I feel like I'm missing something with cavalry.

[Chiatroll]

With infantry, I most often use 2 specific formations of shield walls and squares. With Archer spread out and on a hill is what I go with.

I try to time formation changes and when to charge with infantry to turn them aggressive and protest my bank ranks.

I want my cavalry to perform a few roles. 1. Counterattack their cav to help keep them off of my ranged units 2. Flank the enemies that are on my infantry from behind using their mobility because flanking from the pack is really destructive 3. Skip to the back lines using their mobility and murder enemy archers because if the enemy has good unguarded archers this should be devastating. I never figure out the best way to do this.

For instance, in the last game, I had my infantry in an extended shield wall at the bottom of the hill. The surviving infantry met with mine and I had space for my cav to go in. I manually positioned them by manually moving them but then they just kind of stand around the enemy archers or seemingly peacefully walk through the enemy archers. I told them to charge.. then they all seem to go in random directions and not continue hitting the unit that is not the closest to them.

I'm confused.

I feel like I'm either missing something or charge needs a tree where I could select all or a unit type so I could manually run the archers in and our of the unit line in a more violent charge.

Horse archers can be even weirder but at least you generally just want them to do what f6 does.

 

[Bannerman Man]

I think they're currently working on expanding the Battle Orders system, which will probably come with extra commands we can give to cavalry. At least that's how I interpret this post from Duh_TaleWorlds:

• Improvements to the Order of Battle System
• Improvements to the Order User Interface

If you delegate command of your cavalry with F6 you'll see that they can do all kinds of things like protect flanks, engage enemy cavalry, flank the enemy, etc., so I think the AI capability is there; they just need to integrate them into the orders system.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

All I do is put them on fallow me and drag them to the units I would like it if they managed to hit them....mmmmmm kay.... if it's not too much trouble... and charge them, then put them back on fallow me before they die...hopefully and do that again. Usually as you said this is an attempt to get them to stop enemy Cav or HA or charging into the archers from behind..... 1 always dies no matter what, very often to a ****ing recruit. Just delete the armor why don't you? Nakedlord!
I never choose Cav as an upgrade but I take them from prisoners or notables and put them to use.
They're garbage but they're better then infantry.

Horse archers can be even weirder but at least you generally just want them to do what f6 does.

If you delegate command of your cavalry with F6 you'll see that they can do all kinds of things

I guess I should investigate what f6 does......

 

[Chiatroll]

All I do is put them on fallow me and drag them to the units I would like it if they managed to hit them....mmmmmm kay.... if it's not too much trouble... and charge them, then put them back on fallow me before they die...hopefully and do that again. Usually as you said this is an attempt to get them to stop enemy Cav or HA or charging into the archers from behind..... 1 always dies no matter what, very often to a ****ing recruit. Just delete the armor why don't you? Nakedlord!
I never choose Cav as an upgrade but I take them from prisoners or notables and put them to use.
They're garbage but they're better then infantry.


I guess I should investigate what f6 does......

F6 isn't part of a tree it'll assign that group of units to the sergeants which just means the AI takes it over.

Horse archers assigned in that way will circle the enemies plinking them with arrows which is exactly what you want and would be a lot of micromanagement to handle in any other way. So with horse archers at the start of combat I hit 4 and then f6 to send them doing their job.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

F6 isn't part of a tree it'll assign that group of units to the sergeants which just means the AI takes it over.

Horse archers assigned in that way will circle the enemies plinking them with arrows which is exactly what you want and would be a lot of micromanagement to handle in any other way.

Oh I see, I have done that before and then immediately un-did it. I think f3 for HA is probably the same behavior but I'll try with Cav.

 

[Bannerman Man]

I guess I should investigate what f6 does......

If you do this then keep an eye on the dialog box in the lower left corner you see things pop up like 'Cavalry is protecting the flank' or 'Cavalry is engaging enemy horse archers' as the sergeant AI decides what's best.

 

[drallim33]

I think the system could benefit from some sort of "stance" or "mood" selection:

• Rigid: group tries to maintain formation no matter what, will engage if it can but not if it means breaking formation. Like the current shield wall behaviour.
• Aggressive: Does not care about formation, just fights anyone in the area. Will pursue for a short distance. Like the current charge behaviour but staying in a general area.
• Defensive: Stays loosely in formation, attacks anyone who comes close, but does not pursue. Like the current line formation but will more aggressively engage anyone who comes close.

 

[professorchaos]

I think they're currently working on expanding the Battle Orders system, which will probably come with extra commands we can give to cavalry. At least that's how I interpret this post from Duh_TaleWorlds:

I do hope they are working on this. It's just confusing to me that AI lord will give you commands such as flanking and attacking certain troop types when the player is in their army, but the player can't order the troops to do such things as the commander.

It would be great to be able to order the troops, especially cavalry, to target specific enemy troops. Otherwise, cavalry is just not realizing their significant strategical importance. For now, position them behind the enemy troops and make them collide with the target troops along the way is more efficient as they will melee fight the enemy during mobilization. But it's only a sloppy fix to the problem.

 

[Bannerman Man]

It would be great to be able to order the troops, especially cavalry, to target specific enemy troops.

Definitely. I think this is what I want to see the most out of the Orders/Command system at the moment.

 

[HeIsHephaestion]

the one thing that could easily fix this would be stealing the way Conquerors Blade handles charges. If you've never played the game all you do is select the charge key and a stretchable arrow path appears that you can drag in any direction that they will follow to the T (the idea being you clickand drag THROUGH the enemy troops so they do the damage and KEEP GOING). The trick is making sure they are locked into a wedge formation and then making sure you don't issue the charge order too close to the designated target troops (issue it too close and they'll have no momentum).

 

[black_bulldog]

I think they're currently working on expanding the Battle Orders system, which will probably come with extra commands we can give to cavalry. At least that's how I interpret this post from Duh_TaleWorlds:

If you delegate command of your cavalry with F6 you'll see that they can do all kinds of things like protect flanks, engage enemy cavalry, flank the enemy, etc., so I think the AI capability is there; they just need to integrate them into the orders system.

Yes horse archers actually have a good ai, I've sat and watched them. They typically skirmish until they start taking several hits from archers or cavalry comes to chase them. They then fall back for a bit then re-engage the enemy in skirmish. If cavalry and infantry ai was as good I'd be happy. Also archers ai is pretty good if you use F6 again they'll skirmish until infantry gets too close then drop back.

 

[paladinx333]

Calvary does not work as a coordinated unit when left to their own devices. This is fine when they are chasing a fleeing enemy, not so much when they face organized opposition.

The only way to use cavalry to good effect against tough opponents is to lead them yourself. This is actually kind of fiddly as it requires you to babysit them, charging and regrouping as required. That would be fine unless your infantry or archer require your help. Then thing can get rather chaotic.

The game feels like Warband in the early game and then like a first person total war game later on. The combat is fun, with caveats. I don't think that current PCs have the horsepower to give 1000 units the smarts they need to fight like real soldier would. It's never going to be perfect.