With their ineffectiveness against riflemen and being totally worthless against infantry, I find it very difficult to prosecute an offensive war with cavalry.
I find I usually busy myself building infrastruture and preparing for mass-production of tanks, but I would like to have the Cavalry war as an arrow in my strategic quiver. So, how do you prepare and execute a successful Cavalry war?
build lots and lots of chariot/horsemen/knights. When in middle-age era, research military tradition as fast as you can. I usually get economics, then democracy, THEN military tradition... Just so I have the smith trading co wonder. Once you have military tradition, upgrade all your horse units to cavalry. Hopefully you should have 50-60 to upgrade by then and you will still have at least 20-30 turns at least before the first riflemen or infantry start to arrive. Once you are in war, try to get ALL the AI into a war fighting somebody. This will prolong their research effort and make the cavalry era a bit longer.
A single cavalry may be ineffective against rifleman, but in stacks, they are VERY effective. With their 3 movement points and retreat bonus, while it may take a more than one cavalry to beat a defender, they don't die as often, so you can get some good use out of them.
I've also found that they are better in Armies than Tanks. Here is why: They have 3 movement points which gives the Army 3 attacks instead of the 2 attacks that any other unit gives (because it is based on movement points). 4 cavalry in an Army can attack 3 times (vs. 4 attacks individually). 4 tanks in an Army attack 2 times (vs. 8 attacks individually).
I find that when I get close to tanks, I fill all my armies with Cavalry because it extends their life and avoid putting tanks in the Armies. A 4 cavlary Army is effective for quite some time.
I use cavalry for just about everything. They are VERY useful and dominate evrything in the mideavel age. They are also powerful for a while in the industrial age because the AI is sometimes slow to upgrade.
I don't use them in the Industrial age---the time before tanks is my infrastructure building era. Cavs are effective, only you must upgrade knights to cavs to maximize the time you have. Also, its helpful to go up the right side of the tree, and not the left, so you have more time with cavs.
Cavalry is my second favorite attacking unit (first being swordsmen). As DaDoo mentioned, you need to have many mounted units for upgrade to capture the most advantage.
One thing you should keep in mind is that they face almost certain death if attacked by your emeny's cavalry. It is easy to carry away with 3 movement and attack deep into enemy's territory. It is difficult to hold newly captured cities without decent defensive reforcement. So, for that, I usually march 2-3 defensive units into enemy territory and follow up with cavalry attack. I don't like leaving my cavalry in the open.
As for riflemen, do what DaDoo/SirJethro suggested and attack with a stack of 6 or so. For infantry, you need artilleries and infantries, cavalries play the role of the last resort reinforcement. Cavs are pretty good on attacking tanks on open ground too.
Put in veteran cavalry attacking veteran fortified rifleman in a city, and you will see he will lose 80% of the time. If you knock the rifleman down 2 hp to conscript level, your cavalry will win almost 60% of the time.
Either use arty to knock off hit points, or use enough cavalry to knock off points. E.g., the 1st cavalry might lose, but will knock 1-2 hp off. If you have 3 cavalry for each defender, you should be able to take the city in one turn.
I like to use the cav as turf burners. That is use their speed to start cutting out roads to resources while bothering the city with riflemsn and infantry.
I always use cavalry to take out riflemen and infantry once i knock their health points down to 1. I usually build armies and put cavalry in them so that i have a very good chance of winning. Now, once i have infantry left with 2 or 3 hp, i bring in the tanks
As alluded to above, the great thing about cavalry is their 3 movement points. Try to max. this (and minimising the effect of their weak defence) by parking them on hills in enemy terrain, and attacking on their first or second turn.
Used in masses, in conjunction with artillery and infantry they are pretty useful units.
Cavalry can be very useful against opponents who have a week core. I think this will be more evident in multiplayer.
I am playing a game right now where an incredibly stong Japanese AI opponent sent the farm north to fight an enemy on the other end of the continent. I let the Japanese pass (though they didn't have a ROP) and get to the other side of continent using ROP's with everyone else. Meanwhile I built units like crazy and signed MPP with everyone between his forces and me... I had tanks, but a large amount of cavalry, artillery, and bombers. I used tanks to bust the first few cities that had infantry... but the cavalry was invaluable in punching through afterwards to the cities that had spearmen! They could move fast enough that the enemy had little time to upgrade... and my bombers made sure they didn't have the barracks to do so.
I don't mind losing some cavalry to riflemen if I take the city I'm attacking. Got to expect some losses, and those units are near the end of their life cycle anyhow.
I also use cavalry when I'm on the defensive. Use artillery to bombard nearby units and send cavalry out to finish them off then return to a city where the defensive units will provide protection.
I agree with Zachriel about Blitzers having less defense. I modded MA to Defense 14, and I gave Mechs an extra movement as well. It helps in creating the need of balancing forces (not like in unmodded, where you build very little Mech since they have a very little defense advantage and a BIG attack/movement disadvantage.)
generally i upgrade all my knights to cavs but dont build any more once i get infantry i almost alway fight a very hard long war around the time (ww1) i get infantry and as cavalry have the same attack as infantry after i take out defenders with artillery (a must during this time period) they can be quite effective as they can reatreat if things go bad. once tanks come in you might aswell disband your all your cavalry and save the upkeep.
Musketmen defend at 4, while Longbow and Knights attack at 4. As the defender always has the advantage of terrain, this would be a period of history when the defensive units would have an overall battlefield advantage.
Most players would just wait for Cavalry, but there is a great deal of flexibility in the game, and plenty of alternatives. Also, technology is usually moving rather quickly by this point in the game, so the defender's advantage, if any, would be just for a short while.
Pillager mentioned that he missed Dragoons. I just meant to provide a specific reason they might be seen as "missing" from the game. I would rather see Dragoons, than Cavalry. This fits with the historical perspective of gunpowder infantry becoming increasingly powerful.
It's not that important as the game plays either way.
Originally posted by Mindless Reason
But wouldn't it be more unrealistic if tanks and armor didn't have great defense? Or am I just reading your post wrong?
Due to the destructive power of rifles and machine guns, the WWI battlefield was composed of two opposing infantry lines, stretching across the continent. With unlimited supply lines and no way to flank the opposing army, this results in stalemate.
Then came tanks.
Tanks were massed and used to push back the enemy infantry at one point of the line, while friendly infantry filled this "bulge" in order to protect the line of supply to the tanks. Repeated application of this technique would break the enemy line and allow the friendly infantry to actually get behind the enemy line, cutting their supply lines.
In summary, tanks gain their advantage from mobility. When stationary, they make poor artillery and can easily be cut off from their lines of support by opposing infantry.
Racing up the bottom of the tech tree gives you cavalry for a longer period of time before riflemen arrive on the scene.
I sometimes get riflemen for free but never head that route. I prefer to research steam power up to replaceable parts and then use the power of rails+cavalry+artillery+turbo-charged-workers to obliterate all the riflemen.
I bypass cities with riflemen defenders on hills if I have other available targets and no armies.
A two cav army will take out a rifleman defending a flatland city even if the rifleman is not blasted into oblivion with artillery. Two artillery blasts will almost guaranteed yoy to know the rifleman down by at least two hit point.
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