Calling ALL CAVALRY COMMANDERS !

[Tambarskjelve]

I love my Cavalry armies. In my usually two-stack pillaging raid force, I keep one all Cavalry for mobility and field battles, and a footpounder lugging the artillery.
Obviously, my cavalry sees all the action.
My favorite unit is the Knights Templar, I have been a fan of the history and myth since I was a child.
My cavalry stack mostly is 50/50 Templars and Turkopoles, and Mounted crossbows in Europe.

Being a former Cavalryman myself (albeit with a mechanized mount) I simply cannot but feel vastly superior to any infantryman.

Deus Vult!

[Shahed]

HOOAAH !

WELCOME aboard Tambarskjelve, gibsonsg91921, Kobal2fr and IrishArmenian !

OT:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Tambarskjelve, Good to meet you. Norwegian Army ? unit ? vehicle ?.

[Tambarskjelve]

Hehe, I was wondering how you knew I was Norwegian, but i understand my nick is a dead giveaway on a history oriented forum like this.
To the point:Norwegian Army, Panserbataljonen, Stormeskadron 4, CV9030

[_Tristan_]

Having a full stack of 15 cav and 5 infantry is a very good army to siege with. Split the cav into 3, and send them to the left, right and back gates. The infantry will attack the main gate.

Another Cavalry fan responding to the call...

At the moment I must admit I'm quite a fan of Hungarian Cavalry...Horse archers with quite a melee punch... And Hussars (for the look of them)....And Bodyguards...and Alan cavalry...And....I think I will stop here or I will list the entire MTW2 cavalry roster....

@HoreTore : I concur, in my Hungarian campaign, not a single siege has been fought with siege engines, be it castle or cities, and with few infantry, generally missile infantry...

The main tactic I use is to send an heavy cav down a street charging on the enemy unit coming down that same street and then send a fast/light horse (Alan Cav, Mounted Sergeants, Merchant cav Militia) to the back of the unit using a side street... Instant rout...

Use the HA to rain arrows down the central plaza and the Missile Inf to the same effect and it's a victory with almost no losses...

[_Tristan_]

POP QUIZ

Whose slogan is this ?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Silent as the forest, Steady as the mountain,
Swift as the wind, ATTACK LIKE FIRE !

Without using Google Gentlemen !

I seem to remember from my STW days (and having a fondness for japanese culture) that it was the Takeda clan motto, if I remember correctly...

Ah...All those marvelous Takeda cavalry....My favorite STW faction...

[Shahed]

Hehe, I was wondering how you knew I was Norwegian, but i understand my nick is a dead giveaway on a history oriented forum like this.

Yeap, the nick is a giveaway. Maybe we'll see him in the Kingdowms expansion ! Who knows.
OT: BTW how many divisions does the Norwegian Army have ?

Tristan de Castelreng je vous souhaite le bienvenue ! et FELICITATIONS !

Welcome and congratulations ! You got it.
It is indeed the Takeda slogan. Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan from Sun Tzu's Art of War.
Which IIRC means Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain (forgot which order it is in).

Voila votre prix !!! (Here's your prize !!!)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bear with me I'm learning Photoshop, but any excuse to try is good !
Anyone recognise the image ?

Takeda & Mongols were my favorites in S:TW.

[Fußball]

I am a calvaryman by nature but I must disagree about full calvary armies. I usually do not make armies with so much calvary. As much as I love my gothic, imperial and teutonic knights, I prefer more balance. I have made 3/4 calvary armies and 1/2 calvary armies before but never full calvary.

Ah...All those marvelous Takeda cavalry....My favorite STW faction...

I’ve been in love with cavalry since Shogun (I’m an old Takeda player).

Good to see so many Takeda fans. I myself also played Takeda. Shingen was my main man! Often I would wait several turns to turn out an heir so'z I could have him commanding a unit of calvary archers or yari calvary in the early game.

That's a very common misconception, and fortunately, entirely false. Cavalry are extremely good in a siege, but you do need a spy.

As long as you can burst down one gate, calvary can be used easily because of the AI if you want to be a complete cheese. If the AI has no one in the castle/town square you can simply rush your calvary there as the AI pours out to go retake the square. And if they do this all you have to do is position calvary or other infantry in front of the tower/wall exits and maul them as they march out in a neat line.

