Horse charge

[MadScud]

Can anyone tell me why the hell does heavy cavalry stop 2 meters away from a bunch of archers which are there just standing waiting to be slaughtered?

I just lost a battle because of this. Standing there the little horsies getting shot with arrows while walking slowly towards the archers and then engaging them veeeery sloooowly with their swords instead of running them over like a runaway train with their spears.

[GoaFan77]

Well, I've noticed calvary with Lances need a bit of space to build up a charge. If you order them to attack too close they'll indeed engage with swords instead.

[MadScud]

No, I'm positive they were on a full run, they just stopped dead in their tracks. I was intercepting a reinforcing enemy army of 3 longbowman units and a General bodyguard. I sent 4 heavy cavalry to deal with them. He started the battle positioning his troops a long way away, like an idiot, and left his horses behind and started moving forwards with his archers like a bigger idiot.

All his 3 longbowman units out in the open, I sent my cavalry to charge them and I was expecting running through them like a loaded freight train. But nope, they stopped, drew their swords, and started slowly attacking them. I lost so many horses to 3 units of unprotected longbowmen it was ridiculous.

[Taiwan Number One]

Cavalry are quite buggy in this game even fully patched. Half the time they work and the ohter half they don't. Giving them more distance to build up speed helps, but I've given them the entire map before and they still loused it up. My advice, is to keep an eternal eye upon them.

[Darth Cannabis]

It almost sounds as if the longbowmen had spikes deployed, but they weren;t visible on screen.
Did a lot of the cavalry seem to just suddenly die 1 or 2 meters away as well?
On another note thou, I found cavalry buggy at times when you use too many. The wedge formations tend to dirupt one another. For this reason often find it better to use 2 cavalry at right angle rather than 4 or 5.

[Red Bat]

I'll agree that calvary charging seems kind of buggy. There are too many factors effecting how it works. When you do get it to work, it seems almost overpowered despite how ridiculously easy it is to counter calvary in this game.

[PancakeFuego]

Before having them charge, set them up (as said previously) a good distance and take the time to put them in the longest line possable: they tend to charge better when spread out.

[MadScud]

They didn't die, that would have been even more disconcerning since I didn't know longbowmen could deploy spikes... But yeah, they just stopped, and generally got shot and died while slowly walking towards the archers.

[Red Bat]

Calvary charges are less visually appealing in this game than in most Total War games, and are buggy, but I can confirm that they do work, its just they don't send units flying like in other Total War games.

Try getting your calvary a good distance away and keeping them in a tight formation (Wedge formation seems to suck, don't use it), then double click the enemies you want them to charge. If anything at all makes them slow down (buildings, trees, siege equipment, uneven terrain, other units, etc), it won't work and they will just pull out their swords. However if you do it right and watch them closely, you will see them lower their lances during the charge, and they get a massive damage bonus from it. Spearmen, and the spikes Longbowmen can deploy will both stop a charge and make it backfire on you. Its hard to pull this off repeatedly, but it can seem pretty overpowered if done right.

Oh, and other units can charge too. Spearmen will rush into battle with their spears already down if you do it right, and get a damage bonus from it.

[MadScud]

I just had a feeling like it used to work when I played Medieval 2, a couple years ago. It's like the patched version is worse.

But thanks, I'll try all that

[Red Bat]

Apparently pressing Alt when ordering a charge forces your calvary to use their lances, at least according to something I read online. Couldn't find any ingame documentation as to what pressing the Alt key is supposed to do, but it seems to work. I also heard that calvary are more likely to charge if you first order them to march and then toggle running on.

[Cptn Cökk Upya]

Because game is bad. /thread

[Red Bat]

Originally posted by ButterBricks:

Because game is bad. /thread

Troll elsewhere. This is probably the best Total War game.

[Cptn Cökk Upya]

Originally posted by Grilleds:

Originally posted by ButterBricks:

Because game is bad. /thread

Troll elsewhere. This is probably the best Total War game.

Not even trolling, the game is broken (plus the franchise has gotten progessivly worse).

Horse charges don't work for the same reason that other's have legit/different qualms with the game... ummm, answer is the game itself?? Calm down please.

[MadScud]

Originally posted by ButterBricks:

Originally posted by Grilleds:

Troll elsewhere. This is probably the best Total War game.

Not even trolling, the game is broken (plus the franchise has gotten progessivly worse).

Horse charges don't work for the same reason that other's have legit/different qualms with the game... ummm, answer is the game itself?? Calm down please.

A game having some problems doesn't equate to it being bad. Overall, it's still a lot of fun and one of the most solid Total Wars to date. No game is without bugs.

[Red Bat]

Felt I should point out that the game clues you in to when a charge is working properly. When your units are properly executing a charge, you hear them blow a horn first. If you play The Battle of Agincourt, you will see just how BS horse charges can be since the French sneak a few Chivalric Knights behind your lines and since you lack anti-calvary units the best thing you can do is try to surround them with your Yeomen archers after they charge so they can't escape and charge again.

Infantry can charge at a fairly close range. Calvary need a fairly long distance for the charge to work, but anything stronger than a Mailed Knight will usually manage to instantly kill most troops they charge into, so its worth messing around with it to try to get it working.

Not all calvary units can do a good charge either. Mercenary Calvary only have a charge bonus of 2, and while the General's Bodyguard gets a charge bonus, the actual general himself does not since he doesn't seem to carry a lance.

If you use a huge unit scale like I do, you will probably want to make sure your calvary are in the widest possible tight formation before you charge since otherwise only the front rows will actually get the charge bonus and unlike in smaller unit scales, that initial charge won't be wiping out half the enemy unit.