Noob Question about Cavalry

[=🆆ΛУ🆆⋊г∂=]

hi,
is it enough to just order my CAV to follow me or is it required to order charge for CAV to actually attack? You notice I'm a bit puzzled about how to use them right...

[stephenrozzi]

I just started really getting into this a couple of days ago myself. So far, I haven't used any commands for my troops. They pretty much handle themselves. I think those commands are for bigger battles specifying what you would like troops to do like having your cavalry attack a group of archers.

[AxeKnight]

they will defend themselves while following you, so if you run them into the enemy they will fight. a better tactis is to select them with the coresponding number key (3) and then hold f1 and a flag will show up on the reticule. wherever you move the flag, the unit will travel to, so if you have your cavaalry on one side of the enemy and tell them to go to the other side, they will charge through the enemy, killing as they go and not getting too badly beaten by spears or what have you.

[Balboa Albosa]

I'd try to get use to using commands as soon as you can. I use them with groups as small as 15. I always try to get my guys in position to get maximum effect of archery before melee starts. I usually order my guys to form up from the beginning. I want my opponent coming to me so they spread out more. Also, I can get my reinforcements faster if I'm closer to my "side". I also try to get my melee dudes to hang out around trees as to avoid enemy ranged attacks.

Edit: i'm still pretty noobish too so take all I've said with a grain of salt.

[Sirius]

Originally posted by kawagatam:

tselect them with the coresponding number key (3) and then hold f1 and a flag will show up on the reticule. wherever you move the flag, the unit will travel to, so if you have your cavaalry on one side of the enemy and tell them to go to the other side, they will charge through the enemy, killing as they go and not getting too badly beaten by spears or what have you.

This is how I mostly use them.

But if you are a badass knight in full armor + armored horse, yeah, sometimes it's good to have them follow you while you charge.

Just make sure (with both tactics) that you leave room for maneuvering.

Especially if you lead the charge, it's easy to forget they are following you, and you making a too-tight turn back into the fray / the outskirts of their army (most likely to take down scattered shooters), making them stop to follow you in the midst of the enemy - and they usually get slapped off their horses.

So always "overshoot", meaning to charge on long after you are through their ranks, so your horsemen have enough room to turn around and not getting attacked while doing it.
Edit: In fact, don't stop unless you feel (or even see) that the last of your horsemen are through the enemies lines, then ride on in a wide circle to attack again so your men (and you) can gain momentum again and couch those lances.

Likewise, if you order them from afar, make it so they have a clear space to stop and turn around again.

[=🆆ΛУ🆆⋊г∂=]

Originally posted by |x|Sirius|x|:

So always "overshoot", meaning to charge on long after you are through their ranks, so your horsemen have enough room to turn around and not getting attacked while doing it.
Edit: In fact, don't stop unless you feel (or even see) that the last of your horsemen are through the enemies lines, then ride on in a wide circle to attack again so your men (and you) can gain momentum again and couch those lances.

Likewise, if you order them from afar, make it so they have a clear space to stop and turn around again.

thx. bro that was my problem : )

[cqqks]

Native, no mod's.

All the replies to this post that I've read so far, offer good advice. I may even try some of these tactic's in the future.

I like to fight on the open battlefield with all mounted troops. I train my companions as foot soldier until level 10, then put a horse under each one. I truly enjoy those battles where it's all cavarly against cavarly!

I try to place my cavarly on the backside of a hill, if possible, to protect them from enemy archers and crossbowmen. If there are no hills, I place them as far back as I can. I then ride out by myself to try and disrupt their formation and kill as many of them as possible as they march towards my troops, hopefully, without to much injury to myself. If I succeed in breaking their formation and getting them to charge me, this makes for easier pickings for my mounted troops.
If I can't disrupt their battleline, which does happen, I continue to circle them, jabbing at them with my lance. As I circle them, their footsoldiers are always turning to face me as they walk forward. As they get closer to my troops, I try to time it so the enemy troops are facing me with their backs towards my cavarly when I give my troops the order to charge.

I should reply to the OP question. I allow my troops run on their own. I get too caught up in the battle to watch what their doing. I find that I lose very few troops in these battles, most of the time, none. And yes, I'm playing at the hardest level of play.

[Tuidjy]

This is how I use my cavalry in Floris. Note that I split my mounted troops in two groups - horse archers, and melee cavalry. In large battles (I have raised the battle size to 500) most of the time my horse archers are dismounted. They are nearly as good at shooting as any foot archers, and have much better equipment, especially the shield which is priceless in hand to hand.

(A) Basic charge. Works best if the enemy is formed in a line.
- Position all other troops where I want them.
- Command my cavalry to follow me.
- Move to the right angle for the charge.
- Move towards the enemy slowly, waiting for the cavalry line to form.
- Accelerate towards the enemy as fast as you can go without breaking the line.
- About 20 meters before you engage, order the cavalry to charge.
A few points:
- You get the best results if your line and the enemy's are parallel.
- If you manage to land the charge at the enemy's back, the results are devastating.
- It is usually worth pulling the cavalry out of the ensuing melee, by making them follow you.