If they have a unit or two around the gate and they do not rush out into the gate to meet your forces you can usually go around them until you are in a better position to flank. Once you have dispatched the gate units or charged to the square the AI should begin pouring troops off of the walls.

Also, if they do have one unit in the square, all you need do is charge it and maul it. If the first charge does not dessimate enough, make a second charge. By then the enemy should be so cut down and rattled that prolonged melee should be able to crush them with few casualties. I recently had to do this in a crusade. I was forced to split all but my bodyguard plus one unit of teutonic knights and armored spearmen to keep from gaining winning first versus three mere Egyptian units holding Antioch.

Tschüß!
Erich

[Shahed]

Meanwhile I remembered the order of Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan . It is Wind, Mountain, Forest, Fire. Wind defeats the Mountain, Fire defeats the Forest... is the logic IIRC.

This thread is more and more revealing with each post on how people play. We really do need some media to demonstrate because I get the impression since MTW:VI, a lot of the new guys possibly are'nt aware of the options available in this game.

I know at some stage I'm going to have to write a REAAAAALY long post in this thread... maybe tomorow (evasion!).

[Tambarskjelve]

In fear of becoming increasingly OT in my first few posts, i figured out the spoiler tags.

Sinan:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Why do you ask? Are you planning an invasion?
The fully mobilizesd Army is theoretically 10 divisions strong. The standing army consists of 4 battallions, an armored, a mechanized inf., an IRF batallion, and a royal guard battalion. in addition there are several training units.

[Shahed]

Tambarskjelve it's good to have you around...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

HAHA !!! :D well this is a wargaming forum, and my interest in the modern military is no less than my interest in ancient militaries. In fact today's military is an evolution so ideally we start studying it from the dawn of it's history, to understand and know how the military has evolved. I would'nt have known about your avatar had I not studied miliitary history. And how can we study military history without studying the Scandinavians as a people.

Thanks very much for the info, I asked because I did'nt remember how many there were and I did'nt remember your unit. I have many Norvegian friends and I've studied their military a few years ago. I've heard of many of the units from them as well. Getting old, I forget. Thanks again and welcome aboard !

[_Tristan_]

Tristan de Castelreng je vous souhaite le bienvenue ! et FELICITATIONS !

It is indeed the Takeda slogan. Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan from Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Voila votre prix !!! (Here's your prize !!!)

Thx a lot for the signature Sinan... will have to had it to my posts ASAP...

As for the order or the Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan, I think it is a sort of vertuous circle, it works whatever the order in which it is listed but it's been a long time since I last read Sun Tzu and I fail to remember exactly....

I didn't recognize the shot in the sig, where is it from ?

[Shahed]

Thx a lot for the signature Sinan... will have to had it to my posts ASAP...

As for the order or the Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan, I think it is a sort of vertuous circle, it works whatever the order in which it is listed but it's been a long time since I last read Sun Tzu and I fail to remember exactly....

I didn't recognize the shot in the sig, where is it from ?

Sigs
Au plaisir, Tristan. I just made it to add some fun to the quiz. Do you like it ? If you do that's great ! If you want another sig, browse through my 1st gallery here and my 2nd one here, to get a style idea. If you like what you see, you can drop a line here. I'm learning how to use Photoshop so all requests for sigs help me practice. I've improved considerably over the past few days since I started using Photoshop, this is thanks to these sigs.

Ran by Akira Kurosawa.
The image is from Akira Kurosawa's 1985 film, Ran. CA used this film in the Mongol Invasion opening titles. Anyone who likes Sengoku Jidai period will likely enjoy this movie. I loved it ! Have it on DVD (as well as most of Kurosawa's brilliant works). It's a great movie, though it requires some patience for some as it's not a Hollywood style movie. There is a quite a bit of epic Samurai cavalry in this movie.

Ran Trailer on YouTube

And finally, check this trailer from the the Ran No Jidai mod for R:TW, it may back some haunting memories of S:TW. Remember the music !

Ran no Jidai Trailer on YouTube

[_Tristan_]

Of course... RAN, great movie... Watched it several years ago...Lots of samurai butchery...

Thx again for the Sig ... I've seen some of those you've made... Will look for something along a French King line...bearing down on a line of English archers running away...

[Fußball]

CA used this film in the Mongol Invasion opening titles. Anyone who likes Sengoku Jidai period will likely enjoy this movie. I loved it !

