Bang per buck: Melee cavalry

[Doug-Thompson]

Outstanding. The explanations on the factors make sense — especially since I'm having withdrawl pain on race tracks while playing the trackless Hungarians. At least Hussars are militia cavalry. They also must be the best militia cavalry one can get.

[Doug-Thompson]

Got rid of elephants, bodyguards and the Monastic Knight Orders because they have more than one hit point and/or are obtained in strange and/or expensive ways.

I cut the AP bonus from 3 to 2. I thought the bonus of 3 was too low until I tried alt+charge.

Kept my cost formula.

Haven’t added in the sword or stable bonuses in yet.

Took out the “1.1” bonus for “Highly Trained” and “Very Hardy,” which made a bigger difference than I would have thought. In fact, it gave us a new champ:

Unit name ... "Bang per Buck"

Hussars ... 159.75
Christian Guard ... 154.42
Polish Knights ... 154.36
Conquistadores ... 152.71
Norman Knights ... 152.71

Chivalric Knights ... 149.99
Quapukulu ... 146.14
E Chivalric Knights ... 143.42
Royal Mamluks ... 140.11

Serbian Knights ... 138.89
Serbian Hussars ... 136.93
Crusader Knights ... 133.52
Tsars Guard ... 129.66
Polish Guard ... 128.22
Demi Lancers ... 126.41
Noble Knights ... 125.19
Royal Banderium ... 122.32

Lancers ... 117.83
Gothic Knights ... 116.22
Huscarls ... 112.16
Famiglia Ducale ... 104.47
Polish Retainers ... 101.96

Druzhina ... 98.97
Mamluks ... 96.64
Imperial Knights ... 94.58
Sipahi Lancers ... 90.93
Latinkon ... 90.63

Armored Clergy ... 89.85
English Knights ... 88.95
Kataphractoi ... 82.96
Portuguese Knights ... 79.35
Feudal Knights ... 77.58
Mailed Knights ... 76.47
Granadine Lancers ... 74.69
Mercenary Frankish Knights ... 74.65
Armenian Cavalry ... 73.16

Gendarmes ... 66.80
Broken Lances ... 58.35
Albanian Cavalry ... 56.87
Stradiots ... 56.87
Kwarizmian Cavalry ... 54.45

Alan Light Cavalry ... 49.50
Italian Cavalry Militia ... 48.90
Mounted Sergeants ... 39.17
Arab Cavalry ... 38.42
Mercenary German Knights ... 37.62
Byzantine Lancers ... 37.24
Italian MAA ... 34.02
Mercenary Knights ... 32.62

Condottieri ... 28.76
Bedouin Cavalry ... 27.05
Border Horse ... 25.95
Tuareg Camel Spearmen ... 19.70
EE Cavalry Militia ... 14.64
Greek Militia Cavalry ... 13.54
Scouts ... 10.10
Merchant Cavalry Militia ... 9.61
Hobilars ... 6.94

[Doug-Thompson]

Hit it and quit it

Any cavalry unit that can “pump” — charge, break free and charge again — should do so, as a rule of thumb. However, this is more important — and possible — for some units than others.

Any cavalry unit can batter infantry in this fashion. Doing the same thing against opposing cavalry is more problematic.

This is a ranking of units whose primary attack plus its charge is more than 1.5 times as powerful as their melee attack value, even after any anti-armor bonus for the melee attack is applied. Note is also made of their speed. Bodyguard and Monastic Order knights are not included:

Condottieri — normal
Italian MAA — slow
Mercenary Knights — slow
Polish Retainers — normal
Latinkon — normal
Broken Lances — normal
Portuguese Knights — slow
Gendarmes — slow
Alan Light Cavalry — fast

Next comes units whose charge is 1.5 times as powerful as their melee, and which have normal speed:

Christian Guard
Serbian Knights
English Demi Lancers

1.5 charge, slow speed:

Mercenary German Knights
Imperial Knights
Polish Knights
Chivalric Knights
Eastern Chivalric Knights
Polish Guard
Noble Knights
Royal Banderium
Lancers
Famiglia Ducale

Stay and Play

At the opposite end of the spectrum, we have units that should “pump” against infantry but should never allow enemy cavalry to break away and charge again. They should get a grip on their cavalry enemies and never let go. They have a “pump rate” of 1.33 or less:

Albanian Cavalry — fast
Stradiots — fast
Mamluks
Merchant Cavalry Militia
Kataphractoi — slow
Armored Clergy — slow
Huscarls
Quapukulu — slow
Royal Mamluks — slow
Druzhina

Here’s some more that should consider just slugging it out as an option, with a “pumping” rate of 1.4 or less. All have normal speed unless indicated otherwise:

Gothic Knights — slow
English Knights — slow
Hussars
Conquistadores
Norman Knights
Serbian Hussars
Crusader Knights
Tsars Guard — slow

What's left?

Here are the units that have no clear-cut option in this particular category, ranked in order of the superiority of their charge over their melee factor. Speed other than normal is noted:

Mailed Knights
Granadine Lancers
Mercenary Frankish Knights
Armenian Cavalry
Sipahi Lancers
Feudal Knights — slow
Kwarizmian Cavalry — slow
Tuareg Camel Spearmen — very slow
Border Horse — fast
Italian Cavalry Militia
Byzantine Lancers
Mounted Sergeants
Arab Cavalry
Bedouin Cavalry
EE Cavalry Militia
Greek Militia Cavalry
Scouts
Hobilars

[Shahed]

Nice work. Do you intend to do a missile cav classification ?

[Doug-Thompson]

Do you intend to do a missile cav classification ?

Yes, but I don't know when.

[Shahed]

Cool, no problem. Was just asking so I know if that's somewhere in the future, should be interesting too.

[Doug-Thompson]

OK. Used most of Miracle's formula again to calculate the charge and melee estimates for missile cavalry. Note that this estimate include sno aspect of missile attack. This is a pure melee value, with charge added in for primary weapon.

Once again, the Mongols and Timurids are left out.


Dvor Cavalry, 118.98
Reiters, 116.12
Polish Nobles, 111.55
Mamluk Archers, 77.57
Vardariotai, 75.07
French Mounted Archers, 69.23
Hungarian Nobles, 65.29
Boyar Sons, 59.84
Cossack Cavalry, 49.44
Sipahis, 41.41
Jinetes, 39.30
Lithuanian Cavalry, 36.55
Granadine CB Cav, 30.97
Granadine Jinetes, 26.89
Strzelcy, 22.16
Desert Cavalry, 21.96
Byzantine Cavalry, 13.97
Mounted Crossbowmen, 12.61
Camel Gunners, 10.80
Turkomans, 8.91
Bedouin Camel Riders, 8.20
Turkomans Mercs, 7.78
Magyar Cavalry, 7.67
Turkopoles, 6.96
Kazaks, 6.49
Turkish Horse Archers, 6.34
Skythikon, 5.74
Akinjis, 5.71
Cuman Horse Archers, 5.05

=======

Note how Mamluk Archer and Vardariotai have as high a value in this formula as Feudal Knights, despite the lack of a powerful lance charge and higher cost. The biggest surprise for me, though, was the relatively low standing of the Turkish Sipahis. In the formula, this was caused by the lower morale compared to Mams and Vards, and lack of the "hardy" trait.

The rest of it jives with my experiences in the game. As a rule, nothing below a Camel Gunner on this list needs to get in a melee, and the Camel Gunner's included only because it has the camel anti-horse bonus.