Slitherine

In general are 4 or 6 bases of classical era heavy cavalry better? Does the better number of bases differ between superior vs. average. Example types of cavalry I'm taking about are Agema, Companions, Roman Cavalry, Gallic Cavalry, etc.

flameberge wrote:In general are 4 or 6 bases of classical era heavy cavalry better? Does the better number of bases differ between superior vs. average. Example types of cavalry I'm taking about are Agema, Companions, Roman Cavalry, Gallic Cavalry, etc.

I think it depends If shock Cv then 4 or 6 is OK, but "shooty" Cv are probably better in 4's.
As an example, I used Saka yesterday and while I had a lot of fun with them, I failed to get the best out of my "shooty" Cv (non-Lh) as I had them in 6's and in at least one instance found myself in combat when I'd rather have been shooting. Also it's easy to mask your shooty Cv with your own Lh accidentally and loose shooting dice.
So my rule of thumb is: if they're in the game primarily as shooters, take them in 4's.
If they are hard chargers, then 4's or 6's.
FWIW my Companions and Thessalian Cv are in 4's in my Alex Mac.

Regards

Dave M

I agree with Dave re shooting-style cavalry in general, esp if they may sometimes need to skirmish or fulfil a LH type role on the wings. Most cavalry intending to charge are better in 6s IMO, often with 4 bases in front rank and 2 behind , to maximise impact damage ( depending on what youre charging). Higher grade and better armoured cavalry in 4s is usually ok, esp if held back for the killer charge moment...

Martin

flameberge wrote:In general are 4 or 6 bases of classical era heavy cavalry better? Does the better number of bases differ between superior vs. average. Example types of cavalry I'm taking about are Agema, Companions, Roman Cavalry, Gallic Cavalry, etc.

You will see this thread elsewhere too. The previsous shooty cav comments are very valid. In addition

Average cavalry in 4s is brittle. So you find a lot of people wanting average cav in 6s.

Average cav losing one stand jsut start to degrade quickly.

If i had 12 average cav i rather have 2*6s than 3*4s.

With superior you have a touch more to weigh. I think if you plan to jam the cav in and slog it out then you still want 6s. But say the Romans who may only want the cav to lose slowly might get away with a 4 and hope the legions have time to win the day.

I agree with the points above. I'd add that in general knights are best in 4's.

I have a friend who uses shock cav & cataphracts in 6's. They are very tough to face, and tend to generate a lot of hits in melee (esp if lead by a general), but do chew up a lot of points.

4s are more maneuvrable but I do like the resilience of 6s. It's nice not to have to worry about missile attrition as you move up and to have a bit of resilience should the dice go against you in melee.