I personally preferred the original movie clip from STW over STW:MI & WE. The clip from Ran was good, but the original clip from STW was better IMO. Also the clip from Ran seemed less creative being that it was originally from a movie.

Tschüß!
Erich

[Shahed]

Tristan, that's fine, post there if you want something. I can "order" screens as well, from others with high rigs.

FuBball, I totally agree.

EDIT 1: Btw bro, by all cavalry it dos'nt mean only knights. It means bow cavalry, melee cavalry, shock cavalry, javelin cavalry etc etc. Just a quick comment on the first paragraph of your last post. I'll try to elaborate eventually if I manage to pull myself out of Photoshop. Photoshop ! It's the best game EVER !

EDIT 2: ALL CAVALRY COMBINED ARMS REPLAY.

FuBall I decided to share something with you, seeing you have been nothing but a great contributor since you've been around.

If anyone else wants to try this please help yourself.

Í've posted a replay and battle debriefing below. Insert this replay into your replays folder, then watch this replay. IF it works correctly you will see an all cavalry army in action. It's working correctly if in the end the cavalry army loses less than +-90 men. At the end of the battle debrief you will find Battle Result & Battle Statistics screenshots. I think if this works we'll be on the same wavelength. Even if it does not work I'd encourage everyone to read the sequence since this will give you a view of how an all cavalry army can operate.

PLEASE NOTE , this is a DEMONSTRATION replay, so you can ask a lot of questions but keep in mind that the whole purpose of the replay is to successfully demonstrate All Cavalry Combined Arms Tactics.

Please post back and let me know if this replay worked as it should have. It works perfectly on my rig, but we know that the replay function is not reliable.

Bis spater mein Freund.

VERSION M2:TW 1.10 + Carl's Problem Fixer 1.13
EDIT: This replay probably will not work as the replay feature is not reliable and version mismatch.

SETTINGS Late/Very Hard.

UNIT SIZE: Normal

FACTIONS: Sicily vs. Turks

ORDER OF BATTLE

SICILIAN ARMY
1 Late BodyGuard
3 Chivalric Knights
4 Mortars
4 Pavise Crossbowmen
4 Armored Sergeants
2 Dismounted Broken Lances
2 Men at Arms
20 units, 1001 men deployed.

Experience upgrades: none.
Armor/Weapon upgrades: none.

TURKISH ARMY
1 Late Bodyguard
3 Sipahi Lancers
4 Sipahi
3 Turcomen
11 units, 421 men deployed.

Experience upgrades: none.
Armor/Weapon upgrades: none.

NOTES

• I made few mistakes.
• Basic principles applied correctly: destroy mobility, destroy range, destroy morale.
• Basic principles applied in tandem.
• All objectives achieved.
• Timing is almost perfect.
• Good pre battle deployment.
• Reserves used well.
• The enemy army is ALL elite, top end xbows, elite infantry etc.
• Numerical disadvantage, 2.38:1.
• Artillery causes fear.

DEPLOYMENT
Initial deployment in 2 Combat Groups.

COMBAT_GROUP_LEFT
BodyGuard, 3 Sipahi_Lancers, 3 Turcomen.

Assigned to:
1st Battalion: Bodyguard + Sipahi_Lancer.
2nd Battalion: 2 Sipahi_Lancers.
3rd Battalion: 3 Turcomen.

I call this group The Thunderbolts (Yildirm in Turkish).
Side note Ottoman Battalions were known as Ortas.
From here forward referred to as COMBATGROUP_LEFT -> BAT_1, BAT_2, BAT_3.

COMBAT_GROUP_RIGHT
4 Sipahi.

Assigned to:
4th Battalion: 2 Sipahi.
5th Battalion: 2 Sipahi.

I call this group The Conquerors (Fetih in Turkish).
From here forward referred to as COMBATGROUP_RIGHT -> BAT_4, BAT_5.

Throughout the battle, battalions in each CombatGroup, and units in each battalion will, shoot, fight and retreat together so as to never leave one of our own units isolated.

We will never leave anyone behind.

As a general rule Lancers will be engaged in heavy melee while missile cavalry will only engage in melee to support Lancers. Turcomen will only engage in melee in reserve support, their main purpose in this battle is support, presenting themselves as a target, and survival. This should largely be the case throughout the battle.

