How do I get cavalry and how important are they?

[sorcus]

I have a full army of Nord footmen and Rhodok Crossbowmen but I have no clue how to get cavalry and have no idea how important they are. The Kingdom of Swadia however has been wiped off the map in my game so if that is one way how to get cavalry, it is now not an option :P.

[Paradox]

It doesnt work like that if you capture a swadian village you still get swadian recruits and how important they are swadian knights hell ya they are important. other factions also have calvary like vaegirs and sarrind

[ForevaNoob Wonemorturn]

Like Paradox says, a former swadian village will always offer swadian recruits, occupied or not, 'meaning possible swadian knights, when upgraded.

[Miiiiiiiiiiiiike]

Cavalry are ok.

But, realisitcally what you have is probably fine.

You can also hire manhunters from the prisoner stashes of defeated enemies, as well as mercenary horsemen/cavalry from taverns, and you can upgrade them from farmers. Farmers>watchmen>caravan guard>mercenary horseman>mercenary cavalry. I think that is how it goes.
Or sword sisters, which are frequently on horses from pesent women.

[Raveneye]

Cavalry are quite useful, but not by any means required for an army. In fact, most cav are downright terrible if dismounted, which will happen during seiges and if their horses die (which, unless they're armored, will happen a lot). I personally don't use cav unless I'm fighting cav heavy nations (like Khergits or Swadians) in order to speed the battles up by chasing down straglers and your current army should be good enough for most anything.

[Asphe]

Originally posted by Sorcus (No Sound):

I have a full army of Nord footmen and Rhodok Crossbowmen but I have no clue how to get cavalry and have no idea how important they are. The Kingdom of Swadia however has been wiped off the map in my game so if that is one way how to get cavalry, it is now not an option :P.

Hire from taverns/prisoner, rescue POWs and recruit from faction villages.

Importance? Like all the troop-types, it depends on how skillfully they are employed. On easy difficulty, cavalry are greatly overpowered. Cavalry tend to have heavier armor, which amplifies the effect of the damage reduction the easier difficulty gives.

Feel free to just use infantry. No conquerer (successful ones, even if temporarily) has ever one with just cavalry. They are specialist troops and this is just a game that doesn't sim out everything. In this game, cavalry will charge infantry formations after all.

But if you want to finish the game in a few hours, at easy difficulty.. cavalry. If nothing else, you move around faster on the map.

[Chikuwu]

Originally posted by jml:

Like Paradox says, a former swadian village will always offer swadian recruits, occupied or not, 'meaning possible swadian knights, when upgraded.

depends on the mod youre playing. if native, then it goes like that. But in many mods (prophesy of pendor, etc) when other faction captures a village for themselves, the culture moves there. so if it at start was another faction/cultures village, it gives you the new recruits.

[Xenothor]

My bigest complaint about the native game is that the combat is way too easy. Even on the hardest skill levels it really doesn't matter how you build your army, or what if any kind of strategy you employ to win on the battlefileld. Sure using strategy can save you a few troops, but most of the time I'm too lazy to do anything beside trying to ensure that my faster troops don't run ahead and find themselves in an outnumbered situation, although I will put more effort into battles where I'm greatly outnumbered.

For winning on the field I like cavalry mainly becuase steam rolling over infintry makes for quick battles, although calvary vs calvary can still get drawn out longer than I'd like.

If it wasn't for sieging towers I'd be happy to have an army with nothing but knights or mamlukes, but when sieging you really want archers and good infintry.

[Sohei]

Originally posted by Miiiiiiiiiiiiike:

Cavalry are ok.

But, realisitcally what you have is probably fine.

You can also hire manhunters from the prisoner stashes of defeated enemies, as well as mercenary horsemen/cavalry from taverns, and you can upgrade them from farmers. Farmers>watchmen>caravan guard>mercenary horseman>mercenary cavalry. I think that is how it goes.
Or sword sisters, which are frequently on horses from pesent women.

This.

Manhunters are probably the best of the three options mentioned but I use all of these. You can find bandits with manhunters as prisoners if you look around. Once they are fully promoted they are in the top five cavalry troops in the game because their blunt weapons punch through heavy armor as well as give you many prisoners after the battle.

Mercenary cavalry are okay but not great and are very expensive so a poor value overall. But, they are fairly easy to get and can help out signifcantly if you have plenty of money.

