Horse army strategy

[GenNikolaj]

So I have recently returned to the game (haven't played since Legions Triumphant) and after seeing Age of Belisarius focus on bizantine horseback combat I suddenly realised I have no clue how to play with them.

In the base game and subsequent DLC's I've spent 50h on playing various Roman, Greek and Carthaginian armies, with no attention paid to Parthians or Sarmatians. Now I want to play through Belisarius campaign and epic battles, but I launch the battle of Dara, look at the army composition and come to realise I have no idea what to do.

[MVP7]

What I usually do against the AI is send whatever infantry I have to the center of the enemy to delay and disturb them while I have my cavalry wing(s) surrounding and destroying them from the flanks piecemeal before they have time to rearrange into more effective formation. You should also use all the possible archers, massed archers and horse archers you can fit in to disturb the enemy formations so your cavalry can kill them faster and distract the enemy forces that are moving towards your core cavalry force at the flanks. Cataphracts and Heavy Chariots can even hold against the enemy infantry front for a moment if you don't have any decent infantry to tie the enemy into place.

To put it shortly, use your mobility to destroy the enemy force with overwhelming local advantage in numbers.

edit. When I say all the archers you can fit in I mean all you can physically fit in with your cavalry without obstructing their movement too much.

[Ludendorf]

Remember that cheaper lancers can stop elite enemy infantry dead in their tracks. Park them in front of a phalanx or unit of elite impact foot and you'll basically have them in place until the enemy can get round the side, get the cavalry involved or risk a charge at a substantial disadvantage to force them to shift backwards ready for some other hapless unit of foot to take their place. Lancers make excellent delaying units.

The heavier variety (armoured lancers) can even give raw infantry pause for thought from the front. Also, if it comes down to a duel between a unit of ordinary warband and a unit of heavy lancers, my money is on the lancers.

Your light horse, meanwhile, can charge into the flanks and pin units of enemy cavalry and force them to turn, exposing their flanks to heavy cavalry or infantry. If you block in the light horse with something, they can even hold the cavalry or even infantry like this for a while. If you pin a unit of cavalry into melee, that will allow you to move up a second unit to get the flank on its target.

Meanwhile, use of large numbers of skirmishers at the start of the battle can force the enemy to waste their missile reserves and disperse their formation trying to chase you down. You may lose some of your skirmishers, but draw the enemy forward far enough and suddenly you may find opportunities opening up.