Slitherine

Not sure if I have mentioned this anywhere else, but I would like a Charge option for cavalry where they run in doing trample damage, then run back out. An example of this would be the Mimbrate Knights in The Belgariad series if anyone has read that.

You can already charge & disengage. Making it automated would make trample too effective I think.

I already do the charge/ disengage in singleplayer. My heavy cav had master trample and expert drill, just for that.

iainmcneil wrote:Easiest - fictional campaigns using the same unit set. Still a lot of work, but should not have a huge impact on other projects. This could be sold as a digital download as costs are lower so we don't need to sell so many or at such a high price to cover the costs.

There are obviously lots of levels in between, but this gives you a rough idea.

I love this idea, and indeed it's exactly what I would have suggested. I especially like the fact that you could sell this is digital DL only, and avoid the whole hostile retail scenario.

Would it be difficult to allow a unit to be concealed on the battlefield, say in a wood or a ravine, as Hannibal so loved to do with his Numidian Cavalry?

sum1won wrote:I already do the charge/ disengage in singleplayer. My heavy cav had master trample and expert drill, just for that.

Yes, I do this too, but the timing is damn tricky. If you're a touch too slow, the enemy wings fold around your cavalry, then they're surrounded and cannot disengage.

iainmcneil wrote:You can already charge & disengage. Making it automated would make trample too effective I think.

You mean so they just trample, not stop and fight? Coz all I can see are buttons that make them stop and fight, but that isn't the way they worked. Usually they had a lance, and hit the first person with it, trampled through until they met too much resistance, then dropped back. With the current set-up they will stop at the first troops they get too and start fighting them.

sacredzero. To disengage, just hit the "disengage" button, I believe it looks like an arrow pointing backwards. The unit will use up command points in doing this and I believe they will retreat entirely unless you tell them not to (though I have never tried it).

Also, as I believe this was before stirrups, there could be no great lancing charges. I believe cavalry charges of this era were useful, but only light enemies would fall to a frontal hit (unless they were very good cavalry against terrible infantry). generals used cavalry for three pruposes in this era, I believe:

Some cavalry may have just been mounted skirmishers, so they served the same function but better, as they would be even hardcer to catch.
Cavalry, with their speed, was great a catching unguarded skirmishers/archers and other cavalry unguarded, along with fleeing enemies.
Finally, if the general could pull it off, cavalry could hold its own in a flank.

I hope I am helpful and right.

Other uses of cavalry:

Scouting and foraging ahead of and around the army
Running down fleeing troops
Headhunting behind the lines for leaders and support troops
Hitting a unit in flank or rear while it was pinned to the front
Preventing the other side's cavalry from doing the same to your troops

The spears were probably used overhand, not couched against the side of the body as with a lance. Still, the speed of the horse added to the weapon thrust made it a lethal form of attack.

Threaten an enemy heavy infantry unit with one of your own, and when it turns to face them, THEN slam the cavalry into their unprotected backsides. They HATE when that happens. You can then safely disengage the cavalry and either repeat as necessary or move onto the next unsuspecting victim.