“Hunters all their lives*”: Core principles for Missile Cavalry

[Doug-Thompson]

I let the Missile Cavalry Tactic Guide grow into a tome. Here are the boiled-down useful points:

1. Get to high ground.
2. Know the enemy’s weak spots. Exploit them.
3. Create cross fire.
4. You own the battlefield. The enemy's trespassing.
5. Attack morale at least as much as units.
6. Attack or neutralize the biggest threats first.
7. If enemies aren’t dying, get closer.

Now, thumbnail explanations of what those mean:

1. Get to high ground. That’s self-evident. If there’s a hill you can get to and fire from, get there first with the most men. If the enemy holds high ground, find the gentlest slope and go up it instead of riding directly at them. Missile cavalry are among the fastest units in the game. Use that.

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2. Know the enemy’s weak spots. Exploit them. These spots are, in priority order:

a. From the back.
b. On the enemy’s “weapon hand,” his right flank. This matters less with units that have no shield, like peasants, but most units have shields.
c. The other side, “shield side.”
d. In front, from the “weapon” or right end. If you are in the enemy’s “2 o’clock” position, you get at least some of the raking effect.
e. In front, “shield” end.
f. Dead ahead.

(See the link to enfilade fire below)

Note that the ability of missile cavalry to get to those spots is its greatest advantage over missile infantry.

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3. Create cross fire. Shields can only face one direction at a time. Even shieldless, unarmored units present a smaller target when facing you. This is particularly true of horses and camels. This level of detail is apparently present in the game. Give units more than one direction to face. You will find that horses and camels make particularly inviting targets from the side. Also, see the tactics guide or this thread for an opinion on enfilade fire.

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4. You own the battlefield. The enemy's trespassing. Rush out and keep him in the middle and make him pay for any ground gained. Make him pay for any ground lost. Make the only part of the battlefield he controls the poor, low ground he's standing upon and make him pay rent in lives for that. Don’t get pinned. Battle map corners and sides are almost as big a threat as the enemy. Those borders are the anvil. The enemy is the hammer. Don’t get close to the anvil without a compelling reason, and keep a way of escape in mind. Also beware of getting one of your units surrounded and terrain obstacles like rivers or structures. See the main tactics thread.

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5. Attack morale at least as much as units. Nothing helps win a battle like a dead enemy general. Javelin cavalry are the best general-killers available. Also, note that having your missile cavalry behind and flanking units create big morale penalties for your opposition. Use it. If your melee units can rout one unit, the rest may soon follow.

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6. Attack or neutralize the biggest threats first. A set of spear infantry that can't catch you and can be easily shot up later are not the biggest threat. Cavalry that might catch your units or enemy missile units that reach you are. Kill them as soon as you can, especially if you can goad them out and destroy them in detail with your melee cav and javelins. In Sinan's juicy expression: "An army without missile or cavalry against an all cavalry army is the best meat you can buy."

Foot archers are a threat, but they cannot fire on the move. Get them moving with treats of charges from melee cav or even your HA, if they have decent melee stats, then shoot them to bits.

"It is natural to target first fast missile cavaly, fast cavalry, and ranged units, but not all seem to do it," notes Oleander Ardens.

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7. If enemies aren’t dying, get closer. Self-explanatory.



*”Hunters all their lives” comes from Age of Empires II: Age of Kings. The last “chapter opening” in the Mongol campaign starts: “Hunter’s all their lives, old wolves …”

[FactionHeir]

A few things you should add:

- Do not let your missile cav trail behind each other in fire at will mode. You will cause unnecessary friendly fire casualties.

- When cross firing, let your units stand a fair distance away from the target each. Otherwise missiles not hitting the target will hit your own troops on the other side.

[Doug-Thompson]

A few things you should add:

The "overlap" issue is in the big guide, at length. Not shooting at each other is the kind of mistake that should only happen once.

[Oleander Ardens]

Hm perhaps a "4. Gain and use space" would be a good core principle, having a more general meaning than "Don't get pinned". I mean it contains deploying your MC far forward, riding around a flank to a hill, or all moves which ultimatly allow MC to gain more space and thus time to manouver and to spend their missiles.

Also something along the line of "Kill first what may kill you" might a good addition. It is natural to target first fast missile cavaly, fast cavalry, and ranged units, but not all seem to do it. So a general rule for targeting might be fitting.

"Pluck the eagle's feathers" for eliminating the mobile part of an opponent or something other sounding like a steppe saying would be great.