Units will seldom fire at will. In a hard fought battle like this ammunition runs out fast, and shooting causes fatigue. Missile cavalry will only fire, on selected targets, when ordered to open fire.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
This should help you see if the replay is playing back correctly.
It's hard for me to tell what happened first but I'm writing this down as best as I recall.

All of this is tactics, one tactic or another is always being applied in every step. Each step is part of a sequence of steps, of an overall plan as detailed mostly in Hunters All Their Lives. Sequence of events follows:

-BAT_1 is deployed center.
-Both armies are stationary.
-Enemy army moves towards COMBATGROUP_LEFT.
-Turk army is stationary.
-COMBATGROUP_RIGHT deployed to flank right and take firing position at the rear of the enemy army.
-Enemy Pavise Crossbows march ahead of the main enemy line to assume firing position on COMBATGROUP_LEFT.
-The entire enemy missile line is moving into isolation.
-BAT_4 changes course to arrive ahead of BAT_5.
-BAT_1 is deployed to flank right and center of enemy missile line.
-BAT_2 is deployed to flank left and center of enemy missile line.
-COMBATGROUP_RIGHT is now approaching enemy's left flank.
-BAT_3 deploys in support of BAT_2, to flank left of enemy missile line.
-COMBATGROUP_RIGHT is now in proximity of enemy's left flank.
-BAT_5 changes course to cover rear quadrant of BAT_4, continuing to move into firing position at rear of enemy army.
-BAT_4 assumes firing position and is ready to fire.
-BAT_4 opens fire on enemy artillery.
-BAT_5 covers rear quadrant of BAT_4, moving to firing position.
-Enemy artillery deploys to open fire on COMBATGROUP_RIGHT.
-BAT_1 is now approaching enemy missile line.
-BAT_2 is now approaching enemy missile line.
-BAT_1_BodyGuard lines up for frontal charge.
-BAT_1_Sipahi_Lancers move to flank left and take charge position at rear of enemy missile line.
-BAT_5 changes course to enhance security gap in between the 2 battalions of COMBATGROUP_RIGHT.
-Enemy artillery opens fire on COMBATGROUP_RIGHT.
-BAT_5 arrives at firing position at rear left of the enemy army and opens fire on enemy artillery, in support of BAT_4.
-Enemy General and 1 unit of enemy Chivalric Knights deploy to engage COMBATGROUP_RIGHT.
-BAT_1 arrives at charge position.
-BAT_1_BodyGuard retreats to increase charge distance, BAT_1_Sipahi_Lancers retreat behind enemy line to increase charge distance.
-BAT_1 charges enemy missile line, impact from front and rear of enemy missile line.
-BAT_2 charges enemy missile line, impact from front and left of enemy missile line.
-BAT_3 opens fire on enemy missile line in support of Lancers.
-BAT_3_Turcomen_1 charge enemy missile line, impact from rear.
-Enemy missile line is annihilated, enemy survivors are routing.
-BAT_3 is firing at will.
-2 units of enemy Chivalric Knights deploy to engage BAT_3.
-BAT_3 presents target to enemy army, shields rear of BAT_1, BAT_2.
-BAT_4 withdraws away towards rear left of enemy army, away from engaging enemy General.
-BAT_4 ceases fire, conserving ammunition and energy.
-BAT_5 withdraws away towards rear of enemy army, as 1 unit enemy Chivalric Knights issues challenge.
-1 Unit of enemy Chivalric Knights changes course towards BAT_1.
-BAT_1 & BAT_2 spread and retreat from impact point.
