HRE: Reiters Tactics and Deployment.

[Doug-Thompson]

So, is quoting myself like talking to myself, a sign of getting old?

Anyway:

Reiter tactics are a sadly neglected topic, but a few general observations can be made.

I suspect that if I could read German, I'd find a lot of discussion on the internet.

My best guess on using them would be to leave fire at will on, then alt-attack. The defender would get a face full of a powerful pistol volley (and morale penalties) right before getting hit by a powerful knight-like charge.

[Shahed]

So, is quoting yourself like talking to yourself, a sign of getting old?.

HAHAHAHA !

I suspect that if I could read German, I'd find a lot of discussion on the internet.

My best guess on using them would be to leave fire at will on, then alt-attack. The defender would get a face full of a powerful pistol volley (and morale penalties) right before getting hit by a powerful knight-like charge

It's an idea though, I might check google.de. And good points !
That sounds great, steady canter, shoot then charge. Plain and simple.

[FactionHeir]

Going to google.de alone won't do it. You also have to change your advanced preferences to be German. Tried that the other way around as I use google.de and when I used google.com I was still getting the same results I did as if I had used google.de until I changed my preferences for it to display preferrably UK content.

[Husar]

Hmm, I've used them in one HRE campaign, IIRc I had a stack of 4 Reiters and one general and they could mop up quite a few stacks of rebels etc, losing only few if any Reiters. With the shieldbug fixed, many units should survive better against Reiters, but I guess they're still quite effective, against archers you can do whatever you want, shoot them or charge them and spears are usually shot to pieces, as is most infantry of course.
It's quite some time ago that I've used them though, so I cannot remember everything exactly, I've moved away from playing the HRE as it makes me feel a bit too nationalistic. And the other factions are interesting as well.
Anyway, I think Reiters are quite a good allround cavalry, decent armour, decent melee and a very deadly short range pistol to take on everybody they don't want to make contact with(and most others as well). I think due to their high pistol attack, they're even dangerous to elephants and since their horses are pretty fast, they can stay away or close in as necessary against most units. Horsearchers sound like a good counter to Reiters, but they better don't let them into pistol range or the battle may turn around quite quickly.
Well, that's all I can think of for now.

[Fußball]

I have never got so far in a campaign to use them but I have used them through many a custom battle. They are great for harassing foes and riding off if need be but they are even better for shaking the enemy and then charging to mop up the foe. Historically they used swords as a secondary weapon, not spears. Maybe the spears are there for extra charge stat?

I think due to their high pistol attack, they're even dangerous to elephants and since their horses are pretty fast, they can stay away or close in as necessary against most units.

I have used them against timurids in a quick battle with elephants. Needless to say the elephants could do nothing to combat them, they completely ran circles around the elephants, shook them and eventually caused them to route.

Tschüß!
Erich

[Doug-Thompson]

Elephant hunting. Now that sounds fun.

I can't help but get the impression, however, that Reiters just show up too late in the game to be of much practical use.

P.S. I just figured this out.

Reiters are for killing late-game pike formations. They can do this from range, then charge in and finish them off. They are also so well armored that cheap archers won't bother them much.

In other uses, if they are going to be used as a knight-like unit that gives a preliminary bombardment, then I'd deploy them in a longer, thinner line than the usual HA "box". That way, you get more units making contact with the initial charge.

Hmmm. Picture that. Knight-like unit bears down, fires a deadly volley at close range, breaks the target in a charge, surviving enemies run away from the relatively slow cavalry unit — which now pours more heavy, deadly fire into the routers backs.

Quick annihilation of the broken unit should result.

[Gith]

I'm at the year 1315 or so in my HRE campaign and I would say that my Reiters have been battle winners on several occasions. I like to bring 3-4 to a battle, but that's not always possible. So far I've used them against the Hungarians, Byzantines, and Polish since all the western european factions have been wiped out. I haven't gotten to use them against the Russians yet, but their time will come.

Against infantry heavy armies (what I've been seeing from the Byzantines) they've been very effective, skirmishing and gunning down the heavy infantry I don't want reaching my lines at full strength like the Varangians. They do take heavy casualties from archers, but if you can draw them out of the main formation and get a charge off they'll wipe them out. I usually do this when attacking by riding them off far away on the flanks, out of bowshot. This tends to draw the AI archers out of the main formation leaving them to be cut up. They also tend to mop up routing units more efficiently than heavy cavalry.

I don't actually recall fighting the hungarians with an army with reiters, but I may have. At any rate they've used infantry heavy armies so its been mostly the same tactics as the byzantines.

The Polish have been sending cavalry heavy armies at me, so that has been a bit different and probably more challenging. I put them on skirmish, send them to the flanks or behind as usual, and then send them after any inviting heavy cavalry targets. On defense this usually pulls 2-3 of their heavy cav away from the main formation weakening their assault. They've proven to be pretty good General killers with such a high missile attack and being able to outpace them. Unfortunately they're sometimes frustratingly inept at skirmishing, letting a unit of heavy cav get a charge off and taking pretty hefty losses. I haven't had them go head to head with Polish Nobles yet, and I'll probably try to avoid that situation at all cost.

I suppose in short, I use them as skirmishers to go heavy cavalry or heavy infantry hunting, killing general's bodyguards, and hunting down routers. They always kill a good amount of the enemy and capture more than any of my other units.

Plus there's nothing quite like watching enemy royalty get gunned down in a medieval drive by

[Ciaran]

Their main strength is the fact that, even while they charge they fire their pistols, thus softening up and demoralising their targets. The same goes for chasing routers, they kill a couple of enemies with their pistols in addition to those they manage to catch up with. They´re excellent flankers, too, but they shouldn´t charge head on into heavy infantry like any dismounted Knights or such. But a target already engaged in combat, attacked from the flank or rear is almost a certain rout with a Reiter charge.
I wouldn´t bother with the circle abiity, though, they´re too likely to get entangled with something, just leaving them on skirmish will do the job.

[Vladimir]

That sounds great, steady canter, shoot then charge. Plain and simple.

Hmm, wow. If you can pull off a gunpowder volley shot then a good charge .