Best way to fight cavalry archers

[Tuuvi]

What is the best strategy/unit combo for cavalry archers? I just fought an army of rebel cav archers in my Getai campaign and got my ass kicked. Since the Sarmations are nearby I figure it wouldn't hurt to have a good strategy in case I ever have to fight them.

[banamoat]

Just me or did you post this thread 3 times?

I dont mess with cav archers much or ever use them much but if I have to fight them I just let them run out of ammo on my guys that got best def and eventually they hoplessely charge (the missle cav charge not my men, never charge mis cav with infantry or normal cav in my experience!), then if they dont rout from the slaughter within a few seconds ill send in spare cav to finish em. However in my exeperience they dont charge for awhile so they might rout because i've finished off their pals anyway! But if you have missle units use them against missle cav, better off taking out those annoying yet potentially deadly bands of cav archers then firing all your missle into heavy infantry to no effect!


Better off listening to somone who actually uses missles to a deadly effect's advice though. (which is not me)

[macsen rufus]

Are you attacking or defending? If you're defending - hide in the trees. Let them shoot up some deadwood, and then come after you. Once horses are in the woods your infantry should be able to chop them to pieces. If you're out in the open, foot archers are your best friend, plus a few spears in case the cav charge your archers. Fast light cav are also handy - try to get behind them with multiple units and let the enemy skirmish into each other and get confused, chase them on to waiting spears if possible. Use whatever terrain advantage you can find. HAs can have fragile morale, so a few fire arrows can do wonders against them, too.

[Moros]

If I try to attack nomads. I build a fort after every turn untill I reach their settlement and besiege it or untill they attack my fort. Their horsearchers are quite useless in sieges and their infantry is small in numbers and usually not really strong.

[Geoffrey S]

Take slingers.

[NeoSpartan]

If I try to attack nomads. I build a fort after every turn untill I reach their settlement and besiege it or untill they attack my fort. Their horsearchers are quite useless in sieges and their infantry is small in numbers and usually not really strong.

That sounds like a tactic I would use if I where a commander trying to attack the nomads with a mainly infantry force.

However one huge problem I would come accross is finding WOOD for the forts. ANd carrying the wood with the army will slow it down consideraly, expose it to attacks, among other things. interesting problem....

[Moros]

That sounds like a tactic I would use if I where a commander trying to attack the nomads with a mainly infantry force.

However one huge problem I would come accross is finding WOOD for the forts. ANd carrying the wood with the army will slow it down consideraly, expose it to attacks, among other things. interesting problem....

I think you get carried away by RTw a bit to much if you ask me.

And yeah, slingers do a good job against HA's.

[Reverend Joe]

Well, he does have a point. However, an infantry commander marching on the steppe would quickly figure out how to build earthen defenses. Even a small earthen wall can protect infantry from being pincushioned, as well as disrupt the subsuquent cavalry charge.

As for Horse Archers- use whatever you have. Keep units in loose formation, form up a square defensive formation at the most advanatgeous position, and try to survive.

Gert- the point is to get lost in the world of EB.

[NeoSpartan]

I think you get carried away by RTw a bit to much if you ask me.

And yeah, slingers do a good job against HA's.

LOL!!!!!!! SO TRUE

THANKS Zobra
".....However, an infantry commander marching on the steppe would quickly figure out how to build earthen defenses. Even a small earthen wall can protect infantry from being pincushioned, as well as disrupt the subsuquent cavalry charge......"

[pezhetairoi]

...get your own HA to fight them, where possible. Nothing helps level the playing field as much as having what they have. My Romani campaigning against the Getai have a fullstack of HA mercs, Aursa, Skuda, Skuda Fat Baexdzhyntae guarding the frontier(s).

[Moros]

Well, he does have a point. However, an infantry commander marching on the steppe would quickly figure out how to build earthen defenses. Even a small earthen wall can protect infantry from being pincushioned, as well as disrupt the subsuquent cavalry charge.

As for Horse Archers- use whatever you have. Keep units in loose formation, form up a square defensive formation at the most advanatgeous position, and try to survive.

Gert- the point is to get lost in the world of EB.

Well I'm already lost in this one so no need for me to get lost in an other world!

[Kralizec]

Don't the Getai have their own horse archers?

