Favorite Horse UU?

I found it's a bit difficult to decide whether to build mounted units in a game. I love their move-after-attacking ability and their agility but their lack of defensive bonus and/or penalty attacking cities make me feel that sometimes it's better to build more melee or ranged units rather than mounted units. When I use a civ that has a mounted UU, I just don't know how to use it well. So what's your opinion on mounted units and mounted UU?

(Keshik and Camel Archer are intentionally excluded from this poll because I know otherwise all votes will go for those guys )

Why Keshik is not in the list? Keshiks are best.

My votes:
Horse Archer (The best of the list - 4 movement, no movement penalty from Rough Terrain, starts with open terrain bonus, higher strength, and production bonus from Huns UA allows them to become spammable easy. They can get march extremely quickly or logistics early)
War Chariot
Companion Cavalry
Sipahi
Hussar
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My personal votes. I do enjoy the African Forest elephant for getting a GG earlier for my mountain invasions (I let it act as a meatshield fora citystate/other civ to get GGs quick) and then use my second part of the UA to do an early sneak attack (particularly in multi) if I have a large mountain range. Always go pyramids with this strategy to build roads in one turn over the mountains (on quick) - but its more limited, more expensive, and less movement (all of which I don't like)

Should have eliminated the ranged horse archer as well. Range > melee.

Hmm, that's a tough choice. I don't typically build mounted units that much that often unless i'm looking for a power scout or a specific flanker against siege / ranged units.

I'd say my typical break down in invasion forces are,

40% - Melee
30% - Ranged
20% - Siege
10% - Mounted

Obviously the break down is subject my intended target, or if i'm in a defensive or offensive posture. As time goes on though and my army gains more promotions I start cranking out more siege units to speed taking cities.


Here are a few thoughts I had when reviewing UU mounted units in the Civilopedia.

African Forest Elephant - Stronger than Horseman (Which it replaces), Creates combat modifier in nearby units (-10% Combat Strength), and creates GG more frequently. So basically, its a horseman/maori warrior/samurai rolled into one. Also, doesn't require any strategic resources.

Companion Calvary - Pretty straight forward upgrade to the Horseman, moves faster, hits harder, and generates GG faster. Does require horses though.

Mandekalu Cavalry - Also a straight forward upgrade, but of the Knight. However, it can attack cities at full strength. Which means you could spam a fast moving army of city takers. Only downside with this strategy would be the lack of synergy with using siege units for those hard to take cities.

Sipahi - An interesting replacement to the Lancer, sees and travels further than a Lancer and pillages at no cost. Also, with the recent patch changes units heal when they pillage so this unit could make a great scout and harasser.

Cossack - Another interesting replacement, but of the standard Calvary unit. All it gets it is a combat bonus against damaged units, but when using it in a front line counter attacking role it can really make a difference.

Hussar - Another replacement of the Calvary, it is faster, and sees further, but most importantly it gets a bonus when flank attacking. This makes it idea in both a scouting role and in heavy combat role to help finish opponents off in a unit thick environment.

Feel free to look over your options in http://www.dndjunkie.com/civilopedia/UNIT_HOME.aspx

-Dental

Thanks for the information, dental, but one thing I disagree. I think Conquistadors are at least better than Mandekalu Cavalry. They both have no penalty attacking cities, but Conquistadors have +2 sight (Edited, can't retain upon upgrades), defensive embarkation (retainable upon upgrades) and can settle cities, while MC are 25 prod cheaper. I think those 3 abilities worth 25 prod.

The Hussar, just because it looks the coolest.

For me, it is the Caphract for being faster and stronger than the swordsman. One of the few times I build horse units is when playing Byzantium

Also, the Companion Cavalry, for being fast and strong, being able to rush-bully city-states with them is a good strategy that has sinergy with the greek UA.

My votes went for horse archer, conquistador and cossack.

