Cavaliers vs Determined horse

[SwartzeHeinrich]

Im new at this and are tweaking my army for britcon, right now im having an cavaliers vs determined horse dilemma.

Id appriciate some input

[madaxeman]

There's almost nothing in it - one is slightly harder to rally from pursuit and i think thats about it.

Armour and Superiority are more important, this choice is somewhat academic in most normal games

[kevinj]

Tim's right, the difference is that Cavaliers do not automatically stop pursuing routers if they lose contact, the details are on Page 140.

For this they cost 1-3 points less than the equivalent Determined Horse depending on quality and armour.

In some cases the different types have different weapon options, e.g. Later Louis XIV French, the Cavaliers can only be Impact Mounted/Sword whereas the Determined Horse have the additional option of Pistol/Pistol. Unless this is the case, I think that the points saving for Cavaliers is worth having as the Pursuit issue isn't often a problem.

[Vespasian28]

the Pursuit issue isn't often a problem.

Oh so true in my experience too. Mostly play ECW where DH and cavaliers feature and the cavaliers opponents usually end up dead and therefore not in a position to be pursued

Same seems to happen a bit earlier when using Gendarmes, there's nothing left to pursue and as yet I have not had the "delights" of an overlong pursuit.

[SwartzeHeinrich]

Seams like Cavliers are the way to go, what about elite are thy worth the extra points

[deadtorius]

Depends on how lucky you are, but I have used elite troops and that extra die score is all that saved the day. They should do well for cohesion but get shot down just as well as poor troops. Depending on dice rolls they can do well or become expensive corpses.

[alasdair2204]

Cavaliers and Elite

and now I don't want to play you, I refuse to play anyone who has better cavalry than me, might have to be the Louis XIV

cheers

Alasdair

[deadtorius]

I wouldn't worry too much my ECW Royalist Cavaliers almost always lost to the Parliament horse and commanded shot combo
Part of the reason we switched to German 30 Years War lists.

[SwartzeHeinrich]

Depends on how lucky you are, but I have used elite troops and that extra die score is all that saved the day. They should do well for cohesion but get shot down just as well as poor troops. Depending on dice rolls they can do well or become expensive corpses.

True but i plan to be extreamly lucky

[SwartzeHeinrich]

Cavaliers and Elite

and now I don't want to play you, I refuse to play anyone who has better cavalry than me, might have to be the Louis XIV

cheers

Alasdair

he he from what i can gather on this list that might be a good thing

[Vespasian28]

I wouldn't worry too much my ECW Royalist Cavaliers almost always lost to the Parliament horse and commanded shot combo

Whereas I found the reverse to be true and have only achieved one win in three years using Parliamentary Carbine horse with commanded shot.

And then there was the infamous five units of Parliamentarians; 2 carbine horse, 2 commanded shot and the Lobsters all uphill of three Cavaliers and we lost the lot for the price of one unit of cavaliers and that was because it had been shot up by artillery on the way in and was down 50% before impact

[deadtorius]

Gee now I don't feel so unlucky after all.

[marty]

I find all the 2 dice a base cav (gendarmes, det horse, cavliers) underwhelming. I think you are generall better off with horse. Much more points effective.

Martin

[kevinj]

I find all the 2 dice a base cav (gendarmes, det horse, cavliers) underwhelming. I think you are generall better off with horse. Much more points effective.

I agree, although Gendarmes can be effective in period, i.e if there are no Pistols to worry about. In an open period however, Heavily Armoured Superior Cuirassiers are normally very cost effective compared to Armoured Determined Horse/Cavaliers.

[rbodleyscott]

I find all the 2 dice a base cav (gendarmes, det horse, cavliers) underwhelming. I think you are generall better off with horse. Much more points effective.

I agree, although Gendarmes can be effective in period, i.e if there are no Pistols to worry about.

I am sold on superior heavily armoured gendarmes with heavy lance (in period). OK they might come a
cropper against fully armoured superior gendarmes, but they will probably beat average ones. However, their main selling point is that they move 5" instead of 4", which makes a massive difference. (Especially if you want to ride round behind the Swiss before they crush everything in front of them.)

To answer the OP, the answer is Cavaliers, if you can't have heavily armoured cuirassiers.