jogibbs12 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2024 4:43 pm
I start out by trying to destroy their lights, but it takes so many turns, since the lights all evade. Halfway through the rest of their army catches up, and I give up and try to deal with the other units instead. Is it worth persevering and getting full Lights-Dominance (ie I have some lights left, they have none)? I feel like I'm wasting a lot of arrows if I want to go 100% to try to destroy their lights. Worth it, or better to spend the arrows on beefier units?
But if I don't keep focusing the lights, what's the next unit-type to target?
Are there any matchups that are 1 on 1 favorable for you?
It's often enough to damage the enemy's lights enough that they don't present a real threat to your shooters, and then switch to concentrating first on killing the enemy's non light cavalry, as it is vulnerable. Once they're out of the way you really don't have much to worry about in terms of getting caught out, and can concentrate on the infantry. Squishier units like Medium Foot will be more vulnerable to cohesion drops, which you can follow up with a charge by (if you have them) your lancers that you have kept in reserve.
1. Foot lights - I assume their role is to shoot down opposing horse & foot lights early on, and to block movement later on when out of arrows. The problem is that later on, they're an easy source of points for the opponents to target/rout when they're just standing around blocking stuff.
Even at low ammo they are a threat to enemy cavalry - not cavalry on the move necessarily, but thanks to the stationary shooting bonus you can't necessarily just ignore them. They are only an easy source of points in the open, and even then you can try to position them so that charging and killing them wastes the time of a much more valuable unit.
2. Horse lights - I assume to shoot down opposing horse & foot lights early on, and to chase down foot & horse lights later on. The problem is that they're often disrupted/fragmented later on, and aren't even strong enough to chase.
The ideal situation for light horse is getting them entirely behind the enemy army. From here they can charge lights, break fragged units or frag disrupted units, randomly charge important targets for the base +50POA, which can cause drops, and, critically, threaten Bowmen. All cavalry, light and non light, get +100 Impact against Bowmen in the open, so you can use this (against the AI, to kill their Bowmen, against a player, to force them to move or cover them).
3. Cav archers - I assume shooting is their main role. What do you do with them once they're low on arrows?
For both types 2 & 3, who should they prioritize spending their arrows on, opposing lights, opposing heavier cav, opposing foot units, opposing general units? I assume limited arrows means you have to spend them wisely. How to decide when to switch from shooting to charging a weakened target?
They need to win fire superiority, so reduce the enemy's missiles to the point that they are not a local threat. This can be done by shooting the enemy, but it can also be done by concentrating on one flank.
4. Cav melee - In infantry armies, I use them to flank and rout, once another unit fixes their target in position. In cav engagements, it takes a long time to fix an opponent into a situation where it's safe to flank. I find I get my cav melee bogged down into combat well before then.
Is it a waste of them to charge before you set up a flank (just a regular 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 charge)? Those can take 3-4 turns to resolve in your favor. And weakens your unit so it can't charge as effectively later on.
There isn't a one size fits all answer to this. This just depends. How vital is it to break that unit? How vital is it that your unit not break? What benefit do you gain by either charging in directly or taking time to setup a flank?
5. Lancers - no idea what they're good for. They seem like 4, but even a worse matchup against other heavier units. Plus they don't evade. Seem almost a liability.
Lancers are not liability, they are powerful, but they are more useful once you have a good understanding of how evasion works. They also impost CT penalties on units they beat on Impact, which is very useful. No they cannot charge Spears or Pikes head on and expect to do much, (except Cataphracts, but that tends to be a wasteful way to use them). They can charge Light Spear or Impact Foot head on and do okay, but they are much better used in more subtle ways. Against infantry, they ideally should wait until the enemy is disrupted, and then charge in. This can be a shattering blow thanks to their extra CT modifiers, and against Spear/Pike, it unlocks their full Lance Impact. Against horse archers, they need to maneuver to being adjacent to the enemy, and *then* charge on their next turn, to maximize the chance of catching them. Alternately, they can wait until the horse archers have bunched up to shoot at your infantry, and then sally out; with the enemy bunched up, it's quite possible to charge multiple evaders, catch one, and then chain break several of them.
There are also Lancers with 50% Bow, which can be used in combination with your own pure missile units to simultaneously cause drops and move into effective charge positions.
)
) against the Huns played by Nosy_Rat (an extremely good player)