The Numidian Cavalry

[Nkot]

In reply to the previous post, no HA's (or any unit that can withdraw for that matter) can't withdraw while they are defendeing. When others say that they are excellent defenders, they are referring to the NC's ability to do extra damage to melee and catapults, the primary medium of any invasion force. Even spears don't offer that good a defence against NC's, and in some cases, it's 50/50. Also, the NC's high withdrawal chance and 2 movement points allow it to attack a stack in friendly lands and then move a turn away from the stack, preventing any sort of counterattacks.

Hope that clears up any misconceptions.

 

[vicawoo]

Are horse archers better than swords versus weaker cities, that is, say cg1 and at most 20% culture?

 

[futurehermit]

imo yes...

 

[Gliese 581]

In reply to the previous post, no HA's (or any unit that can withdraw for that matter) can't withdraw while they are defendeing. When others say that they are excellent defenders, they are referring to the NC's ability to do extra damage to melee and catapults, the primary medium of any invasion force. Even spears don't offer that good a defence against NC's, and in some cases, it's 50/50. Also, the NC's high withdrawal chance and 2 movement points allow it to attack a stack in friendly lands and then move a turn away from the stack, preventing any sort of counterattacks.

Hope that clears up any misconceptions.

Thankyou. It wasn't so much a misconception about this point as ordinary ignorance from never using the promotion, I didn't know if they could use the ability on defence on top of their good "defensive or softening" attacking capabilities. Of course impis are not the loveliest sight for ponies..

 

[Belisar]

One point not mentioned. They are killer city defense unit. AI brings a stack and they are great to attack it as it apporaches

post#21

 

[Indiansmoke]

They are a great UU but the Mongolian Keshik is better IMO (and also has Ger as a UB)

 

[MyOtherName]

Are horse archers better than swords versus weaker cities, that is, say cg1 and at most 20% culture?

If your cities are producing City Raider II swordsmen, then swords are cheaper. But not if you're producing City Raider I.

City Raider 1 swords cost 16.23 hammers to kill the archer
City Raider 2 swords cost 12.28 hammers to kill the archer
Combat 2 horses cost 12.70 hammers to kill the archer

(Also using Flanking 2 horses is no help)
(I haven't tried to quantify the value of promoting your CR1 swordsmen)

 

[futurehermit]

Because of stables, horses will always have a leg up in terms of getting to that next promotion. That is big imo.

 

[Naismith]

Unfortunately, you have to build the stables first. Stables cost hammers - there's no good way of figuring that into the hammer cost of capturing cities. If you are building large numbers of horse archers, you probably have to build a stable in more than one or two cities. Building stables also delays your offensive, which can lead to greater hammer cost.

Of course, all of the above has counter arguments, many of which have already been made. For instance, having to build stables may delay an offensive, but the offensive will probably go more quickly once it starts.

 

[futurehermit]

It is pretty easy to whip/chop out a stable if you plan for it and you only really need 2 early on. 1 in the capital (high production) and 1 in your military city (high production).