The cav parking issue

[CaNpoG]

There are so many circumstances where the army as you described is not all standing around waiting to be your protective blanket from the rambo cav player.

They don't have to actively do anything. It just makes it harder for rambos to navigate their way through many units if they actually have to be scared of dying. And this is only for achers or some class who can't defend themselves. If you're infantry (especially with spears) you can't seriously be scared of a single rambo cav "sniping" a captain. It's so absolutely easily avoided that it's not good to start balancing things around the assumption a spearman can't even defend himself from a single cav player when he's surrounded by at least his own spear unit. Even an archer captain can avoid getting killed by a rambo by hiding behind his own troops, or even better, allied units which should be near.

I am able to play this game mode freely with terrible ping and fairly often top the score charts because there is not some silly arbitrary restriction like 3 deaths holding me back from playing my way. The idea you suggest targets and restricts every player out there not just the cav players, it's not a great idea even though on paper it may lessen the frequency of solo cav killing.

What is playing your way? It's apparent the intended way to play captain is by using your unit in teamwork with your teammates, not getting a high K/D by abusing AI while going solo. The point of the mode isn't getting a high K/D, it's to win. This isn't Deathmatch.
It restricts rambo cav the most, then the less frequently seen rambo infantry and archers. The only time I really die in captain is when my unit is already being torn apart by some infantry unit, or then a rambo cav manages to kill me once after he has died like 5 times already and killed at least half of my archer unit. My third death is very much always as the last troop in my unit. Most players play with their squad and don't run around doing extremely risky tactics which get them killed. Oh wait, there's no risk in running behind the enemy line to turn the AI around because you only lost the first one of your 23 troops. This would make the "risky" tactics even have a risk to it. Now it's pretty much just having a meta that requires you to cheese.

 

[vfkaseke]

They don't have to actively do anything. It just makes it harder for rambos to navigate their way through many units if they actually have to be scared of dying. And this is only for achers or some class who can't defend themselves. If you're infantry (especially with spears) you can't seriously be scared of a single rambo cav "sniping" a captain. It's so absolutely easily avoided that it's not good to start balancing things around the assumption a spearman can't even defend himself from a single cav player when he's surrounded by at least his own spear unit. Even an archer captain can avoid getting killed by a rambo by hiding behind his own troops, or even better, allied units which should be near.

What is playing your way? It's apparent the intended way to play captain is by using your unit in teamwork with your teammates, not getting a high K/D by abusing AI while going solo. The point of the mode isn't getting a high K/D, it's to win. This isn't Deathmatch.
It restricts rambo cav the most, then the less frequently seen rambo infantry and archers. The only time I really die in captain is when my unit is already being torn apart by some infantry unit, or then a rambo cav manages to kill me once after he has died like 5 times already and killed at least half of my archer unit. My third death is very much always as the last troop in my unit. Most players play with their squad and don't run around doing extremely risky tactics which get them killed. Oh wait, there's no risk in running behind the enemy line to turn the AI around because you only lost the first one of your 23 troops. This would make the "risky" tactics even have a risk to it. Now it's pretty much just having a meta that requires you to cheese.

It seems to me you want to play a pure RTS game, instead of what bannerlord has to offer. Maybe this isn't the game for you.

 

[Cypress]

They don't have to actively do anything. It just makes it harder for rambos to navigate their way through many units if they actually have to be scared of dying. And this is only for achers or some class who can't defend themselves. If you're infantry (especially with spears) you can't seriously be scared of a single rambo cav "sniping" a captain. It's so absolutely easily avoided that it's not good to start balancing things around the assumption a spearman can't even defend himself from a single cav player when he's surrounded by at least his own spear unit. Even an archer captain can avoid getting killed by a rambo by hiding behind his own troops, or even better, allied units which should be near.

What is playing your way? It's apparent the intended way to play captain is by using your unit in teamwork with your teammates, not getting a high K/D by abusing AI while going solo. The point of the mode isn't getting a high K/D, it's to win. This isn't Deathmatch.
It restricts rambo cav the most, then the less frequently seen rambo infantry and archers. The only time I really die in captain is when my unit is already being torn apart by some infantry unit, or then a rambo cav manages to kill me once after he has died like 5 times already and killed at least half of my archer unit. My third death is very much always as the last troop in my unit. Most players play with their squad and don't run around doing extremely risky tactics which get them killed. Oh wait, there's no risk in running behind the enemy line to turn the AI around because you only lost the first one of your 23 troops. This would make the "risky" tactics even have a risk to it. Now it's pretty much just having a meta that requires you to cheese.

Kills are a direct reference of contribution. You don't win by getting 0 kills the whole game.

 

[Cypress]

In almost 90% of all cases, victory in Captain is determined by kills and the rest being morale. Teams who have higher overall kills always tend to win. As already mentioned by people in other posts, the only reason ramboing currently exists in this state of the game is because of the AI of horsemen. Incase some of you guys never lead an AI unit of horsemen, they moronically charge in hordes of enemies, miss almost a majority of attacks, get stuck on easily avoidable environment obstacles and die, melee with their cavalry swords or whatever instead of prioritizing their lances and they almost always lose against players no matter the advantage that they have. As the person this thread is talking about and also among the first people to start this playstyle or even created it (early April last year), all I want is just better cavalry AI. That's literally it. Why should I be forced to use my bots when I can more efficiently and effectively harass the enemy team on my own and cause significantly more damage. If you want people who use rambo playstyle to stop using it then give real benefits to using the Cavalry AI.