-BAT_3 circles and retreats towards initial deployment point.
-Enemy Chivalric Knights is in pursuit of BAT_1.
-Enemy Chivalric Knights is moving into isolation.
-BAT_1, BAT_2 commence bracket ] maneuver on enemy Chivalric Knights.
-BAT_3 moves to assume firing position at bracket opening -> ].
-BAT_4 opens fire on enemy General, BAT_5 supporting fire.
-BAT_3 engages enemy Chivalric Knights in delay skirmish, and withdraws.
-BAT_1, BAT_2 complete bracket and charge enemy Chivalric Knights. ]<-
-BAT_3 arrives at firing position at bracket opening, and opens fire on enemy knights, closing bracket with missile fire. =>]
-Enemy Chivalric Knights are destroyed, enemy survivors are routing.
-BAT_4, BAT_5 open fire on enemy artillery.
-Enemy artillery is returning fire.
-24 enemy Pavise Crossbowmen rally at enemy artillery position and open fire on BAT_4, BAT_5.
-Enemy General engaging, BAT_4 withdraws to right rear of enemy army.
-BAT_5 withdraws left rear of enemy army.
-BAT_3 withdraws towards initial deployment position.
-BAT_1 withdraws right, BAT_2 withdraws center.
-BAT_5 returns to firing position.
-Enemy Men at Arms are isolated at right.
-BAT_3 is safely withdrawn from combat.
-BAT_4, BAT_5 open fire on enemy General.
-Enemy artillery position returns fire, supported by surviving enemy Pavise Crossbowmen.
-BAT_1 deploys to charge isolated enemy Men at Arms.
-BAT_4, BAT_5 are taking casualties, status shaken and tired.
-BAT_1_Sipahi_Lancers waypoint right center, charge enemy men at arms, impact from rear.
-BAT_1_BodyGuard waypoints left and center, charges enemy men at arms, impact from left.
-Enemy Men at Arms are destroyed, survivors are routing.
-BAT_2 covers BAT_1, challenges enemy Chivalric Knights (without combat).
-Enemy knights deploy towards BAT_1.
-BAT_2 covers, enemy Chivalric Knights do not challenge.
-BAT_3 moves to left rear, baiting enemy Chivalric Knights.
-Enemy Chivalric Knights are isolated.
-BAT_2 shadows enemy Chivalric Knights, in parallel canter.
-BAT_4, BAT_5 withdraw to charge position.
-BAT_1 charges enemy artillery position.
-BAT_4, BAT_5 charge enemy artillery position in support of BAT_1.
-Enemy artillery position is destroyed, enemy survivors are routing.
-BAT_1_Sipahi_Lancers shadow enemy general, in parallel gallop.
-Enemy General moves to engage BAT_1_BodyGuard.
-BAT_2 shadow enemy Chivalric Knights.
-BAT_3_Turcomen_2 are engaged and rout before melee.
-BAT_3 skirmishes enemy Chivalric Knights at initial friendly deployment point.
-BAT_1_BodyGuard engages enemy General.
-Enemy Chivalric Knights engage BAT_1_Sipahi_Lancers, hold as anvil.
-BAT_2_Sipahi_Lancers flank enemy Chivalric Knights, hammer.
-BAT_5 opens fire on enemy Chivalric Knights.
-BAT_4 charges rear of enemy General.
-Enemy General routs.
-BAT_4 & 5 status exhausted.
-BAT_3 (survivors) chase enemy General.
-Enemy infantry in proximity, all BATS withdraw from combat.
-BAT_1, BAT_2 engage remaining enemy knights.
-All BATS withdraw to top right of map (from our deployment perspective) and bracket enemy infantry.
-Missile cavalry opens fire on enemy Armored Sergeants, until ammunition is exhausted.
-Enemy infantry charged at discretion.
-All enemy infantry is eliminated. Enemy survivors are routing,
-All units form double line for group hug and group picture.
-BodyGuard assumes charge practice on enemy routers.

