Bad Shock cavalry

[Raindancer345]

Where is the point in Shock Cavalry? I don't get it. They seem to be leagues worse than any regular cavalry.
Their "shock" which is their charge is not that much better than regular heavy cavalry and they lose against E V E R Y other type of cavalry.
I'd say they're THE most pointless units in the game, I'd rather trade them all for some regular spear units.
While playing Bretonnia I didn't used cavalry at all. I either used Pegasus Knights or Archers. All their on horse cavalry is absolute garbage.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Them losing against other types of cavalry makes sense (in theory, i haven't confirmed it). Since they would not be able to use their charge more then once against other cavalry units (assuming that speed is similar).

But cycle charging into infantry (etc) has been proven to be very effective. It just requires a ton of micro/focus on the unit so most players won't find it worth the effort (or can't do it without neglecting the rest of their army). Note that their proper use requires cycle charging, as in charging and withdrawing over and over again, charging once and staying in the fight is not particularly effective.

Now if "other type of cavalry units fill this role just as well as shock cavalry", i honestly can't say. I never bothered comparing the different types properly.

[Yoinkyz]

cavalry is only good in this game if your build focuses on it like say putting 3 to 4 units plus hero on one side of map to overwhelm them others wise ye most times i just forget they exist and instead go for archers/arty

[fmalfeas]

Shock cav usually has 2 times the charge bonus of other cav. They're not supposed to stay in a fight until they win. They're supposed to hit a unit that's already engaged, or a unit that's weak (be it because it's trash or already badly damaged) and shatter it.

They're a valuable component of morale warfare.

You can crush armies WAY better than yours if you don't worry about 'beating' their units and instead demoralize them so much they leave.

[SirKingJof]

it's been discussed lots of times on this forum that shock cavalry/chariots are good, they just require way more work and effort than is practical in the single player game.
Cycle charging against the a.i is a tedious nightmare. When it works it's great but get used to playing all your games on half speed and pausing all the time.

[King Wee Wee]

The key J will be your best friend ....

[Rack]

Chariots are better

[Raindancer345]

Originally posted by Garatgh Deloi:

Them losing against other types of cavalry makes sense (in theory, i haven't confirmed it). Since they would not be able to use their charge more then once against other cavalry units (assuming that speed is similar).

But cycle charging into infantry (etc) has been proven to be very effective. It just requires a ton of micro/focus on the unit so most players won't find it worth the effort (or can't do it without neglecting the rest of their army). Note that their proper use requires cycle charging, as in charging and withdrawing over and over again, charging once and staying in the fight is not particularly effective.

Now if "other type of cavalry units fill this role just as well as shock cavalry", i honestly can't say. I never bothered comparing the different types properly.

I played Bretonnia, in my opinion there is zero difference between shock cavalry and regular one in terms of charging. I had both Grail Knights with lances and without. While the regular ones performed okayish. The one with lances were just a massive moneydrain for no return.

Oh and of course they suck fighting anything for a longer period of time.

Originally posted by fmalfeas:

Shock cav usually has 2 times the charge bonus of other cav. They're not supposed to stay in a fight until they win. They're supposed to hit a unit that's already engaged, or a unit that's weak (be it because it's trash or already badly damaged) and shatter it.

They're a valuable component of morale warfare.

You can crush armies WAY better than yours if you don't worry about 'beating' their units and instead demoralize them so much they leave.

The exact same thing regular cavalry is capable at, with much less losses and the units even break quicker since they do more damage over time while not losing too many soldiers. That doesn't answer my question. So I can either micro like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ or just do one charge with regular heavy cavalry.

[Hieronymous]

I also prefer general calvary over shock calvary, because I like to bounce them from the backs of the enemy frontline to the backline. Back and forth. Charge calvary need more room to charge properly and it doesn't work with them.

I hate chariots because you have to micro them every second of contact with the enemy to use them effectively and its just tedious.

[Zorlond]

Bleh, I don't like any of the cavalry in this game. Light cav skirmishing themselves to the far edge of the map, regular cavalry running all over feeling useless, shock cavalry doing great for five seconds then sucking hard... They're just too needy. I've got a front line to monitor, archers to steer, and artillery to direct, I can't run away every five seconds to deal with cavalry issues.

Dwarves and Vampires have thus become my fave races. :)

[Tricks]

The two big noob factions are Empire and High Elves, imho.

And unfortunately shock cavalry kinda loses its usefulness mid to late game from my experience. Early game I'd say shock cavalry pulls its weight. Late game there's just not much reason to use up an army slot for most light cavalry when you can have tougher cavalry that doesn't take as many losses from missile fire, etc.

[Songbird]

Shock cav is godlike and races without them feel teethless, boring and slow.

The only semi decent melee cav units are Questing Knights and Squig Hoppers.

Against them you have Blood Knights, Dragon Knights, Reiksguard, Chaos Knights with Lances, Horned Ones, Demis. To top the list of you have the Grail Knights who have perfect vigor which is super overpowered for cav. You literally slightly touch Elite Infantry/Monsters with any of these units and they evaporate, whats not to like ?_?

[King Wee Wee]

Originally posted by Tricks:

The two big noob factions are Empire and High Elves, imho.

And unfortunately shock cavalry kinda loses its usefulness mid to late game from my experience. Early game I'd say shock cavalry pulls its weight. Late game there's just not much reason to use up an army slot for most light cavalry when you can have tougher cavalry that doesn't take as many losses from missile fire, etc.

HE and E (Dwarfs pre-greenskins changes) yeah these were all easy mode for sure !

[Nequis]

Cavalry in this game feels useless,i get more charge damage in with a regular frontline crashing than babysitting shock cavalry which gets entangled with a couple models into the enemy and dies out in 3 seconds.

Also i play on legendary so i can't cheese the game through constant pausing and cavalry just doesn't pull it's weight in focus drained vs damage dealt when there are better options like magic etc to babysit for good return.

[bearfieldlee]

Originally posted by Raindancer345:

Originally posted by Zorlond:

Bleh, I don't like any of the cavalry in this game. Light cav skirmishing themselves to the far edge of the map, regular cavalry running all over feeling useless, shock cavalry doing great for five seconds then sucking hard... They're just too needy. I've got a front line to monitor, archers to steer, and artillery to direct, I can't run away every five seconds to deal with cavalry issues.

Dwarves and Vampires have thus become my fave races. :)

The two big noob factions of the game? Tells a lot about your skill.

Why the hostility? He was AGREEING with you.

[VoiD]

Are you playing on VH/Legendary?
That would explain everything, cav is garbage on those difficulties, specially shock cav.

On normal settings cav goes in, does a ton of damage, morale drops, often the target runs away.
On legendary you go in, do a ton of damage, infantry wonders wtf is that, turns around, beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of cav, you also take a ton of damage, nobody is running away, you pull back with half HP lost.

Too much micro for minor advantages, better to focus on arty and ranged because of the insane buffs AI gets.