Sword Sisters are good troops overall and a good value for their wages. They are a bit weak as cavalry because their horses are not very tough but they are good on foot because of crossbows, excellent armor, and decent skills. They often lack a helm which makes thier head vulnerable. They are cheaper than other fully promoted cavalry.

As others have said, you can get other faction troops from villages that started with other factions. Your faction does not even need to control the village but it wil be tough to get troops from them if you are at war. If you don't feel like mixing faction troops you can get by just fine without them.

I suggest collecting eight named companions that get along with each other and turning four or five of them into well geared and skilled cavalry. The intelligence based party skill companions can provide support on foot with crossbows. This gives you a small group of cavalry that cannot die and can eventually be quite powerful.

You really don't need cavalry at all but they can be useful for flanking, pursuing, countering enemy cavalry, and increasing party map movement speed.

[CourageousPawn]

To answer the original question about how to get cavalry troops, Nord and Rhodok armies don't have cavalry, so there's no way to upgrade your current troop mix into cavalry. If you recruit from Sarranid, Vaegir or Swadian villages (regardless of which faction controls them, they will always produce recruits of their original ethnicity), you will have the option to choose the appropriate cavalry upgrade path as your troops gain more experience.
You can also hire mercenary cavalry, but they are a more expensive proposition.

As a personal preference, the bulk of my army comprises Sarranid Mamelukes, because they're heavily armoured, pack a good punch, and are also strong siegers when dismounted. But more importantly, I find that the increased cost of maintaining a large number of elite troops is offset by the gain I get from those troops being able to keep my weaker units alive for longer, giving them an opportunity to upgrade and replace the Mamelukes when they (occasionally) fall in battle. As other posters have mentioned, having an all-cavalry force also improves map movement speed.

Of course, leaving Mamelukes as a garrison troop is both expensive and inefficient, so I leave them in my army and opt for more numerous, cheaper units like Rhodok crossbowmen to hold forts and cities.

[sorcus]

Thanks alot :p

[Aves]

ILLIMUNATI CONFIRMED

[sorcus]

Originally posted by Sir Monkeys:

ILLIMUNATI CONFIRMED

Ok?

[Lonesome 77]

Three words: "Hammer and Anvil"

It was a cavalry tactic used by Alexander the Great and then in the battles between Rome and Carthage where your infantry engages their infantry head-on, and then you personally lead your cavalry (by telling them to follow you) around their rear. Your infantry is the "anvil," and the cavlary is the "hammer" which smashes into it, from behind. It seems like the enemy in game keeps archers and such in the rear so you'll be able to take out those pretty easy usually, and then trap the enemy infantry.

I've tried it a couple times (just starting out in the game and don't have a big force let alone a lot of cav) and it seems to work.

Also as it's been said, even though a realm is conquered, the recruits you get will be of the original realm. Like, my Nord friends have conquered a lot of Swadian territory but I get Swadian volunteers from the conquered villages. I guess it sort of makes sense--there's not going to magically be only Nords in a village once its conquered lol. But you should be able to get some mounted fighters still.

[a razor named qualia]

Originally posted by Vikingr:

Three words: "Hammer and Anvil"

It was a cavalry tactic used by Alexander the Great and then in the battles between Rome and Carthage where your infantry engages their infantry head-on, and then you personally lead your cavalry (by telling them to follow you) around their rear. Your infantry is the "anvil," and the cavlary is the "hammer" which smashes into it, from behind. It seems like the enemy in game keeps archers and such in the rear so you'll be able to take out those pretty easy usually, and then trap the enemy infantry.

I've tried it a couple times (just starting out in the game and don't have a big force let alone a lot of cav) and it seems to work.

Also as it's been said, even though a realm is conquered, the recruits you get will be of the original realm. Like, my Nord friends have conquered a lot of Swadian territory but I get Swadian volunteers from the conquered villages. I guess it sort of makes sense--there's not going to magically be only Nords in a village once its conquered lol. But you should be able to get some mounted fighters still.

This, I do it a lot.

You really only need a good mid-top tier Nord force to a few Swadian/Sarranid cavalry to make this work, and it can reliably win you many battles where you and the enemy are on the same footing.

[Fiprower]

Cavalry are the most expensive but the most useful unit, playing Prophecy of Pandor. Right now I have a all cavalry force, and I can literally just fight everyone by using pure cavalry charges, and that kills them fast. FIrst of all when they hit, it can knock the enemy down, also archers wont be able to shoot much before they hit. Infantry take a while to reach the enemy. Most armies dont have a wall of spearmen so it makes it really easy to use lots of cavalry.