(B) Distracting the enemy. Useful in huge battles, when the enemy is outnumbering you heavily, and keeps getting reinforcements. Works best once the enemy has ran out of cavalry, i.e. early against the Nords and Rodocks, mid-battle with Vaegirs and Swadians, and much later with the Khergits and Saranids.

I use the map and flags to make my cavalry run to the corners at the map, and many of the enemies, especially the melee infantry, start chasing them, which allows my archers to have fewer people to handle at once, or my commander to pick stragglers one by one. Also serve quite nicely to get the enemy archers away from the protection of the infantry.

(C) Mop-up. This is extremely useful in long battles when your army is archer heavy.
- Dismount your horse archers.
- Have everyone hold position on top of a nice hill. This results in crowding, but that's a plus.
- Have the cavalry line up somewhat to the side, with a clear path to where you expect the enemy to come from.
- Use your commander to distract the enemy as much as he is able: take out the enemy commander, shoot at troops to make them turn their backs to your archers, pick out stragglers, take out elite archers who have fallen behind because they are already in range and shooting.
- Once your archers have shot up the enemy badly, and before the enemy has reached the archers, have the cavalry charge, and the archers hold fire. This saves arrows, and allows the archers to receive the enemy with melee weapons in hand.
- At this point, your commander should be behind the enemy, near where the enemy reinforcements are coming from. By attracting the new enemies' attention, and leading them away from your guys, you allow your cavalry to mop up without tangling with the reinforcing mob.
- Once the previous wave is all gone, use the flag to move your cavalry back to their charging position (or rather a big behind it)
- Order the cavalry to take ten steps forward. This will turn them towards the enemy.
- Order your archers to fire again, and lead the enemy into their range.
Using these tactics, I regularly win 300 to 1500+ battles with losses around ten people, if that.

[Drunio]

Really its just a matter of experience with most things in Warband. Units following instead of charging is for getting them set up. If they aren't charging they won't get set for attacks, they will defend and only attack when pretty much required.

As noted above commands are great. Usually they are the most effective when you have archers - high level ones even more-so. High level archers holding ground behind infantry devistate. Calvary can wipe out the back line of archers, disrupt the infantry in the front, or reinforce wherever.

WhenI first started playing I never used commands. Now I use them every single battle. Having troops grouped in a line allows more of your guys attack attack at once from the start. When playing on the hardest difficulties you take every advantage you can get.

Note: I generally don't use horse archers unless running a zerg of calvary.

[Centurion]

Use this simple rules. Travel with your calvary and move to enemy back. Use your normal troopers defend or attack the 1st wave. once u see the timing is good, charge into enemy back. That called flank. effective and faster way to attack them from both side.

[Init]

^not to mention the archers are ussually in the flank and if nothing else it can skirmish/disorganize or distroy them to protect you troops fighting the infantry/calvary.

[White Knight]

Here's some more basic combat tactics with cavalry:

Ideally, I'll have an Infantry shieldwall at the top of a slope. Spearmen right behind them and archers right behind the spearmen. When they are set up, I take my cavalry for a stroll. My goal is to hide them from the enemy if possible, on higher ground well off to one side when available and with a nice gentle, open slope for them to race down.

This way, archers pelt the enemy as they approach, the shieldwall holds them when they attack, the cavalry is given the command to charge just before the enemy hits the shieldwall and the spearmen wait for the general charge order.

The shieldwall is effective and the enemy almost always runs out of steam, throwing their men against it. The cavalry comes thundering down into their flanks or at their backs and pens them in with a wall of horse-flesh. Then I give the "Everyone Charge!" order. The shieldwall starts to surround them and the spearmen complete the task. Meanwhile, the archers are firing from high ground the entire time.

It's brutal and effective. When done correctly, you don't need to bother chasing after the survivors who run for the edges of the map either.

[Timothius]

On VC, I personally order up my lines ready for battle, then have 8 mounted companions (each with TONS of javalins) and very minimal horsemen (like 3-5) follow me. We then ride WIDE around the side and hit their archers in the back when the infantry fighting begins. They tend to sit behind the infantry at a distance so make easy pickings. Also killing so many soft targets in a short time often makes their whole army panic. Once the archers are dead, I "skim" past the infantry's exposed back (side to side) picking them off. Sometimes as the lines thin, as they turn to face you (by which point you're already further down the line), they expose their backs to YOUR infantry fighting in the shield-wall. As long as you don't charge into the mass, your cavalry should keep up, throwing javalins into their unprotected backs.

Not only those things, but personally leading them in on a fast horse means you're more likely to get away if in trouble (then having a mounted bodyguard set to follow you) or issue orders from a safe distance. Too many horses can become quite unwieldy and get strung out as they follow you - so if the group is too big it's hard to focus them on a small group on "set to follow". Keeping the cavalry group small really helps when you decide to pull out and away from their army's rear / flank when it gets messy.

When you can see you've clearly won the day and they have maybe 2 ranks left, there's no harm in telling them to charge - just make sure they are from behind the spearmen and not in front!