Cheers
OA

[Shahed]

Nice post Doug. You've done a great deal to help people understand how to use all missile cavalry with this post and many others, and you've done a great job !

I'd agree with OE, I'm sure a lot of people don't know that or don't do that.

I always target the enemy's mobility first, before anything else. Naturally missile and artillery units came right after cavalry. An army without missile or cavalry against an all cavalry army is the best meat you can buy.

Once his faster units are weakened or destroyed, his missile units are weakened or destroyed, then the real game begins. The game of picking off his units one by one as he hopelessly watches in dismay. Swarming all over the map with clouds of death high above the enemy.

I have a question, I always used 2 row formations for my HAs. Have you done any tests which show that boxed loose formation works best ? OR what is the logic behind that. I'm using it as well now that I've read your guides. I think it is better but I'd like to know what the reasoning is.

It's harder to maneuver I find, takes up more space than close formation.

[ScrapTower]

For the people who play factions with no missile cavalry and face cavalry heavy armies in MP:

1) Trying to chase down and pin missile cavalry with heavy or even light cavalry is futile unless the player with the missile cav makes a mistake.

2) Get at least one unit of missiles for each missile cavalry you think you are going to face. (If you face an army of mainly missile cavalry, no less then 8)

3) Keep your army with your missiles. You must kill alot of their missile cavalry before you can go on the offencive.

4) Let him come to you. Stand still, turn fire at will off and let his missile cav start to circle and shoot at you.

5) Turn on flaming arrows and begin to focus fire his HA. One or two large flaming vollies will really take his HA unit down to uneffective levels.

6) If your opponent complains that you are not attacking, explain to him that to counter an HA heavy army with no HA of your own, this is your only option and take no shame in it.

[Doug-Thompson]

Thanks, Sinan. High praise indeed. Also, since you and OA agree, I'll add targeting priorities.

I always used 2 row formations for my HAs. Have you done any tests which show that boxed loose formation works best ? OR what is the logic behind that. I'm using it as well now that I've read your guides. I think it is better but I'd like to know what the reasoning is.

It's harder to maneuver I find, takes up more space than close formation.

This got started after RTW came out. Forum members were trying to solve the mysteries of friendly fire. HA were put into squares only as a demonstration technique to show that freindly fire within the same unit was no threat.

We had the good luck to rouse the curiousity of both Frogbeastegg and Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe (I hope I'm recalling this correctly) with this discussion, and with the discussion of why foot archers couldn't hit HA in a circle. They engaged in a series of good tests. I'd provide a link, but I'm not even sure I could find the thread again, unfortunately. It was first-rate work on those tests.

After the friendly fire issue was proven and the circling issue was explored, something dawned on a number of people simultaneously. A square could fire with equal potency in all directions. There were no dangling ends to get caught by melee units, either. Several of us MTW1 HA nuts also noticed that the unit leader didn't have to get out in front any more to skirmish away, either. That was a severe disadvantage to a deep formation MTW1.

People who have already perfected their two-rank line micro in MTW1 or Shogun do not benefit much from squares, if at all. People without that skill set seem to benefit greatly.

As for the loose vs. close question, people playing with squares quickly found that a square skirmishing away from the enemy faced a serious risk of colliding with neighboring HA. There's also greater danger from friendly fire. HA in loose formation weave through each other. Also, as Katank says, vulnerability to enemy missiles is a large factor.

[Azi Tohak]

I have not played MTW as much as it deserved. I got it when I got RTW (computer limitations)... and the strat map, even with the problems, was simply more entertaining, especially the RTR mod.

However, it is fun to jump in with everyone else for M2TW. I have had a great time with my Byzantines, especially their superb Vardar HA. Thank you all for your input on this, both using and fighting HA armies. I have even learned something about the square. I'm going to have to try that! I just figured the line would work better since I like it better for my infantry archer (does it impact the infantry archers?).

Oh, and Doug, ever since STW I have deployed my HC, and most of the time my light melee cav (Alans for example) behind the center of the line. They have always seemed fast enough to move to a critical point when I need them to reinforce my usually strong infantry forces. But, sometimes, when I'm heavy in cav and especially when my foe has a lot of LC/HA himself, I like to deploy teams of 2 HA and 1 LC on the flanks. HA in loose formation in front, and then the LC in tight formation behind. So long as I can keep alert with everything going on, I have found that those teams are fantastic for smashing enemy LC/HA.

Azi