Heavy Cavalry: Worth all the Horses?

[GaryChildress]

Line infantry moves at 4 hexes per turn and heavy calvalry by 6 I think. At times it seems like heavy cavalry are not that much more effective in combat than line infantry.

Plus France gets horses at a rate of 2 per turn. It takes 80 to make a heavy cavalry. Therefore you're looking at 40 turns just to get enough horses to make heavy cavalry.

It doesn't seem like heavy cavalry is going to play a very important role in the game. Is it worth even wasting precious horses on it? I'm thinking horse artillery is the way to go with horse usage. At least it can move and shoot where regular artillery can't do both at the same time.

[joerock22]

From what I've seen, heavy cavalry is deadly when used correctly. They ride over basically anything except strong line infantry. I think you're right though, France is a lot better off building horse artillery. The horses you spend maintaining the heavy cavalry you already have will make it impossible to build any more.
As France, I feel funneled into buying infantry and artillery, though that's not necessarily ahistorical. Historically, Napoleon's heavy cavalry was the best in Europe, but he never had a lot of them at one time. At least, that's what I've gathered from my modest knowledge of the period. At Austerlitz, Napoleon's outnumbered cavalry beat their Russian counterparts simply because they were better.
So could heavy cavalry be a little cheaper in the game? Yes, but I think it's fine the way it is. Besides, it gives the French side more of an incentive to protect their convoys, which can carry more than enough horses to recruit an entire cavalry unit.

[firepowerjohan]

From what I've seen, heavy cavalry is deadly when used correctly. They ride over basically anything except strong line infantry. I think you're right though, France is a lot better off building horse artillery. The horses you spend maintaining the heavy cavalry you already have will make it impossible to build any more.
As France, I feel funneled into buying infantry and artillery, though that's not necessarily ahistorical. Historically, Napoleon's heavy cavalry was the best in Europe, but he never had a lot of them at one time. At least, that's what I've gathered from my modest knowledge of the period. At Austerlitz, Napoleon's outnumbered cavalry beat their Russian counterparts simply because they were better.
So could heavy cavalry be a little cheaper in the game? Yes, but I think it's fine the way it is. Besides, it gives the French side more of an incentive to protect their convoys, which can carry more than enough horses to recruit an entire cavalry unit.

You can also loot horses, attack british convoy with a nasty pirate "Admiral" on board of a privateer
For France it is appealing using leaders and research to get the best bang for the buck since they lack both horses and manpower they instead need to go for quality.

[alaric318]

Line infantry moves at 4 hexes per turn and heavy calvalry by 6 I think. At times it seems like heavy cavalry are not that much more effective in combat than line infantry.

Plus France gets horses at a rate of 2 per turn. It takes 80 to make a heavy cavalry. Therefore you're looking at 40 turns just to get enough horses to make heavy cavalry.

It doesn't seem like heavy cavalry is going to play a very important role in the game. Is it worth even wasting precious horses on it? I'm thinking horse artillery is the way to go with horse usage. At least it can move and shoot where regular artillery can't do both at the same time.

greetings, my advice on heavy cavalry is that you better attach a leader to each heavy cavalry you have, if you manage to surrender vienna+austria you will have two more horse farms and can take one more on prussia and one more maybe in spain, the high survavility rating of heavy cavalry give them enhance ability to resist artillery fire, each strenght point loss of heavy cost 3 horses i think, so, napoleon and others leaders can reduce heavy's losses with his attack/defense bonus to attached heavy's, i usually wait to "re-attach" napoleon from the horse artillery untill vienna falls because i need the efficiency bonus for the attack, but in the campaign game, two heavy cavalry's with two good generals can be dangerous and tough units, i do not know how it will work with human opponents but i found it very effective against the AI opponent, about "opening wagon moves" mainly send the artillery on italy just west of munich will give you bonus for the attack on the first line of austrians, so for the horse artillery moving they to 2 hexes of austrian targets and then firing and then sending infantry to cover artillery and attack with the supporting artillery (and/or cavalry), you may find a must to take vienna on some about 10 turns, give the bad weather will come and then the timeline reach the prussian join on the war, basically, to have a strong cavalry reinforced army you will need conquer the horse farms, as france, and it is historical, each battle is decivise for france to stay in the war, i found it realistic,

with best regards,

alarick.