Charges, Total Frustration II

[gardibolt]

How can you tell what the charge range is? It seems to be different every time I do it, judging by when the horn sounds.

I've given up on single clicking; it just doesn't work. As they're sauntering to the target, it usually moves away, resulting in no charge at all. Double clicking gets me a well-formed charge about half the time anyway.

[Foz]

How can you tell what the charge range is? It seems to be different every time I do it, judging by when the horn sounds.

I've given up on single clicking; it just doesn't work. As they're sauntering to the target, it usually moves away, resulting in no charge at all. Double clicking gets me a well-formed charge about half the time anyway.

If you single-click and then run, it's far more consistent than that. The single click means the unit, usually at a stop, gets a few non-running moments to get back in formation (they take off at vastly different times for me usually, so the unit is immediately messed up when it starts marching). Then when they recover formation, switch to running. It's a seamless transition, and they stay in formation generally. If you have some space to work with, though, you can lazily double-click, and they recover the formation in time to hit the charge. The single-click-then-run is more useful for shorter areas where they won't recover from the initial jostling if you just double-click.

I too gave up on single-click charges a long time ago, they obviously aren't the deciding factor in whether or not your charge goes off. All it does is make your knights take forever getting to their target...

I've also had some luck using shift-double-click to set waypoints. Mostly, to pull out and recharge with cavalry. If you shift-double-click a suitable distance away from the enemy unit, then continuing to hold shift, double-click on the enemy unit and release shift, you can generally get your knights to pull out and recharge without even stopping at all. It sometimes looks really messy, but I've had good luck getting the charges to go off anyway. It may have something to do with the unit never stopping its motion.

[FactionHeir]

You know what I did once that was really funny? I had a depleted elephant artillery unit (1 elephant and its rider, no arty) and ran it into the enemy townsquare. Charged the unit at the far end, disengaged for a meter or so and charged the unit at the other end of town square seamlessly and rinse/repeat.
By the time the elephant died, it had taken some 140 enemies with it :D
The townsquare was very crowded though, but its kind of funny that you can charge while engaged. Works for general cav too btw, just that those tend to rout when down to few men.

[pike master]

charges are perfect now. devestating versus light and missile infantry. good against heavy infantry and no good versus spears( the way it should be) not really but since theyve ruined pikes in the game its good to have something that can fight it out with cav and still hold their own against infantry.

[Seikales]

Well, logic says, a full charge with lances and all should be real hard, and I would say more or less require a flat land (or slight downslope). What is the real issue here is that the cavalry has the advantage of height and speed against other units, which is extremely usefull when units loose cohesion or face directions other then the cavalry approach.

Charges with lances did not mean to slaughter all the enemies. What it was for was to disrupt the enemy. Multiple charges were possible with supporters close by. A galloping knight with his sword at hand is a very dangerous opponent even without the lance. What is stupid in the game is having around 50 knights in one units, charging in 4-5 rows. What kind of an attack is that? The knights who follow the front line will trample or hit his own men, cause whatever the opponent is, you just can not keep running through them like they are made of cotton. Slowing down and even stopping is inevitable.

The real problem in the game is not the charge, but the normal attacks, where a bunch of cavs fight the front guys, others waiting behind. They should move in, push units away, if possible open paths for others and so. Height is a great advantage in medieval battles, so use them, use their horses massive bodies. Infantry on the other hand should form islands themselves, clutching together to limit the knights movement.

I realy hope the second patch is worth it...

[Fußball]

Charges are not difficult at all, you just have to know what to do. My policy as follows:

1. First off I start by, as was stated by CA, keeping my unit as parallel as possible to the desired target.

2. Once I have gotten to the desired distance to begin preparing my charge I simply click on the enemy, using walk if I need the unit to march slowly for reformation or what not, or run if I need them to meet the enemy quickly.

3. If my unit is marching slowly instead of quickly I wait until my unit is within around 50 game meters away from the enemy, click run, and watch the fun!

After you have used charges enough it should never be a problem to perform a charge anywhere in good conditions. The only time I have ever had the slightest trouble is when my men are fighting in arid/desert terrain. And the only problem there is if the enemy is situated on a hilly area and/or there are many rocks blocking a good path to charge.

Tschüß!
Erich

[Jambo]

Firstly, single click vs double click doesn't make any difference to charge. Single click just walks a cavalry unit to the charging distance, double click runs. People might get the impression single click is better simply because the unit is more likely to keep in formation and adjust to follow a moving target.

You're more likely to get a successful charge if you do the following:

1. Ensure your cavarly is facing the target and likely to hit the target as a whole, i.e. without clipping a corner and more importantly without clipping another unit en route.
2. Ensure your cavalry is in formation and not strung out or already engaged/ partly engaged with another unit.
3. Ensure that when you give the order, the cavalry unit is not too close to the target, i.e. within its own charging range.
4. Ensure the terrain is suitable, i.e. flat and without obstacles like trees or large rocks, which will interfere with formation. Steep slopes are also not conducive to good charges and snow tends to slow a cavalry unit down lessening its impact.

Having said all that I think it's a shame CA toned down the mass of the mounts, and made the mass of armoured cavalry no different from that of a bareback pony. By doing so they've lessened the impact and ability of cavalry to punch through infantry ranks. I would have much prefered them to tinker with the raw attack or charge values rather than reducing the mass.

[rebelscum]

Charges with lances did not mean to slaughter all the enemies. What it was for was to disrupt the enemy.

Historically it was to make the enemy turn and rout.

Cavalry Officer: Ok chaps, now you are all 'finally' back in line, this time were going to get it right .. *looks questionly at rabble of horsemen* ... yes. We form up neatly opposite the enemy. We then start trotting slowly towards them. When we get within range . I will blow the horn .. and .. we charge ..
Cavalryman #1: erm.. Sir .. Sir ,
Cavalry Officer: Yes, what is it now*sighs with exasperation*
Cavalryman #1: How do we know when we are in range ...?
Cavalry Officer: Like I said before .. when I blow the horn ..
Cavalryman #2: And that sounds like?
Cavalry Officer: Like a horn dammit .. listen .. *tarantaraaa*
*Half the cavalry take off running and in multiple directions*
Cavalryman #1: Sir .. sir. Do we charge now then?
Cavalry Officer: *sobs* ..