Battle Debrief follows:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Battle Results


Battle Statistics


How many kills were friendly fire ?

Primary Download

Secondary/Backup Download

These links are only valid for 14 days.

Weapons free so please fire away if I can be of any assistance. Hope this helps.

SALUTE !

[Fußball]

[B]EDIT 1: Btw bro, by all cavalry it dos'nt mean only knights. It means bow cavalry, melee cavalry, shock cavalry, javelin cavalry etc etc.

O I know that knights are not the only calvary. I was just stating those as my favorite calvary units. And of course Boyar Sons! They are only, like, the most adventurous sons of Russia ever!

EDIT 2: ALL CAVALRY COMBINED ARMS REPLAY.

FuBall I decided to share something with you, seeing you have been nothing but a great contributor since you've been around.

Thank you very much for the compliments. I would love to view the replay, unfortunately the downloads do not work, the file was removed or somefink. Try another file host or maybe you can email me the file itself?

Tschüß!
Erich

[Shahed]

My apologies. The files get deleted after a while and I posted these a while back. This link should work:

All Cavalry Combined Arms Replay

I think if this works we'll be on the same wavelength. Even if it does not work I'd encourage everyone to read the sequence since this will give you a view of how an all cavalry army can operate.

PLEASE NOTE , this is a DEMONSTRATION replay, so you can ask a lot of questions but keep in mind that the whole purpose of the replay is to successfully demonstrate All Cavalry COmbined Arms Tactics.

Hope it works.

Salute !

[Kobal2fr]

CA used this film in the Mongol Invasion opening titles. Anyone who likes Sengoku Jidai period will likely enjoy this movie.

Except of course, it's not a Jidai movie at all, but in fact a Shakespeare movie (based on King Lear or Richard III, can't remember which. Kurosawa-sama had a thing for samuraized Shakespeare )

But true all the same. Great flick. Though I always wondered why they used that shot of the mad daymio looking confused as fire arrows poured through his throne room in the STW:MI intro, since there are a lot of actual (and better) battle scenes throughout the movie :/

[Shahed]

It's King Lear. But it is set in the Sengoku Jidai period. At least it gives all the impressions that it is. Indeed they could have shown much better scenes from the film that's for sure. And if I may add "sama" is for Gods, not people. I know a lot of people use sama even today but it's completely out of date. ;P :D

[Fußball]

Unfortunately Sinan for all that trouble you went through the replay did not turn out the same. For some reason when replays are viewed, instead of being an replay of your battle, it is as if the AI is playing instead. Same parameters, battle and setup, but AI seems to be controlling the battle. I have had this happen to me before when I wanted to replay a battle I had played against the mongols in which I won, but like in Sinan's replay, it was as if the AI was playing and I lost.

Also to point out, before the reply began, an error message occurred reminding me that my version of the game was not the same as the replay's. Which was due to the problem fixer I am assuming. Maybe this 'AI playing replay' is a bug of some sort?

Tschüß!
Erich

[PseRamesses]

Basically any misslie cavalry is a favourite of mine. One just have to use them in the right way, right? Playing my favourite factions Turks, Byzantines and Russians I always fields large misslie cavalry armies. During sieges I can always pick up some foot-mercs but I do miss the M/VI ability to dismount.

I´d love to play an muslim expansion mod with mostly cavs and camels.... drooool.

[Shahed]

FuBball .... Hmm... it should'nt really matter to the replay what version it is. It just has to play it so that will happen just the same. But this is good, I've not exchanged replays before.

I'd also recommend trying the replay a few times, maybe 3 or 4 times. I doubt it will help but might do, has worked for me before.

Carl's Fixer (don't know if you know it so just stating in case you don't) is essetially a 1.20 by the community. Even so it really should'nt matter. I think the replay would not have worked even if it was the same version. The replay I sent works 9 out of 10 times to perfection on my machine. I've had those replays as well where it always does something different, but this one was very reliable.

We do know for fact though that the replays are not reliable. That's been long standing. if you get lucky it does work every time though. As it is the case wiht that one on my machine.

Can you play a custom battle and upload me the replay please ? Or if anyone else wants to that will be great too.

Make it a 12 vs 20, whichever side you choose is up to you. take 2 screenshots at the end, one of the battle results and one of the battle statistics. I will use those to compare.

I will try it on my installation (1.10+ Fixer 1.13) and then install 1.20 and try it again.

Bis später buddy !

Basically any misslie cavalry is a favourite of mine. One just have to use them in the right way, right? Playing my favourite factions Turks, Byzantines and Russians I always fields large misslie cavalry armies. During sieges I can always pick up some foot-mercs but I do miss the M/VI ability to dismount.

I´d love to play an muslim expansion mod with mostly cavs and camels.... drooool.

Ramesses ! WELCOME BACK !!!

What's your favorite cavalry unit ?

And guess what ? the mod you are looking for is in development.

Click my sig to visit the Broken Crescent mod forum: Kypchaks, Ghorids, Ghaznavids, Seljuk, Abbasids, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Gerogia, KHWAREZM SHAH !..Crusader States, Rajputs..etc whole Middle East till Afghanistan and India. Expect MASSIVE cavalry battles ! The sig I'm using right now is the ingame battle flag of the Ghorids, in Broken Crescent. I got it off the forum and modified it a little bit. You can see some screenshots at the Official Screenshots Page.

Here's one:


Have a look at my M2: TW signatures thread, you will see some screens there as well, look at the 2 galleries post number 1 and 44 (IIRC).

Salute !