Although HA can't hit-and-run, it's spammable and has high strength. Deadly and fast.
Conquistador can do everything well. It can spot enemies who are far away and it can go on offense well. In the colonization period, they are fantastic. Their extra sight, defensive embarkation and settling ability make them great pioneers in conquering and founding colonies.
I vote cossack for the appealing 33% bonus. A fast 45 strength guy (after adding the 33% bonus) can be crazy, as long as your ranged units keep inflicting damage to enemies.

Just a note: you're missing Naresuan's Elephant.

Just a note

The Conquistador DOES NOT retain any of the sight bonuses on upgrade or settling of cities ability.

The Conquistador probably isn't even better than the Mandelaku cavalry anymore (probably they are equal) as the Songhai UA allows them to be amhib which is important for mobile units
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I think Mandelaku Cavalry and Conquistadors both personally are mediocre. They can be used to hit a city sure - but why would you want that when you have ranged and siege units? The extra sight is huge but lost on upgrade. The ahmib over rivers is great for picking off units

Also the war elephant. My favorites are:

-Cossack
If you are fighting a wounded unit and they aren't Japanese, you already have a bonus against them. It's very good for defeating those spammy instaheal armies.
-Naresuan Elephant
Ai's like knights. This is a great defensive unit against those knight + trebuchet invasions
-War Elephant
Doesn't have that horrid rough terrain penalty, is stronger and cheaper than the comp bow, and comes earlier.
-Sipahi
One time I built 5 sipahis, ran into Siam, and pillaged everything in sight. They went from 1st in crop yield to 4th in 10 turns.

Uh...
Naresuans, Keshiks and Camel Archers.

I use horses a lot.

Despite all the penalties, nothing can stop me from relying on them to take cities. The crucial value of a horse for conquest is that it allows you to cycle healing and healed units more quickly, as you move from city to city. A horse unit can take that huge HP hit from entering the city and make it to the next seige after four turns.

A horse unit can also get out of the city same turn in those oddly frequent cases where the AI army is bunched up on the opposite side and will retake the city right away.

I also like lancers. I think they are a really nicely situated unit. I had a looming Industrial era war with Catherine in my last game so I built a ton of lancers and just used them as my melee units, even though I had rifling, since they were cheaper and faster.

Oops... I forgot Naresuan's Elephant. Anyway, I don't like 3 move mounted units because they lack the most important idea in building them.

Cataphracts and Mandekalu Calvary are probably the best melee mounted units. Both are more flexible in use than their unoriginal counterparts. Also make great gifts from city-states since you aren't likely to build many anyway.

Sipahi are so underrated! Five movement, extra sight, and free pillaging (which means free healing when the patch comes) makes for an awesome replacement to the otherwise lackluster lancer. These guys are the best strategic pillagers in the game (ok, Danish units that have disembarked might be slightly better, but the Sipahi doesn't need water).

They're all pretty nice, but I like Dido's elephant...the "next to scary opponent" negative for your enemy is awesome.

OmniPotent42 said:

Cataphracts and Mandekalu Calvary are probably the best melee mounted units. Both are more flexible in use than their unoriginal counterparts. Also make great gifts from city-states since you aren't likely to build many anyway.

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I don't see how either is more flexible. Movement makes for flexibility - and Mandelaku Cavalry were better before GK. With non ranged hits much less effective vs cities - Mandelaku doesn't give much on its own. The UA is what makes it slightly better than the regular horseman (no penalty across rivers)

Movement makes mounted units tick - A Cataphract can fortify ... but like every other mounted unit it doesn't get bonuses from hills/forest/jungle etc. Its 3 movement makes it personally less preferable than a regular horseman. Cataphracts, Mandelakus, and Conquistadors are just not versatile enough really compared to the other mounted UUs.

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Catphracts DO retain defensive bonus from terrain. The full bonuses for them are: Retain defensive bonus from terrain, might fortify, +3 strenght, -1 movement, -25% penalty against cities (rather than the regular 33%).