Cavalry Tactics

[Captain Miller]

How do you get the most out of Cavalry?
I've been using them to sneak around and smash into the lines of Bow units. How do you use them? I don't have much knowledge of Cavalry tactics.

[Iceira]

try see them as problem solver, what i mean by that they can be use to make shock attack and if you build them at right province with bonus to charge then they can be unstopable, problem is also upkeep of them so most people cant afford more then 1-2 units in every army

do not compare all cavalry as same, bow has a unique skirmish way to hunt down or harasment of unit.

so that lead to sword or yari units left, and its here it get complicated, sword units can chopup yari in directly frontal attack, ( samurai katanas do this, but they are better at it from rear dont forget charge bonus ) and yari is very cruel in charge bonus they are shock unit that try to scatter other units. problerm with all those units is they require a attension all the time and depend if front require even more attension then most dont have time if frontline is under presure, its here a coup player will be better so he controll horse so main army is not negelected or making mistake for commander that waste hes time on horse attack.

( most people use horse to take out cannons or bow men only and that is standard thing todo. )

in older strategic game it was called outflank and was master at this, use pathway map point to get behind enmies lines as single commander best options todo then have to keep make new path.

now then all this is said, there are so many other ways to use them, lure enmy to attack you , turn your back to the enmy and they sometimes think wow easy target and charge after you.

and if you have set trap then you might can split hes armys or few units that will die fast then hes whole army colliding with yours.

and here are some of the issue with S2 normaly its horse breeding province , problem is its actual also possible to recruit from a Blacksmith area and if you have chosne armor BS then you can make some bad ass fights, i dont think that ment to be done in S2 , but dont forget you will loose charge bonus. and its here i always stuggle whats best but i think its charge, if you can shock him so much that he flee from battle what is the point in better sword/armor BS on them.

ps.
and you could have google "Cavalry tactics"

ps.
and never forget the wisest comment ever made "There is no rules in war"
sacrafice a unit and lead them away from main army has been done so many times
so main army can live. ( bow cavalry horse best unit for this can keep out of distance from enemies )

[THEDOSSBOSS]

Just don't ever buy katana cav, make sure to cycle charge. Rear charge enemy lines once the enemy bows are finished, and basically overwhelm you opponent with superior micro. Cav is so fun to use against both the AI and human opponents. In regards to single player, I rarely need to actually use them in battle unless I am caught in the open with a 2v1, or a samurai vs ashigaru situation, where I actually need them to do stuff, but that is usually rare as is. Their main use is to chase down and kill the running army in the post-battle segment of the battle, where they rack up hundreds of kills.

When they are mobilized in battle it is usually just to take out bows if they out-bow me or just rear charge or charge headlong into enemies that are causing trouble

Do not underestimate light cav because they are fast and can kill almost all archer units if you get the right charge. They can also defeat a general unit 1v1. Yari cav are the best due to their speed, bonus verses cav, and massive charge

[[MCS] Yoritomo]

If used right two units high vet katana cav is the solution to everything.
VS AI if your the attacker and the AI wont attack you.
Use your army to protect your left and right flank katana cav cause with them you will hammer and anvil everything even Yari.
They will cause the moral shock that makes enemy units flee before they harm your troops.
As they charged successful move them out of combat instantly. More then once you will just lose no man or 1 or 2.

Spearwall/High def Units frontal and the cav charge from rear/side as melee begin.

For this you can use light cav too but as they have just light armor they suffer too fast casualties

[david.]

If you take the cavalry and move them around the AI, they will often break lines and chase you with infantry. I take that chance and bum-rush the AI flanks, easily overwhelming them. Because of that I basically don't even use bow units of my own anymore. Being hyper aggressive has worked out really well so far for me. I used to turtle a lot before.

[Drowsy Louis]

Katana cavalry are basically fort samurai retainers on horseback, so if you need to take on yari units, it is best to dismount them from a distance, and do a charge from a higher elevation for maximum advantage. Of course if you don't have any other choice, they are expensive to maintain.

[Enrlich Hartman]

Some times i use them as Avatar killers in pvp , they are usefull when the enemy has a guard down and you chop their comanders.

[THEDOSSBOSS]

Originally posted by Enrlich Hartman:

Some times i use them as Avatar killers in pvp , they are usefull when the enemy has a guard down and you chop their comanders.

