Cavalry in cRPG and Strategus

[Sharky]

Anyway, "cav formations" are impossible, you can do them before the charge, but after that you must split otherwise other horses will stop you or you will not be able to avoid enemy infantry.

[Tomas_of_Miles]

Anyway, "cav formations" are impossible, you can do them before the charge, but after that you must split otherwise other horses will stop you or you will not be able to avoid enemy infantry.

I dunno 10-20 unified great lancers in formation charging a group of inf would be pretty terrifying.

[Bjarky]

I dunno 10-20 unified great lancers in formation charging a group of inf would be pretty terrifying.

it looks epic, but history of strategus tells a different story: lots of dead horses 
only if one has way to much money and buys plated chargers etc. it's works for a while, but only for while though 

[Huey Newton]

Honestly anything higher than cataphracts fail in strat
if u wanna win open field maps you want coursers, destriers, and cataphracts.
Everything else is trivial

[Butan]

Morale shock in cRPG is pretty much non-existent.
When you arent as dearly attached to your life as in real life, you can do suicidal counter attacks more often and stand your ground.
At the worst people will retreat until they form a group of soldiers that can easily stop a cav charge if they have a numbers of pike at least equal to their file number.

A cavalry charge of one rank deep, even going at top speed, is very to stop in cRPG, the horse just stops or die from a single poke, and the horse itself doesnt interfere with the pike formation when dying on them.
It would be equally as hard to form such a charge as it is easy to spot from the defender's point of view and interfere with it.


My idea of an efficient charge would be more like a harrasing formation ( doing like in cRPG battle then ) or multiple single/double file charge in the flank or back, charging exclusively if the point of impact isnt covered by more than 2 or 3 pole wielders, and never bet all your cavalry in a single charge ( doing a hammer and anvil delayed double cav charge could be interesting to see, if the defenders arent aware of the second vague! ).

And im not even talking of the infantry role in this, as they can draw attention of the entire opposite army if done properly, letting cav organize a charge or just pick some target easily.


I'm curious if some old strategus players could share more light on this matter.

[DarkFox]

Old strategus had OP archers, so many things were useless. Balance changed, nobody knows what we will see now. I think that cav will be powerfull, but expensive.

[Phazey]

Morale shock in cRPG is pretty much non-existent.

Hahhahaha. So not true, it's funny. Yes, morale shock is less in cRPG than in real life. But trust me, it's here and it's BIG. Psychological effects are huge in cRPG. The mob is easily disheartened and people tend to panic and run A LOT...

Also, cav is amazingly good at surrounding and forcing teams to face multiple directions, thus decreasing their effectiveness big time.

About organized cav 'charges', viable to a lesser degree. I'd look at cav as a mobile support unit that can work wonders when two infantry armies clash.

[Huey Newton]

Hahhahaha. So not true, it's funny. Yes, morale shock is less in cRPG than in real life. But trust me, it's here and it's BIG. Psychological effects are huge in cRPG. The mob is easily disheartened and people tend to panic and run A LOT...

Also, cav is amazingly good at surrounding and forcing teams to face multiple directions, thus decreasing their effectiveness big time.

About organized cav 'charges', viable to a lesser degree. I'd look at cav as a mobile support unit that can work wonders when two infantry armies clash.

I agree with all of this

[Butan]

The mob is easily disheartened and people tend to panic and run A LOT...

Not so much as to try and flee the battlefield, which is impossible.

But I agree that individually, players tend to try and spot every possible threat to their existences by looking over their shoulder now and again (those who dont just die a lance in the back of the head), and cavs are good at creating multiple fronts.

[Kafein]

Hahhahaha. So not true, it's funny. Yes, morale shock is less in cRPG than in real life. But trust me, it's here and it's BIG. Psychological effects are huge in cRPG. The mob is easily disheartened and people tend to panic and run A LOT...

Also, cav is amazingly good at surrounding and forcing teams to face multiple directions, thus decreasing their effectiveness big time.

About organized cav 'charges', viable to a lesser degree. I'd look at cav as a mobile support unit that can work wonders when two infantry armies clash.

That's the way cav works in cRPG, and it's 99,999% light cavalry.

Heavy cavalry, however, is capable of charging in organised groups and really use the power of a one way charge to it's best (charge, hit, run for the whole group). When horses get armor, they are capable of surviving hard contact with anything the enemy has, thus the power resides in the capacity of outnumbering the enemy locally with the speed of cavalry and the clever choice of where to attack. If some cavalrymen are stopped by a pike in the process, it's no big deal since the other defences are occupied by other horsemen and they can catch up. If the whole cavalry unit carries on, concentrates on moving and not killing, then regroups elsewhere, it can soon do another devastating charge.