 

[Spottswoode]

They don't have to actively do anything. It just makes it harder for rambos to navigate their way through many units if they actually have to be scared of dying. And this is only for achers or some class who can't defend themselves. If you're infantry (especially with spears) you can't seriously be scared of a single rambo cav "sniping" a captain. It's so absolutely easily avoided that it's not good to start balancing things around the assumption a spearman can't even defend himself from a single cav player when he's surrounded by at least his own spear unit. Even an archer captain can avoid getting killed by a rambo by hiding behind his own troops, or even better, allied units which should be near.

What is playing your way? It's apparent the intended way to play captain is by using your unit in teamwork with your teammates, not getting a high K/D by abusing AI while going solo. The point of the mode isn't getting a high K/D, it's to win. This isn't Deathmatch.
It restricts rambo cav the most, then the less frequently seen rambo infantry and archers. The only time I really die in captain is when my unit is already being torn apart by some infantry unit, or then a rambo cav manages to kill me once after he has died like 5 times already and killed at least half of my archer unit. My third death is very much always as the last troop in my unit. Most players play with their squad and don't run around doing extremely risky tactics which get them killed. Oh wait, there's no risk in running behind the enemy line to turn the AI around because you only lost the first one of your 23 troops. This would make the "risky" tactics even have a risk to it. Now it's pretty much just having a meta that requires you to cheese.

I referenced my ping which answers all your questions. I'm not asking for the game to be built around bad ping, but I am stating the opinion of a +200 ping player

 

[Spottswoode]

In almost 90% of all cases, victory in Captain is determined by kills and the rest being morale. Teams who have higher overall kills always tend to win. As already mentioned by people in other posts, the only reason ramboing currently exists in this state of the game is because of the AI of horsemen. Incase some of you guys never lead an AI unit of horsemen, they moronically charge in hordes of enemies, miss almost a majority of attacks, get stuck on easily avoidable environment obstacles and die, melee with their cavalry swords or whatever instead of prioritizing their lances and they almost always lose against players no matter the advantage that they have. As the person this thread is talking about and also among the first people to start this playstyle or even created it (early April last year), all I want is just better cavalry AI. That's literally it. Why should I be forced to use my bots when I can more efficiently and effectively harass the enemy team on my own and cause significantly more damage. If you want people who use rambo playstyle to stop using it then give real benefits to using the Cavalry AI.

If this is horse gang (guessing by the icon) I found you to be a very courteous solo cav player. Always supports the team when needed and in the few games that came down to the line asked if his team was happy for him to continue fighting after the battle or did we want him to suicide his men to go onto next round. I thought that was a 10/10 move.

 

[Zarthas]

If this is horse gang (guessing by the icon) I found you to be a very courteous solo cav player. Always supports the team when needed and in the few games that came down to the line asked if his team was happy for him to continue fighting after the battle or did we want him to suicide his men to go onto next round. I thought that was a 10/10 move.

He's definitely the epitome of the playstyle. He's a great player and I've never had any problem with the way he plays it, as a team member, since he's also very aware of what the rest of his team is doing. You'll notice he also usually wins lol, unlike a lot of people who try to imitate.
Playing against him though, is absolutely miserable.
There's a very doable solution to playing against Horsegang, take a good mix of light inf, pikes, and heavies, and play extremely aggressively. If you don't give him time to whittle you down, he can't make up for the difference in troop numbers if you force an engagement early on.
Idiots want to take 3 squads of fianns though, then blow up the chat when my 1 squad of pikes can't protect them all...
I think the only faction matchup that is truly boned against a great Rambocav player is Empire vs. Khuzait. The 220 Reach long Menav just doesn't have the reach to rear horses consistently without being hit, and the AI will try to swing more often than thrust anyway.
He's a perfect example of "don't hate the player, hate the game", xD

Small rant aside, I agree that the right solution is a more usable Cavalry AI, as it is truly worthless. Literally incapable of being effective on their own. You can get a limited impact from just using them as battering rams to nudge-stun their way through a line, but that's assuming you were able to even get them there.

I just don't think TW is interested in doing that at all.

The crux of the Solocav issue is really the huge disparity between how much a good player can influence the battlefield as Solocav, vs what the AI is capable of. When Horsegang is on the field with a Glaive, the entire game revolves around him. No other unit type is able to do that solo, or even in groups of 2 or 3 rambo captains. At the same time, the Cavalry AI is absolutely the least effective of any unit type. I'm not sure TW knows how to make the AI more effective really, and it does seem that the ceiling of what a Solocav player is able to do alone should be taken down a bit. There's no great solution.

This issue is not strictly limited to Solocav play either, as a reasonable solution would hopefully help with Rambo-related AI manipulation like Captain-kiting in general.

 

[Spottswoode]

Playing against him though, is absolutely miserable.
There's a very doable solution to playing against Horsegang, take a good mix of light inf, pikes, and heavies, and play extremely aggressively. If you don't give him time to whittle you down, he can't make up for the difference in troop numbers if you force an engagement early on.

Haha yeah! Lotsa Spears and Aggressive is the key for sure. The one weakness of HG is predicting unit choice, you can roll all inf and almost certainly have the numbers advantage! That sinking feeling when you look at your army load out going in against a vicious cav player like him and see 2 or 3 archers selected in your team..