Can someone help me understand the strength of Calvary units?

[Bryan317]

The feel of knights differs depending on the difficulty. If Emperor or below, you're trying to get them before the other side. Then use them to pillage roads, resources, etc. They can't take out pikemen / longswords in mass but its really hard to kill them unless the other side misplays. (Using your scout with extra vision is important for this.)

On Immortal+, you have to have a plan for dealing with knights with Swordsman and Composite Bows only. It can be done but requires good city placement.

Part of the strength of knights is that they arrive early enough in the game that all civs might not have a mass of units yet - depends on the difficulty.

I probably can't come down from Deity after playing this game for so long (I'd rather lose and try again) so now I'm unsure on how much "free XP" the AI is getting on lower difficulties. Because I'd say that Formation II is what really makes using Calvary difficult. I also got to realize how much my particular play style is influencing my opinion. I'm a southside tech guy. And chivalry tends to be a low priority for me.

 

[tothePAIN]

I probably can't come down from Deity after playing this game for so long (I'd rather lose and try again) so now I'm unsure on how much "free XP" the AI is getting on lower difficulties. Because I'd say that Formation II is what really makes using Calvary difficult. I also got to realize how much my particular play style is influencing my opinion. I'm a southside tech guy. And chivalry tends to be a low priority for me.

Deity kind of forces south side tech because the AI is ahead and getting knights, no? You're opting into the counter to knights and doing it because otherwise, ow.

 

[tommytoxen]

Cavalry's free promotions are the movement points and the ability to attack and then move again, if not affected by zone of control during the initial attack. They get flanking through their movement.

yeah, this. cavalry are great for hit and run, especially if you've got workers building roads to your front line's flanks for them to use. i always pair them so they're never alone. heavy/skirmisher + knight/lancer. if you find an exposed flank and have those two together along with recon unit (medic + extra sight is amazing) you can do some serious damage. i never attack if it'll use all their movement points though as that's just pure suicide, unless it's extremely worth the loss (ie: to pillage a strategic resource that's causing me some problems). don't forget to retreat them into forests/jungles or across a river for defensive bonuses.

i actually used to NEVER use cavalry i never saw the point of them until i upped the game difficulty and found my old tactics just.. not working. i've learned the value of mopping up those red units and pillaging important tiles with cavalry units the hard way )

edit: i also find cavalry useful as a 'home guard'. while my main army is away fighting i can keep a couple of cavalry at home to deal with the occasional barbarian uprisings or invasions (might be a modmod idk). their massive movement rate means i can quickly move them across the empire, means i can spare more range and melee to the war effort instead of keeping them at home for defense

tl;dr, i think cavalry is fine as is. their movement points IS their bonus

 

[Bryan317]

Deity kind of forces south side tech because the AI is ahead and getting knights, no? You're opting into the counter to knights and doing it because otherwise, ow.

Yeah I think that's exactly it. And it's been a trend the last three games that I seem to switch to Rifleman while they still have Fusilier. It's during this time I will absolutely crush them until they upgrade. I'm not exactly sure what techs the AI has but we will be equal in tech or they could be one or two ahead of me. But I'm still fully switched to rifleman and they are not.

So this is when the transition happens, but before this it's exactly as you said. I'm forced to go south... I could try a more peaceful game though lol