Son Of Odin's Cavalry Guide
As
Toffi's cavalry guide pretty much covers the builds and weapons part, I'll be focusing in battlefield awareness, situation analyzing and applying required tactics- part. This is a long text but bear with me. I will be updating this when I remember more things to add or find a way to tell things better.
Tactics:First of all we have to remember that cavalry is best used defensively. You win nothing by rushing into things mindlessly. Sometimes you want to support your infantry while it attacks, sometimes you want to hunt the unaware. It depends a lot about map and your team. Big cavalry formations rarely work but if you keep your distance to the other fellow riders, you can have massive coordinated charges.
As a cavalry player the most important thing to have is patience. Don't rush to the enemy spawn to get retarded free kills like some people do... krhm... Usually the enemy spawn isn't even easilly reachable and not worth the effort. Just hang back at the round start or scout for the places you want to be and when. Take out a couple lonely strugglers if you are sure you can catch them pants down. Then start looking what your own team does. Do they camp or do they charge the enemy?
If they charge the enemy get your ass back in the line and wait until the 2 infantries meet. Be sure you are not being shot at. Hit the enemy infantry when the 2 groups are couple meters away from each other (best time to get couple distracted enemies). Don't charge into the infantry mob, but just drive by with couched lance. The best location is usually in the front corner of their infantry mob (usually pikers and ranged at the back side so that's a no go place.)
When your team camps some location it is best for you to go behind the enemy and catch a couple of the unaware ones. Again strictly only if you are sure you can take them. Don't charge if archers are still organized and ready to shoot. Come back for your team when the enemy reaches them or your team charges. You are needed then. Also while your team camps you want to hunt down enemy cav as well and protect your archers.
Team play with your infantry. Bump shielders who are harassing your archer friend. He can have a shot every time you bump. Kill if possible but atleast slow the enemy down so your archer can have more shots. Sometimes it's enough if you just stick around and force the enemy to look after you all the time. It weakens their performance as they fight against your infantry while you circle around. Then again if they are stupid and ignore you in a wrong moment, you go and kill them.
Find a cavalry partner. The best form of cavalry team play is to play with 1 or 2 other cav. The first cav on the scene makes a fake attack and the second one hits the guy who is not ready for it. First cav bumps a shielder or someone who he can't hit on his own -> second one comes and finishes the job etc etc. This has to be trained a lot and brings rewards to the team. You need to learn how far behind you have to ride to be within the optimal attack range after your partner has done his part (whatever the plan is).
Tips and tricksAs a lancer there is not too many fancy tricks to learn. Fundamentally timing and horse manouvering is all there really is.
The most popular one is "aim lance to far right, move horse to the left". That is the basis of every lancer move. It works the other way around too, but remember that the lance reach on left side is shorter. Now what I like to do all the time is that I either speed up, or slow down the horse at the last second to trick my opponent. Arabian warhorse must be the most useful one for this, but it works with any horse. The rule of the thumb is that always turn your horse's head away from your target. You must not let them hit it with arrows, bolts, throwing shit or lance. 2h, 1h and other swingable weapons usually go for the legs.
When you see some inf guy taking a left or right swing attack against you, you always want to ride by the side he's not prepared for. I slow down a tad, change direction, speed up and lance from the other side. If he has left swing ready, you want to ride from his right (your left) and put the lance inside his skull. If he has right swing ready you go from his left (your right) and give him a lance to the head again. Practice this a lot.
Sometimes you want to make a fake attack even if you're riding alone against multiple enemies. Feint attack against the first opponent, bump him and lance the second or third one to come in your way. Bump all ranged possible in your way out so they cant shoot you.
Bump lancing. It's when you bump let's say a shielder and still manage to hit him with lance. This happens really rarely even if you know how to do it. Usually happens when you are not riding full speed and turning left, hitting a little down.
How to not be a total dick?- Don't spawnkill the afk peasants. Just don't. Atleast don't do it all the time... Flesh is weak sometimes but you must try to resist
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- Don't rush into places you are not needed. You will only bump or hit your allies if you try to kill one peasant they are ganking with +5 men. This includes the situations when there is multiple cav charging at one or two opponents. You'll just rear each other's horses or in worst case, couch your friends horse and fail miserably.
- Don't fucking bump your teammates when you spawn. Don't intentionally bump anyone who is on your side (except for Curtis, always bump Curtis)
Thanks to my long time cavalry mentors Torben, Miralay and many others as well.
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