Quote Originally Posted by Pharnakes
We all do this, I am sure, but I sometimes wonder how realistic it is? Was the cavalry of those times disciplined/organised enough for such tactics?
I don't think that any cavalry did fight in that manner. They would only retreat and charge anew if the initial charge was repulsed. And even that would be a sign of poor leadership because the same cavalry that had just been beaten back would hardly be able to breake the enemy now on spent horses and much reduced in numbers. (the classical: Ney at Waterloo)

Even a successfull charge did breake the cavalry because the men and horses were exhausted and, even more problematic, the horsemen tended to chase behind the fleeing enemies instead of keeping the cohesion as a unit. There were only a handfull of cavalry commanders in history who were able to keep their cavalry under controll once the charge started.


If you want to play your EB cavalry historical:

- Go for the enemy cavalry first.

- When you have chased it off, make one mass charge with all cavalry units on your assault wing on the enemy infantry.

- Do not pull back and charge anew, but let your cavalry fight until the infantry had caught up and can take over.

- Do not call back cavalry that is chasing fleeing enemies until it has routed them from the map or killed them.