Thoughts on cavalry in 1.9?

[The Great Grub]

so
what are peoples thoughts on cavalry being supposedly made more effective with couch lancing and killing power in general.

 

[anoddhermit]

They seem way more effective to me. Have learned the hard way - archers now require more protection or careful positioning against cav in particular. But also I can be more liberal with cav charges now with much fewer deaths. They do more charge damage too via the horse changes I'm pretty sure.

It's not perfect but they now feel like a proper counter to archers at least in open enough terrain. Tactics like having crossbowmen as your back archer line since their backs are shielded are worth bothering with more often now.

 

[FireBlazinCandy]

Cav are useless in a RP way.

*Hur Hur we made their charge go bang bang, + 10*

If you increase the battle size to 2000 but not allow them to use their Lance's, or allow me to tell them where to hit on the 1000 enemy formation, then I'm sorry, the cav are still broken. Jesus I would have expected this by now??

I don't want to babysit my cav (which may include some companions) for a whole battle to ensure they don't die.

Tinker with them all you want, but until I can tell them what to do, all you are doing is just pissing on a fire.

They're broken, just like the other things you would have expected to be sorted by now:

Formations
Policies
Perks
The AI?????????????

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

Better then 1.8.1, but still room for improvement. They will hit enemies with weapons and many horses have a bit of charge damage now too, so it's noticeable. They are still a bit vulnerable for their costs (warhorse) IMO, but any free ones I get have been more useful compared to past versions.

 

[Antaeus]

When used well they're doing alright at the moment. They're always going to struggle in that you can't tell them to target specific formations when they charge - so if you order them to do so, most will go towards the nearest enemy, which fragments their charge.

So like all things, it's not about the unit capabilities or stats, but how easy they are to use effectively. Tinkering with stats doesn't change this. They'll need babysitting until I can order them to 'charge at those archers' and have them do that rather than chase the single horse archer who happened to stroll by when I issued the charge order.

 

[LuciusDomitiusAurelianus]

On Melee Cav, the cycle charge and actor positioning detection (e.g., knowing where other units are in the field as to not run into them) still needs improvement. It's almost always better to have them follow you, then charge and follow you again to re form and charge again - since the archer AI will disengage you pretty quick if you do not linger. Charge damage and accuracy is a whole lot better overall so if you catch enemy in flat terrain they're pretty much toast.

On Horse Archers, I wish they had a way to change the carousel behavior where if an HA runs out of arrows they move to the outside of the formation instead of charging in randomly in pairs only to get killed. I'd rather them all expend their ammo then form into a line or square from where you line up so you can then use them as melee cav all together.

 

[Brano]

Where is my ammo wagon when I need to replenish my arrows? Can't we have for each battle that thing with pack mules when you defend caravan? To retreat and rearm.

 

[Dabos37]

Talking 100% about cavalry performance in battles (KD), I find cavalry pretty good in 1.9.0.

Concerning the AI, there is still room for improvements, but thanks to great stats and equipment, elite cavalry units are now doing a pretty good job.

 

[xdj1nn]

so
what are peoples thoughts on cavalry being supposedly made more effective with couch lancing and killing power in general.

haven't you tried it? It's blatantly better, but now the issue's the AI body blocking us constantly

Talking 100% about cavalry performance in battles (KD), I find cavalry pretty good in 1.9.0.

Concerning the AI, there is still room for improvements, but thanks to great stats and equipment, elite cavalry units are now doing a pretty good job.

there was zero equipment change other than the new horses. It's purely an AI improvement.

 

[Dabos37]

haven't you tried it? It's blatantly better, but now the issue's the AI body blocking us constantly

there was zero equipment change other than the new horses. It's purely an AI improvement.

Have I said that cavalry equipment got changed in this patch?

 

[xdj1nn]

Have I said that cavalry equipment got changed in this patch?

Concerning the AI, there is still room for improvements, but thanks to great stats and equipment, elite cavalry units are now doing a pretty good job.