[Shahed]

Edit: It seems I've mastered the art of the double post.

[Fußball]

Strange, I tried a quick test of one unit against the other. I saved as replay and viewed it. The events played exactly the same just like I played it, same casualties and everything. Maybe it is just large scale games or it only happens sometimes? More to test methinks.

Tschüß!
Erich

[Whacker]

Sinan, the problem with replays is that they often do vary between different patch versions of the game. Different stats, fixed animations, changes in projectiles/etc, all can add up and often throw it off completely.

Posting replays here is an awesome idea IMO, but you really do need to bite the bullet and patch up to v1.02.

[frogbeastegg]

Hmm, timely topic. I'm a balanced army frog at heart, always have been. A line of infantry, 4-6 units of archers, 2-5 units of heavy cavalry, one of which is my general's guard. I did intend to try a cav heavy campaign with RTW; it never happened, thanks to my lack of time and issues with 1.2's gameplay and save/load bug. Now I wonder about trying that campaign in M2TW instead.

The question is this: which faction do you experts think would be best for me to use, and why? The faction which can best show off the wonders of cav heavy play, and do so in a campaign which will be fun.

Do please keep in mind that I'm not used to the intricacies of controlling an all cavalry army, and I don’t use pause these days, so if too much is demanded of me before I have time to warm to the task Bad Things will happen. The beauty of infantry heavy armies is that if you set them up well and give good orders you can all but ignore them while they do their work, and focus your attention on several critical units performing the flanking and support manoeuvres. Placing me in command of a horde of horse archers and asking me to skirmish in many directions at once is asking for trouble.

[pike master]

infantry is better. who needs cav when you have a solid column of pikes or feudal dismounted knights.

[Odin]

Light missle cavalry has always been my prefrence, I have spent more time as Novgorod in MTW/VI then I think I have with my son. (kidding, but it adds to the effect dosent it?).

MTW2, I spend most of my time with Hungary, love Hungarian nobles talk about a "can do" unit.

So I would definately consider myself a Cavalry commander, some of my most glorious victories, and defeats have been with 80%+ horse armies.

[Whacker]

@ Frogness - I just started a Byzantine campaign a few days ago, and they're REALLY growing on me. Good selection of missile cav (Vards rock hardcore), and melee/heavy cav. Kataphractoi are really slow, slowest in the game I think, but man can they dish it out and take a beating. Highly recommended.

@ Mad cat - My all-assault-class clan mech star + my laser wielding terminators > your infantry!

[Doug-Thompson]

The beauty of infantry heavy armies is that if you set them up well and give good orders you can all but ignore them while they do their work, and focus your attention on several critical units performing the flanking and support manoeuvres. Placing me in command of a horde of horse archers and asking me to skirmish in many directions at once is asking for trouble.

I'll second Whacker's recommendation of the Byz because they get HA early. You can also integrate them with more conventional armies too, using HAs as flankers who can shoot until you get the knack.

However, I'm also going to make a qualified argument for the Egyptians. Why? Because their mainstay HA unit, the Mameluk Archer, is an excellent melee unit also. This effectively means it's harder to kill.

Losing all your HA is a shock and a disaster. Suppose you were experimenting with HA and lost your carefully built-up HA army in one early battle. If this happens, it would probably be because of the "hassle factor" of learning a new fighting style. Well, you'd be annoyed and your campaign could well be lost.

Mameluks are not as flammable as the typical entry-level Byz Skythikon or Turkish HA. Mams give a safety margin. Also, if Egypt blitzes up the coast all the way to Antioch and beyond, it will have a great economy. You can then afford cavalry-heavy armies, which ain't cheap.

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That's the general recommendation. In your case, froggy, I think you might like more challenge than the Egyptians provide. Looking at the underdogs, I love Russia. Wide open spaces, flat terrain, infantry-heavy European enemies to the west to fight. It's HA paradise until the Mongols arrive.

I haven't tried a Hungarian campaign yet, but their units are excellent.

Finally, I have to mention the Iberians: Spain, Portugal and the Moors. They don't have HA but all have javelin cavalry. The Spainish and the Portugese also have conventional and good European units. That might be a good place to start for someone making the transition.

Whatever faction you choose, there's no better training for this type of fighting than bandit killing.

Whatever battle you're in, don't forget to look at the minimap once in a while. When you see a unit being driven into a corner, give it some attention.