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by SCOOP:

hi,
is it enough to just order my CAV to follow me or is it required to order charge for CAV to actually attack? You notice I'm a bit puzzled about how to use them right...

Just a note to add to the excellent advice, above:

Cavalry in formation and following you are somewhat stupid. They will sporadically attack those who charge them, while waiting for you to move or give orders. It is possible for them to sit there, stupidly, and let some crazy footsoldier whack away at them until they're dead. They also tend to do everything with their lances,while mounted, unless you have added any number of lance-fix mods or troops with alternate weapons. That means that if they're sitting there, waiting to charge, and someone beats on them, they'll go all stabby-stabby with their lance half the time and get little for their efforts.

At some time, if you want to get all of them doing their duty and killing the enemy, it's best to order them to "Charge." Otherwise, they're not going to go out of their way to kill anyone - They'll just take out those in front of them before they continue through, following you or proceeding to their destination. Make sure to give them plenty of room for that first initial charge, so they all get maximum speed bonuses to their weapons.

Generally, I use two tactics when leading cavalry:

1) Wedge Formation, Follow Me, then I charge through the enemy formations in long sweeps across the battlefield. After that, it's usually just a question of mopping up. (Heavy Cavalry are the "I WIN" button in Mount&Blade: Warband.) Once I've done enough damage and the enemy formations are broken, I order everyone to charge so mop-up can be quick.

2) Wedge Formation, Follow Me, then I move to an area on the battlefield where I have a lot of room, order my infantry to move or charge, then order the cavalry to charge or to charge through the enemy's rear.

3) Oh, I almost forgot... :) With a Heavy Cavalry heavy army at my side, ordering my few heavy infantry to charge, telling my hvy cavalry to move to a flank, then to charge, is usually all that is needed. I can just sit and watch the battle at that point, if I wish. On second thought, telling everyone to charge and having a Companion with excellent medical skills usually results in the slaughter of all enemies on the battlefield with no casualties on my side... Heavy Cavalry is defnitely an "I WIN" button - If you have lots of heavy cavalry, you really shouldn't be too worried about losing to any enemy unless you're terribly outnumbered and will be experiencing several rounds of battle. (Wounded heavy cavalry, even though they're not killed, aren't going to participate in the next battle round.)

[Don Leo]

Been playing Perisno. My armies generally consist of a huge load of archers, a few infantries with shields, some cavalry. The foot soldiers are about 80%-20% archers - infantry. Cavalry tends to be mostly my companions and whatever randoms I picked up after a battle, usually merc lancers. I don't want to maintain an army of homebrew cavalry because they cost an arm and a leg and I cba to train them in the first place. I consider cavalry to be more or less expendable, like grenades.

1. Start of battle, if near a hill, tell all to hold position on hill, stand closer, form several rows. Cavalry and Cav archers follow me.

2.1. First sight of enemy is usually their charging cavalry. If it is only a few dudes, I snipe them down with bow. If it is a larger group, heavy armored or a freaking horde, I charge in myself and tell my cavalry to charge.

2.2. So if we're dealing with an enemy horde of some kind, I'll have to push my cavalry in to stop the horde from reaching my footsoldiers. I tell my dudes to charge. I hold up my shield and kind of fall back behind my cav so I don't get lanced in the face and insta-die. I'll probably tell cav to charge and horse archers to follow and I'll try to circle the furball that I created int he middle of the battle field. I need to get out of there before the enemy footsoldiers arrive, which is fast. I'll probably circle only once, tell my horses to all follow me or hold ground to the left or right of my footsoldiers, letting my archers tear up whatever is still alive. I'll probably have a few cavs whose horses died so I tell them to mount horses. I don't know if that actually does anything though. Again, I consider them expendable.

3. If they have no cav or only a few dudes... Meaning their army is slowly moving towards us, I have cavalry follow me and I get to a flanking position to make sure my cav archers can fire well. I'll move back, BEHIND my archers and infantry line and wait for the enemy to get closer (the mod has turned off formations for now, if it were on, I'd tell people to move forward).

4. Once they are within range, my archers start firing a few times. I tell them to hold fire. Let enemy get closer. At higher difficulty settings, the enemy will hold their shields up so any shots fired towards them will strike shields. So no damage unless the shields are of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ variety meaning they break fast.

5. Near firing range I charge with my cavalry set to follow me. I charge to the right of them, push through them and closer to their backline while telling archers to fire at will. This mows down most footsoldiers. I'll usually tell cav to follow me, then charge so they take out whatever archers are standing around throwing twigs at me. Then I tell cav to move back to hold a position somewhere.

I basically rarely tell my cav to charge indefinitely. I use cav to break formations of enemy lines, to take out archer lines, etc. Cavalry tends to be expensive, wages wise. Archers tend to be expensive both wages and experience/training wise.

Against pure 100% cavalry hordes I usually run into issues. THe mods I'm playing tend to be light on anti-cavalry troops. So no pikemen or spearmen with bonuses or anything.
What does work quite well is retreating towards the edge of the map so all the horses get stuck and form a meatshield, quite literally, which allows my troops to mess up the enemy. I'd consider this an exploit though.