Slitherine

I really want to like Reiters, but can never get them to punch at their own weight class for the cost in late Italian wars early Tercio to salvo era. What are some tips for using them effectively?

Use them in conjunction with missile infantry. Against medium infantry, charge. Against pike keils, park them directly in front of the enemy and open fire. They will lock the pikemen in their zone of control, forcing the pikes to charge them. Make sure to leave space empty behind your reiters, allowing them to fall back after contact. This leaves the pikemen standing in place, helpless against any missile troops you may have in range. Against lancers, it's a little tricky; the reiters will probably win in the melee, but lose on impact against lancers. You could ride into range and blast away, hoping for a disruption, or you could try to weaken the enemy with skirmishers first. As with any unit type of course, you can try to maneuver for a flank attack, or support the reiters with your own lancers. You'll have a tough time against Gendarmes, but demi lancers shouldn't be difficult to deal with.

They can be effective, but they are difficult to use effectively, due to their weakness against lancer cavalry or kurassiers.

Thanks for the answer. I don't want to spam new threads. I'm now at 1590 and having trouble beating tercios with Mauritian Infantry. Any pointers?

GamerMan wrote:Thanks for the answer. I don't want to spam new threads. I'm now at 1590 and having trouble beating tercios with Mauritian Infantry. Any pointers?

Concentrate fire on them. Try to avoid close combat as long as possible. Ride down their gendarmes with your kurassiers.

Ok, i meant in skirmish more than the scenario. The problem i'm having is that even with me tracking closely the damage totals and aiming to do 72 damage (or slightly less for injured later tercio. Also, i did the math, and moving from 5% to 8% almost always improves your odds by more than 60%), i generally just get 2 rounds of shooting (1 for them moving into range, and then one on my turn) before they get into melee. And when they get into melee, my focus fired units often get stuck staring at a late tercio in melee and i'm not sure if i should take a half shot or join a disadvantaged melee just to help the other one or risk a withdraw action.