What do you think about a full cavalry army?

[Mr. Self Destruct]

I took a city, and then gave it a good chunk of my infantry and archers, figuring I would be given the city by my kingdom's ruler, since I'm the one who ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ took it. My mistake, it was given to someone else. I was a little miffed about that.

So now most of my army is comprised of my cavalry and horse archer units, which got me thinking about completely dumping ground troops for horse units. I've got about 70 horse units and can get up to 150.

Anyone trying this? Is it something worth doing or is having a diverse army better? I notice having more cavalry troops also increase map movement speed, which is really nice.

[Sentient_Toaster]

It works, but it's expensive and slow getting the war horses for the highest tiers; and they're less optimal in siege battles (might as well use cheaper foot archers/melee) where their horses are useless (but will still be permanently lost if they die).

Horse archer armies on a wide-open field battle are amazingly good.

[indiehindi]

No matter what culture I start with, I always go for the Khuzait horse archers.
People are claiming that horse archers are OP but if the AI were to know how to use circle formation properly horse archers would not look that powerful.

Also AI doesnt know how to use horse archers too. Always charge them on me while both sides taking position or getting closer. Sure they harras my troops but they go down pretty quickly.

[ZEARTH]

It'll probably be fine. They only issue I see is if the AI decides to camp on a hill but horse archers typically convince them to break it up.

Have fun with bandit hideouts and sieges.

[CidDaBird]

Half imperial crossbow men and the rest cavalry is the strat I've been using.

[BellatorMonk]

I have an 325 unit troop. I have no archers. I have 150 melee, 50 Horse Archers, 100 Cav and 25 misc as captured units turn to regulars.

I set the melee into a static line and goad the enemy into attack with the horse archers. Once the enemy commits I lead the Horse Archers back to the rear of the melee line and set them to a stick position to provide cover fire.

I then have the Cav follow me and I circle the enemy army and charge through their stragglers, their flanking cav and then once their melee hits my melee line I come full speed into the rear of their lines and hammer and anvil them.

I keep going with the Cav following me to run them over again and again until they break. Then i set all the troops loose to kill everything in sight.

Unless...unless they trickle in reinforcements. Then I simply keep everyone in place and continue to the use the Cav to do strafing runs on the reinforcements or hammer and anvil them again.

[McKraken]

I'm using:
25 Heavy Cav (Khuzait)
25 Horse Archers (Khuzait)
15ish spear inf (Imperial)
Rest archers (Imperial)

It wipes the enemy without taking a casualty.

All you have to do is press:
3, F1,F3
4,F1,F3
1,F1,F4
2,F1,F4
= death for the enemy

[Mr. Self Destruct]

Originally posted by BellatorMonk:

I....

I was basically doing the same thing when I had my full army. I don't think I've lost a unit in 2 days. I use my foot archers who are less armored to lure the army, then fall back behind my shield line of infantry, then send my cavalry to keep enemy cavalry at bay while my archers and horse archers wipe out most of the foot soldiers before they even make it to my ground troops.

Only time I have to change it up is when the enemy wises up and runs and hides in the tree line and refuses to come out, then I send my ground troops to flush them out and let my cavalry move in as soon as they hit the clearing.

I am not worried about cost. I have more money than I can spend. I was already given a castle and another city, I had a few workshops built, and my chosen kingdom had 4 declarations of war against it at once, I am swimming in loot from battles won. I think I've got close to 1 million denars. And close to 200 horses just sitting in my inventory that I can unload. Plus I've been building relations with khuzait by letting their nobles go after I beat them and now most of their villages let me purchase cavalry units for 100-200 denars a piece, and they regularly have 4 or 5 of them.

[dudex]

i only use Khuzait cav archers and converted empire cataphract and i can kill most armies witout casualties.

can easily win against armies twice my size

[madracc00n]

Yes.AI is dumb and mostly use recruits so any strat is fine,unless they outnumber u 3 to 1 or more,then u need to rain arows on them

[TSE Imperator]

I use no cavalry at all. I use 50 - 100 imperial shield troops in shield wall formation and 100 - 150 imperial archers behind them in any rise I can find. Wins even outnumbered 2 to 1.

[bekillinyousoon]

I run 100 imp cav

100 horse archers

100 merc cav

fought off 800+ armies with this set and pretty much smashed them with ease

[desaix]

Cavalry's great on the plains, but when it comes to sieges, hideouts, defending territory, etc., you're going to want that infantry.

[Radd]

Just like Mount and Blade and Warband, Bannerlord Cav armies are OP. You /can/ lose, but if you do it right and don't be a derp, you'll win every fight, even out numbered 4 to 1. You can be a derp all day long and win 1 to 2.

[sgtklink]

My force is moderate sized, at around 250-270, but they're all top-tiered units. I have about 100 infantry, 50-70 cavalry (and that force is increasing growing larger, but gradually), and 30 or so horse archers, and the rest foot ranged. With a good set of strategies depending on what the situation is, I can defeat a 800+ stack with minimal casualties, and armies larger than that with acceptable losses.

Regardless of the situation though, the mounted troops are key. Kite larger enemies while stationary ranged whittle them down, peel off cav to attack while still kiting with horse archers, call cav back and ride away so they focus on stationary force. Rinse and repeat.

1200 man army? Ha! Actually, I think YOU should surrender. But they don't, and I profit.

I wouldn't advise an all cav force, simply because you can use ground troops as bait. 40 should be enough; shield and spear units, and hardcore archers and crossbows to draw in the enemy. 20-30 horse archers, and as much cav as you want, and yes, a mostly mounted army is pretty effective.

[Right Clicker]

My field army is comprised entirely of horse. about 120 empire heavy and the rest kuzait noble archers. Took awhile to build it but totally worth it.

Just never siege with that army...