Mongols - Cav or LH

[durrati]

Am probably going to bdo a Mongol army next - the big decision being should I bse them 2 or 3 to a base? Is there any people with experience willing to ouline the pro's and cons of unprotected cav as opposed to LH? What would you take and why? Big decision is once they are based you are sort of stuck with them.

Cheers

[rbodleyscott]

Am probably going to bdo a Mongol army next - the big decision being should I bse them 2 or 3 to a base? Is there any people with experience willing to ouline the pro's and cons of unprotected cav as opposed to LH? What would you take and why? Big decision is once they are based you are sort of stuck with them.

I think you need some of each. The LH are far more flexible, but lack punch (even shooting punch). The cavalry have more shooting punch and are great for charging flanks/rear, and against enemy LH, but are harder to pull back in the face of a determined enemy advance.

So you might think of using the LH to delay the enemy on one wing while your armoured heavy cavalry attack on the other.

Unprotected/Protected cavalry can be used

1) 1 BG in support of your light horse so that the enemy cannot ignore them completely and to tip the balance against enemy LH.
2) Other BGs giving additional shooting support to your main heavy cavalry attack.

(Don't do what I did and charge a BG of Superior knights in both flanks with Average cavalry. The knights just turned round and slaughtered them.)

[hammy]

This is really rather a difficult one. I have not yet tried a fully mounted army but I would definitely want some of them as cavalry. At Britcon last year on plucky player brought I think a Petchneg made up entirely of cavalry bow but I am fairly sure by the end of the comp he realised that you need some light horse.

I would probably go for around a 50/50 split but you could be really clever and use some of your mounted on single magnetised bases and then use metal bases with a space for a couple of individual figures to get the best of both worlds.

For the Turkoman in my Arab horde I just went for 12 bases of cavalry and 12 of light horse to support my 24 bases of Ghilmen and 12 of Arab lancers

[IanB3406]

(Don't do what I did and charge a BG of Superior knights in both flanks with Average cavalry. The knights just turned round and slaughtered them.)

Really? Even with automatic cohesion drop? I guess you can only drop once per phase by being charged in flank / rear. I would figure two groups of Cav to win this with flanks.

[Montezuma49]

Or you could go for a 40% cavalry, 60% light horse split. Although these proportions have been questioned over the years, I don't believe they have been totally discredited.

regards
Paul

[rbodleyscott]

(Don't do what I did and charge a BG of Superior knights in both flanks with Average cavalry. The knights just turned round and slaughtered them.)

Really? Even with automatic cohesion drop? I guess you can only drop once per phase by being charged in flank / rear. I would figure two groups of Cav to win this with flanks.

I charged both flanks at once, so only one cohesion drop. (Not often you get the opportunity, I could not resist!). My cavalry were average so no re-rolls. The knights were superior and had re-rolls. I failed to drop them to Fragmented in the Impact combat, and failed to kill a base.

The knights get 2 dice per base in melee, so although they were disrupted in the melee, they still had 3 dice vs 4 dice against each of my cavalry BGs, no POA. (Knights a POA up for better armour and a POA down for fighting in two directions). Superior vs Average was enough to equalise the combat, which they then won.

[caliban66]

But mind also that unprotected cav just dies if there´s any bow in 6 MU around. Place them carefully.

[hammy]

But mind also that unprotected cav just dies if there´s any bow in 6 MU around. Place them carefully.

Unprotected cavalry in a single rank are OK against missiles. The problem is you need to get into a deeper formation to fight and then if you win you have to get back out of it before you get blown to bits by missiles....

[rbodleyscott]

The problem is you need to get into a deeper formation to fight and then if you win you have to get back out of it before you get blown to bits by missiles....

Not too hard with drilled Mongols.

However, I don't have the bottle for Unprotected cavalry - I used mine as Protected. It also makes them better for charging infantry flanks, as then they won't suffer armour disdavantage in melee vs Protected foot.