them all off...

[antisocialmunky]

Yes they are, a box shaped phalanx (R: TW) or Shield Wall (BI) would stop them..

And pray they don't hit the corners.

[amir]

when on defence simply make a circle with phalanx and archers in the middle.
invincible. no horses can pass through it. (that also applies to any other unit that is foolish enough to attack the formation. most units will rout by just seeing this formation :P)
oh and if youre on attack put the phalanx in like half a circle with archers in the middle for same effect. the rest of your cavalry at the edges of the circle, ready to flank those who tries to rear your phalanx formation or to flank the enemy troops once his formation is lost. aamof I think that cavalry aren't the stronger portion of the armies, but rather the heavy infantry, phalanxes and roman infantry.

[antisocialmunky]

*Onager*

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Phalanx defence should ideally be a square, or better still a triangle. A circle never gets proper intersection between the formation. On attack your phalanx should be a line so that when the enemy begins to wrap around you your cavalry have an easier time of it.

[Watchman]

A square still has its corners. That's where Napoleonic cavalry preferred trying to demolish infantry squares too. The problem is bigger with a triangle, as the flanks of the units at the extreme ends of the sides are even more starkly exposed.

Putting some suitable bunch of spearmen (or any heavy infantry really) inside each corner to block attempts to breach the formation will probably go a long way to prevent unpleasant "corner ruptures."

[antisocialmunky]

There's a reason why there aren't cubular snails.