Yeah, light cav are the best thing for that. They are extremely cheap, and if you have a high-chevroned vet, you can increase their speed to insane levels, catching any unsuspecting avatar easily

Man, I really love shogun 2's avatar system. It needs refinement, and proper matchmaking, so you don't face 10-star avatars with your 2-stars, but aside from that, both the vet system and the avatar system in general is great. Vets are basically RoR, so it would be a great thing to add to warhammer multiplayer as well since they already have preset RoR with additional abilities and stats

[Yellow]

I think people already answered quite extensively. I will add a couple of small points too regarding multiplayer.

Cav superiority generaly equals map control, be it in the form of forcing the enemy to keep his cav close to his main army and thus not be able to flank, harass etc, or in the form of you being able to ride to each dojo and capture unoposed.

Even the cheapest cavl unit will generaly force a reaction out of the enemy, thus moving units from one front to another and keep his attention divided. This paired with good micro can do wonders. Sometimes you do not even need to engage the cavl at all for them to acomplish A LOT!

[Enrlich Hartman]

Yeah

Originally posted by Yellow:

I think people already answered quite extensively. I will add a couple of small points too regarding multiplayer.

Cav superiority generaly equals map control, be it in the form of forcing the enemy to keep his cav close to his main army and thus not be able to flank, harass etc, or in the form of you being able to ride to each dojo and capture unoposed.

Even the cheapest cavl unit will generaly force a reaction out of the enemy, thus moving units from one front to another and keep his attention divided. This paired with good micro can do wonders. Sometimes you do not even need to use the cavl at all for them to acomplish A LOT!

Exactly , If you flank the enemy with a small group of cav and put them behind the enemy they will get forced to re group or divide his forces in two fronts.

[Tocki]

But pls, these advices are great, don’t spam cavalry in MP;)
Today I Got a lvl10 Gold katana cav spammer with donderbuss lvl9 and pulling through. He played horribly bad and I managed to cripple his cav spam down just with my bow skilled leader gen and lvl3 bow cav. But those fights are soooo boring.
Oh and then he dropped me, what a ****** *****....
cav spam is cheesy, but not effective against experienced players. Just don’t do it!

[Madual al'Kurenin]

Originally posted by Enrlich Hartman:

Yeah

Originally posted by Yellow:

I think people already answered quite extensively. I will add a couple of small points too regarding multiplayer.

Cav superiority generaly equals map control, be it in the form of forcing the enemy to keep his cav close to his main army and thus not be able to flank, harass etc, or in the form of you being able to ride to each dojo and capture unoposed.

Even the cheapest cavl unit will generaly force a reaction out of the enemy, thus moving units from one front to another and keep his attention divided. This paired with good micro can do wonders. Sometimes you do not even need to use the cavl at all for them to acomplish A LOT!

Exactly , If you flank the enemy with a small group of cav and put them behind the enemy they will get forced to re group or divide his forces in two fronts.

I have a question, and following everthing written also an answer but will still check.
For Campaign play, what is the general use cav: katana or yari?
by this thread it would be katana cav.

[Yellow]

Yea for the love of god, don't become a cheeser :D cheese armies can be OP in some ocations because of the rock paper scissor ideology behind units, but it just turns the game into a bore fest, and again they don't even garantee a win in many cases.

[Enrlich Hartman]

Originally posted by Madual al'Kurenin:

Originally posted by Enrlich Hartman:

Yeah


Exactly , If you flank the enemy with a small group of cav and put them behind the enemy they will get forced to re group or divide his forces in two fronts.

I have a question, and following everthing written also an answer but will still check.
For Campaign play, what is the general use cav: katana or yari?
by this thread it would be katana cav.

Katana cav is god at killing foot infantry more fast and in sustained fights they have lees charge atack bonus .
cav yari have better performance against other cav and they are more shock troops for charge atacks not long fights against units . so you pull them out and atack again .

[THEDOSSBOSS]

Originally posted by Enrlich Hartman:

Originally posted by Madual al'Kurenin:

I have a question, and following everthing written also an answer but will still check.
For Campaign play, what is the general use cav: katana or yari?
by this thread it would be katana cav.

Katana cav is god at killing foot infantry more fast and in sustained fights they have lees charge atack bonus .
cav yari have better performance against other cav and they are more shock troops for charge atacks not long fights against units . so you pull them out and atack again .

Yeah, but due to the nature of morale, it is super easy to shatter a unit of samurai. As such, yari cav is almost always the best option since a rear charge will indeed shatter the units it comes in contact with, especially in multiplayer. Not to mention the aforementioned cav battle to gain map control, in which case yari cav win eaily