If you don't have enough missile troops to deal with them, march your infantry to the front and form a loose line. Let them soak up their arrows while you circle your cavalry far around their flanks. Chase them into your infantry.

If you can seduce the AI into fighting you over a bridge battle, that's great.

[Ypoknons]

Normal archers. They shoot a little fruther and more importantly they are both cheaper and more numerous per unit, allowing them to overwhelm horse archers with the sheer volume of their arrows. Cover the foot archers with some medium quality spears or at least some other infantry to defend against charges.

Slingers are handy too, and are more effective against noble horse archers' armor, but too many of them tends to inflict some self-casualties.

Mind you, if you want to take the fight to them you'll need horse archers of your own pretty much, but this works pretty well defending against them.

[Avicenna]

The problem with archers though, is that it's very hard to hit the HAs, as long as their in a Cantabrian Circle.

Personally, I find the best strategy is to wipe out the non-HA part of the opposing army first. Then, use your archers to shoot at the HAs, while your troops perch there waiting for the timer to run out. This is only if you don't have your own HA's, of course.

[Trithemius]

...get your own HA to fight them, where possible. Nothing helps level the playing field as much as having what they have. My Romani campaigning against the Getai have a fullstack of HA mercs, Aursa, Skuda, Skuda Fat Baexdzhyntae guarding the frontier(s).

Hopefully they won't need to rely on mercenaries forever! (More Romani units! Whee!)

[Slartibardfast]

Learn from Napoleon, Hitler and several Byzantian emperors.

Don't invade the steppes.

[Watchman]

The steppes, however, are notorious for their habit of occasionally coming to invade you...

[Slartibardfast]

The steppes, however, are notorious for their habit of occasionally coming to invade you...

Ain't that the truth!

[Slartibardfast]

Might be best to wait until they invade.

Lots of infantry archers on big hills, enough infantry to cover them, and enough cavalry to run down the routed units.

Use a continous border along a major river and build forts at all the crossings. Let them come to you.

Wear them down defensively and when your spies tell you they're sufficiently weakened invade them one step at a time. Hopefully by the time they recruit more Steppe Hordes you might have your own recruitable horse archers.

[Trithemius]

Might be best to wait until they invade.

If you adopt the strategic offensive, then you can still maintain the tactical defensive. You will need something to lure the enemy towards your position, and these will probably take heavy losses from the opposing HAs, but if you get the hang of it you can probably play the same sort of game as the English did during the later phase of the Hundred Years War.

[Obelics]

if you are using M setting for battle, and you are a phalanx type civ, well i think using phalanx should not be a problem against H-Archers, they have a stong armour (pezetaroi), and they get few damage from the front, just use a very long line of phalanx, and bend the flanks towards your side (/-----\), also uses a pair of units (mercenary?) as cannon fodders to make the enemy archers go out of arrows... 4 units of slingers as missile units are a very good choice too (and they have an huge reserve of shots).
If you are not a phalanx civ, you can recruit mercenary pezetaroi almost everywhere in the east... (the only think is that they cost a lot...)
If you are attacking make sure your phalanx (on a long line) advance towards the eenmy giving always them the front (use the ALT key and the ;/: keys to rotate all the army without loosing your formation.
I dont suggest to use pantodapoi phalangites against them cause they are too weak. Always take your general in the center so if the enemy want to charge it, it must charge the center of your phalanx (the bended flanks should be good to not allow the enemy to dodge your front and charge from the back)
And even dont be sad to see some of your troops to be sacrificated, i sayd a pair of mercs on the front should be good.

[paullus]

yeah, pantodapoi phalangites can do the job, but they take a lot of casualties. don't put too much confidence in thureos shields either.

as baktra, i found the rebel nomad stacks to be far more dangerous than the actual AI faction stacks. the latter generally have enough infantry to make the battle slightly more conventional. the rebel stacks, on the other hand, can be disastrous in that part of the world. i found that about a dozen sphendenotai, plus pantodapoi, a few merc phalangites, and thureophoroi plus some cav, was enough to defeat them. I still took heavy casualties though.

I'm not sure if it might have been better to just let them drain my treasury a bit each year, and save all that recruitment and upkeep money. Taking out those barbaric horsemen was more to demonstrate my authority than any economic reason.