How to play with horse archer nations?

[Witan]

Hello,

I played some battles now and I really don't know how to have a chance with horse archer nations. I really like to play with horse archers, but how should it be possible to weaken a army with so low ammuniton?

I shot with like 5 horse archers on one unit, but no moral break happened... and my regular cavalery got destroyed.

Some advices would be really nice!

[JaM2013]

You need quite a lot of horse archers.. At Carrhae, Parthians had 8000 horse archers and just around 1000 cataphracts.. anyway best way how to learn how to play it, is by trying the opposite - play a campaign as Romans against Numidians (war against Jughurta) they usually deploy a lot of light javelin horse and AI seems to be using them quite well.. just observe what they are doing to you.. then use same approach with horse archers I guarantee you, you will instantly see those units as huge pain to deal with...

[TDefender]

I have noticed too that weaken unit status seems very difficult now and the "5-turn at full ammo" rule it's another thing that doesn't help to make yours light forces too useful ....

[JaM2013]

technically speaking even battle of Carrhae was not won during the clash, but after battle ended with Romans trying to withdraw.. horse archers combined with heavy cavalry were insanely effective at chasing down separated units and wiping them out..

[jamespcrowley]

I've just completed a battle, Parthians v Romans; so pretty much all horse archers. Also had some Cataphracts and some medium infantry.

I managed to win by concentrating on the more vulnerable Roman units on the flanks with the horse archers, while gradually pulling back the cataphracts and mediums, pulling the heavier legionaries towards them.

Then moved all the cataphracts to the left to mix it up with a couple of the legionary cohorts. The mediums eventually got caught but put up a spirited fight and succeeded in keeping 5 enemy units distracted long enough for the cataphracts to rout the two cohorts.

Meanwhile the horse archers destroyed the Roman cavalry and javelin lights and a heavy artillery unit and that gave me just enough for a victory.

It can be done but you have to be patient and I can't claim that it was easy. Great fight though!

[JorgenCAB]

Yes Carrhae can hardly be called a battle in the normal sense... the Roman army was destroyed during its march after the first day of being showered by arrows with little losses. The Romans simply misjudged the number of arrows the enemy had an withdrew in disorder.

The Romans learned from their mistakes and stoped being so passive and could defeat horse armies that way later on.

[w_michael]

I played an Autofill solitaire game last night (Gov. level) as Numidians vs. Romans and won. I'm not sure I could do it against a live opponent, but then they would have fewer Romans. You have to concentrate fire and not be afraid to flank/rear charge with the light horse, especially if the missile fire disrupts the enemy unit. You often win the impact and then the light horse withdraws from the combat. It takes a lot of time, and when you run out of ammo you have to just grind them down to autobreak level because you can't inflict enough damage for a cohesion test.

[nikgaukroger]

You need quite a lot of horse archers.. At Carrhae, Parthians had 8000 horse archers and just around 1000 cataphracts..

And lots of camels with arrows for resupply

Perhaps horse archer armies should be allowed to buy them to buy extra rounds of shooting at full effect?

[Jagger2002]

And lots of camels with arrows for resupply

Yes, I was wondering about how arrow resupply was handled historically. I assume resupply was done.

[Witan]

You need quite a lot of horse archers..

I has like 20 of them. I could only weaken 1 enemy roman unit through the entire game...

anyway best way how to learn how to play it, is by trying the opposite - play a campaign as Romans against Numidians (war against Jughurta) they usually deploy a lot of light javelin horse and AI seems to be using them quite well.. just observe what they are doing to you.. then use same approach with horse archers I guarantee you, you will instantly see those units as huge pain to deal with...

Normally, i would say, with this advice you are absolutely right, but in this case the AI was kind of very very bad. I played with romans vs parthians and the AI did nothing with most of the horse archers stying in the background till the end of battle. On the other side, the AI took all cataphracts and attacked my roman line forntal and lost everything. By the end, i won the game, without loosing anything at all.

I have noticed too that weaken unit status seems very difficult now and the "5-turn at full ammo" rule it's another thing that doesn't help to make yours light forces too useful ....

I am also thinking, that this is a real problem of the game. It is really difficult to weaken enemy units with arrows.

I managed to win by concentrating on the more vulnerable Roman units on the flanks with the horse archers

Maybe this is the only way to win with horse archer nations at this moment...

I played an Autofill solitaire game last night (Gov. level) as Numidians vs. Romans and won. I'm not sure I could do it against a live opponent, but then they would have fewer Romans. You have to concentrate fire and not be afraid to flank/rear charge with the light horse, especially if the missile fire disrupts the enemy unit. You often win the impact and then the light horse withdraws from the combat. It takes a lot of time, and when you run out of ammo you have to just grind them down to autobreak level because you can't inflict enough damage for a cohesion test.

Thank you for this advice, but i think that it is a bit easier to break morale of enemy units with javelins. Maybe it is only imagination, but for me it feels harder to waeken enemy units by arrows.