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Good one. I've noticed that, when I flank and go-behind the enemy army they split forces, making it easier on my main ground troops, which are usually much thinner than the enemy because I invest so much in cavalry.
Although, I've taken to having a "floating" army of nothing but cavalry (about a ten stack at best) and they "float" between two or so 20-stacks with little to no cavalry in them. I get to do the "large army" option in battle because the my cav stack joins in with either 20-stack in an attack.
Interestingly, and I only learned this through trial, a stack of only cav has a huge strategy map movement. I guess it stands to reason. But if you throw in one foot-force, or archer unit, the cav stack's movement goes back down to normal proportions.
Oh never knew all cav army had a campaign mvt bonous. Is this a new thing? I never noticed in the other TW games.
I generally spam Quartermaster for about the first three levels of any general, so I assumed he just had really good QM movement, then I wanted to move some high level archers off another general and bring him to another general, and his movement dropped.
It might only be this game, I wouldn't know. But I have to say, it's not a huge bonus, but it's enough to be interesting. And I could be wrong... my being wrong about this is not out of the question either. But I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty far into this game, almost completed my first UV with the blood patch.
Dismounted cav can be useful in some situations. Mounted thegns, for example, might do better fighting spearmen on foot than they would on horseback, depending on the situation.
Where cav use can get more complicated is when you are fighting another player who also has a lot of cav.
Be careful of Skirmish Mode with cav. An opponent who turns skirmish off can rush your light cav with his own, and your cav will turn and ride off while his just keep throwing javelins into their backs. That's another change from Attila and Rome 2: none of the cav have "Parthian shot." This makes good historical sense of course, because of the javelins, but I think a lot of people got used to Parthian Shot and Fires All Around, even for some javelin cav in the last couple of games, and don't take the absence of such into account for Thrones.
Another thing with cav vs. cav is that melees tend to be more messy now, because of the new behavior and spacing where cav charge through each other instead of fighting more linear style. This makes getting flank charges on an already engaged enemy cav with a second friendly cav less simple.
In other words, the best time to get a flank or rear charge on another cav is when they are still formed up in an orderly way, outside of melee. Once they get into melee with one of your cav, the swirling melee blob doesn't present a good charge target for your second cav unit, and it also means a very high chance of friendly fire casualties if your second cav has missiles.
If so, isn't that perfect? Why do many YouTuber TW games I watch for tips, they routinely turn off skirmish?
So, your advice on skirmish cav, does that mean you're enabling skirmish and having the skrimish cav "attack", and if you direct a skirmish cav to attack, do they just run up to skirmish range and then stay away?
If so, isn't that pretty devastating as long as their ammo runs out? Because, basically mothing melee can touch skirmish cav. Not even Alt Clut light cav can run as fast as Mide (for instance) missle cav, I find myself wasting a lot of time chasing them when I don't realize they're skirmish cav. Skirmish cav does drive me nuts sometimes as Alt Clut using a lot of heavy melee cav.
What often happens with two skirmisher cav, skirmish mode on, is that they run towards each other and then move back and forth for a very long time: they throw javelins at each other from the max range, and whoever moves ever so slightly closer causes the other to turn and ride off; once they get some distance between them, they stop and start the process over again, often going back the other way. This seesaw thing can go on for a very long time, and with little to even no casualties on either side.
This is of course how skirmishing is supposed to work, and is useful for tying up the enemy light cav, distracting other units, or drawing the enemy out of a position.
But to get back to what I mentioned in my earlier post, what you will sometimes see an opposing player do is turn skirmish mode off in this situation, and order his light cav to charge into melee against yours.
What happens then is that his light cav won't automatically withdraw every time your two light cav get too close, but yours will automatically withdraw. When your cav turn to ride off, they stop throwing javelins because they have their backs turned, but the enemy's just keeps coming on, no matter the distance. Even if the two light cav are equally matched and fatigued, it takes a very slight amount of time to turn away to automatically withdraw, just enough time to prevent a salvo of javelins (maybe 2 to 5 of your guys fit a throw in), but the oncoming enemy cav just keep throwing. What's more, they are constantly throwing into the backsides of your guys, making their throws more effective than yours, even at max range.
So over time, instead of a seesaw situation with equal numbers, you end up with the one light cav constantly pushing the other, and inflicting more and more casualties. If you do then decide to stop skirmishing and to engage the enemy cav in melee, they now have a numbers advantage, and often morale and cohesion advantages as well.
To put it short, the automatic skirmish mode is basically a defensive and passive posture for your light cav: it works great in a variety of situations, but it can be exploited by another player who puts his light cav in an aggressive posture.
Even the AI will do this sometimes, charging a melee cav alongside one of its lights, keeping your lights constantly retreating, not able to effectively shoot. Or, it will stop skirmishing your light cav with its own and just order its light cav to melee charge. You may not have noticed it as much because you say you like Strathclyde: as you pointed out, the Welsh melee cav have missiles too (not as many javelins as light cav, but heavier javelins, which is another factor), and they tend to be superior in other ways, like combining speed and endurance with good melee ability. This makes the AI cav of other factions less aggressive in most situations because it weighs the "power" of your units and tries to avoid what it's weak in.
Another potential issue with skirmish mode is that you can't control where the cav fall back to. Players often recommend turning skirmish mode off because they want to "micro" their missile cav, having them fall back along a specific path.
PS: Trying to ride down enemy cav who won't stop withdrawing can be annoying, but their are tricks you can do to stop it.
One trick is to stop and put your pursuing cav into "Withdraw" mode, which can cause the fleeing enemy cav to attack in melee because it sees your cav as "Broken." When they get very close, just turn Withdraw off, then counter charge. This trick is risky if morale is suspect or your cav are lower quality, but it can work great if you have superior cav and the enemy cav simply refuse to fight them.
Another trick is to give the enemy cav an 'opportunity that they can't resist,' like hanging some of your bowmen or javelinmen out in the open, unsupported, and then charging your cav in when the enemy cav engage your vulnerable troops. This is another situation where it is better to turn automatic skirmish mode off for your foot javelins or bows, because they'll bait the enemy in faster, and will also take significantly less casualties and morale loss when the enemy cav makes contact.
A variation on the second trick is to chase or draw enemy cav through forests, streams, or marshy ground with one unit(s), while another unit skirts around: this type of ground slows movement speed, allowing your second unit to head them off and get in engagement range, or at least confuse the fleeing enemy cav as to which direction they should go, switching one way and then another, which gradually allows you to close distance.