biggest tactical blunder---Cavalry

**Josephus Maximus Soter** · 03-01-2008, 18:16

no matter what faction, no matter what type of cavalry unit, i cant use cavalry without my cavalry units dying and causing no major damage to any type of enemy unit, besides archers :-/. the cavalry units ar weaker than those of regular rtw. How do i use cavalry units? against which units are they most effective? i need help! i used to love cavalry until they got massacred by almost any infantry based unit. this may seem like a noob question but it would really help me out if i got some tactical advice. I know that cavalry have strong charges, but wen they charge they kill 2 or 3 units, and then get massacred. i try to pull them out of the massacre but it never works in my favor....

**anubis88** · 03-01-2008, 18:22

Try to charge at their backs or the side of a unit. You should also check that you charge your cavalry from not to close to the enemy, becouse if u do, the cavalry won't lower their spears, and you won't create any charge damage. And the charge damage is by far the largest.

Try playing a few costum battles with horses with large spears(hetairoi, podromoi,) so you can actually see when they lower their spears

**overweightninja** · 03-01-2008, 18:28

It depends on the cavalry, some of the Eastern Catas can quite happily wade headfirst into heavy infantry units and come out victorious.
To use cavalry to their best (or at all with some of the weaker units) you need to make sure theyre in the right place. Here is what I do with 95% of armies/factions:
Depending on the faction/army, I deploy my cavalry units on either one or both flanks, behind the infantry but still at the sides.
Until the main battle lines are engaged, they are reserved solely for anti-cavalry/skirmisher tactics, so running down missile troops and returning or guarding the infantry from enemy flanking moves.
When the battle lines are more or less engaged, I move my cav forward around the side of the enemy, and as far behind it as I can. Line them up at the rear (or at a push the flank) of the enemy, let them settle down and read as "ready" (if you have time of course), and then just let them rip. If the enemy doesn't break straight away and/or you won't be able to break them quickly in a melee, withdraw, realign and charge again. Repeat until done.
Anyway to summarise: Use your infantry for long melees, use cavalry for guarding your line and flanking.
Hope that helps
Cheers

EDIT Pay attention to Anubis too, you're cavalry (or any unit for that matter) will perform much better if it can perform a "proper" charge. The distance should be taken account of as well as giving them enough time to reach "ready".

**anubis88** · 03-01-2008, 18:34

Originally Posted by overweightninja

EDIT Pay attention to Anubis too.

Wow, thanks.

**stupac** · 03-01-2008, 18:59

Like the others said, I always stop shock calvary before making a charge. Either order them behind enemy lines and wait for them to get in position and stop (wait for triangle to disappear) or you can hit backspace to stop them, that will usually allow them to lower their spears. I think they mostly fixed this in M2TW, at least I've had better luck with it, though a few times my knights wouldn't level their lances.