Cavalry.

[stormbringer3]

How should one use cavalry in this game? I'm not finding them that useful. The scale doesn't seem to make their extra movement that much help. I'd appreciate any opinions about how to use them.
Thanks.

[pavelk]

Hi stormbringer3,
cavalries are good in two things:

1. Its mobility allows it to be very useful when cutting enemy supply lines or besieging cities.
2. It is perfect for initial attacks of group attacks to weaken the enemy (for the next part of your group attack). I tried to describe it here.

[stormbringer3]

Thanks for the quich reply and link. I've been doing it backwards, attacking with my strongest units first and my cavalry last.

[pavelk]

I recommend to do it other way. Cavalry has high withdrawal chance, so even it gets beaten, it withdraws and let other units finish enemy off

[dejvid2]

Does this apply also when attacking fortified infantry in a city or do cavalry have a penalty for when they are sent against fortification?

[pavelk]

Hi dejvid2,
there is no penalty when attacking fortified units (on attacker's side), just the defender's defense is higher. Withdrawal chance stays the same.

[dejvid2]

Thanks. There would be a case for making it hard to use cavalry in siege but I think you made right choice to keep it simple.

[Morbio]

Thanks. There would be a case for making it hard to use cavalry in siege but I think you made right choice to keep it simple.

I think cavalry would be excellent as part of a siege, often they are used to patrol around the town/castle to stop people getting in or out. It's the attack on the city's walls where they would have very limited use. In the game the cavalry are great for quickly encircling a city to start the starvation that often triggers surrender and I find the AI does this well.

However I think, as you state, it is best to keep it simple and treat cavalry like any other unit for the attack, otherwise cavalry would be worth very little (IMO). I never build them and I tend to sell captured stables as cavalry take a heavy battering when used in attack (or when attacked) and take forever to heal. In my games the stables are just another drain on resources and so to get some resources back when selling them is a real bonus!

Bizarrely, I'm finding in my games that Rome seems to build endless supplies of cavalry and uses them to attack my fortified hoplites, and now Legionaries, in an endless stream. In a turn it isn't surprising to be attacked by 12-20 cavalry and maybe only a few infantry. Most of the cavalry leave in tatters, but about a third die every time. It's a real waste of manpower and the only reason why I can slowly beat a far numerically superior force. It takes 10s of turns, but the cost of replacing the losses eventually cripples Rome to the point of either revolution or lack of troops. For reference I'm Seleucid.

[dejvid2]

When I wrote siege I meant assault against fortifications rather than staving a city into surrender (which I never do now as the diplomatic hit is too great) but I agree with your other points.

[Cablenexus]

Cavalry is also usefull when you have multiple units on a tile to attack an enemy unit and the enemy unit moves back one tile, the other units are pretty useless that turn, but the cavalry can still follow them...

[Morbio]

When I wrote siege I meant assault against fortifications rather than staving a city into surrender (which I never do now as the diplomatic hit is too great) but I agree with your other points.

Oh, I never knew there was a diplomatic hit, I've started to use this more and more, in conjunction with influence as this preserves more of the population and there's less rebuilding costs.

[pavelk]

I never build them and I tend to sell captured stables as cavalry take a heavy battering when used in attack (or when attacked) and take forever to heal.

I kind of agree that the usage of cavalry is still limited. That is why we came up with this huge attack-withdrawal bonus which allows cavalry to weaken enemies and withdraw. Nevertheless I kind of play the game similarly to you.

Bizarrely, I'm finding in my games that Rome seems to build endless supplies of cavalry and uses them to attack my fortified hoplites, and now Legionaries, in an endless stream. In a turn it isn't surprising to be attacked by 12-20 cavalry and maybe only a few infantry.

Yes this part of AI algorithm would definitely deserve some improvements. I totally agree.

[Morbio]

Bizarrely, I'm finding in my games that Rome seems to build endless supplies of cavalry and uses them to attack my fortified hoplites, and now Legionaries, in an endless stream. In a turn it isn't surprising to be attacked by 12-20 cavalry and maybe only a few infantry.

Yes this part of AI algorithm would definitely deserve some improvements. I totally agree.

A suggestion for the historical game:
Maybe a profile of the historical armies could be built into the build strategy for those countries? For example, Rome was famed for it's Legionaries and is also noted for it's relatively poor cavalry in the early years, although it did use sometimes use good allied cavalry, so maybe the build profile for Rome should be more biased towards infantry rather than cavalry (maybe 10:1 just to guess at a number), whereas maybe Carthage may have a different profile (maybe 8:1), etc.