What do you go for first cavalry or grenadiers?

[bitplayer]

Ive been going for grens in the my games as they're cheap and powerful and the tech tree cavalry are on Ive mostly ignored for a while now. But after thinking about it Im thinking about beelining for cavalry instead as it seems to be a quicker route and has nationalism on its way.

And Ive found nationalism to be a big money saver and cav are pretty potent.

Meh. And double meh.

 

[Jorunkun]

Interesting question. I've had either situation in my games, often dependant on where midgame trades put me on the techtree, so not a wholly free choice.

If you have a war at hand shortly before discovering either tech, I would beeline for grenadiers and get rolling. Fighting over smaller areas, grenadiers are cheaper and more versatile (offense/defense role). Also, chemistry is en route for cannons, which rock when taking cities. If necessary you can always follow up with cavalry later.

In this months' gotm however, I prioritised cavalry, as I had much land to conquer and a big enough tech-edge that I could send in the horses supported just by bombardment and not worry about having to defend the cities I took. If you can deploy a good size cavalry force before your opponent gets grenadiers and rifles, you are pretty much unstoppable on the offensive.

My main concern about cavalry is that they don't upgrade well. Once rifles, mgs and infantry come online, they just sit around and cost you money. And by the time you get to upgrade them to gunships, many of their promotions will be useless.

 

[JoeM]

I've got a fourway struggle for supremacy at the moment two guys on another continent and one on mine, pretty eve non score. I've just got cavalry ahead of my neighbour, but he has muskets. He also seems to have +125% defences in his cities but my catapults get that down quick..

Is cavalry v. muskets a bad idea?

 

[Jorunkun]

Not really - I'd say the twilight of cavalry comes with riflemen. If you can afford it, bring some cats or cannons to bear before you use the cavalry ... or just bring more cavalry. As mentioned above, you won't have much use for them after rifles, so you might as well burn them up in an all-out rush.

J.

 

[carl corey]

I used to think Cavalry is really great, but if your enemy is close to Riflemen then yeah, you're better off building some Grenadiers with City Raider. That means you have to survey his tech path; yeah, he might have Musketmen, but if he's a couple of techs away from Riflemen there's no need to go for Military Tradition, except of course, there are exception. Playing with Cyrus or the Egyptians may mean lots of promoted Chariot-replacements that you could then upgrade to Cavalry, even if you won't build too many on your own. Or, you have a level 5 unit in vanilla cIV or level 6 in Warlords and want to build West Point. Or you're playing the Russians, though the Cossacks aren't what they used to be any more... Maybe you even want to have some Defensive Pacts because you feel threatened. If none of those reasons apply, maybe it's better to go with Grens & Rifles as the Cavalry's extra mobility won't make up for their other problems.

 

[pigswill]

I tend to go for grenadiers; they're on the way to cannon, I usually have some CR maces to upgrade and I also find that AI tend to favour rifles and cavalry which means I can generally trade for Miltrad for West Point.

 

[CivDude86]

If you get Cavalry while everyone else is still using longbows you can take some cities without needing to bring slow siege weapons (since they ignore walls and castles it will likely only be 60%).

 

[Killroyan]

This has happened to me in the current game I was playing. Traded music, learned liberalism, got nationhood and then got military tradition before anything else. Build a big stack of Cavs and some cats and whiped out 1,5 civ before they started getting their first gren/rifleman. Longbow, macemen, pikemen and elephants have nothing against cavs. It is like stealing candy from a little kid. But normally I would go grens first since you have a big stack of macemen that can be upgraded.

 

[Proteus]

If you get Cavalry while everyone else is still using longbows you can take some cities without needing to bring slow siege weapons (since they ignore walls and castles it will likely only be 60%).

Yep, that´s what I´m doing most of the times iI´m ahead of tech of my neighbors. Going for cavalry and then building up a massive army of cavalry units to invade them (most of the times this is the first war I start on my own accord [and not being forced into by my neighbors])

 

[jimbob27]

If I'm ahead, and think I'm going to have a chance at fighting longbows, I'll go for cavalry. If there isn't a weak target to attack, I'll go for grenadiers. Cavalry batter their way through longbows much better than grenadiers, because they've got 2 movement and a higher base value.

If I discover liberalism first, I'll use the free tech for nationalism. Then I'll start building the taj mahal, and with a bit of luck, I'll finish the taj mahal just as I'm finishing military tradition. In the meantime I'll trade for gunpowder (usually for education + something crap) and then I have a full golden age for building cavalry. With the help of the golden age, even the crappest cities can usually complete a cavalry before the golden age is over, so I'll have a huge stack of them very quickly.

 

[pigswill]

I'd have to say that I'd rather have grenadiers and cannon than cavalry and cats. Other reason I like them is the upgrade path - infantry replace grenadiers, artillery replace cannon. Another advantage is that going chemistry/steel also gives you frigates and drydocks, useful unless you're playing pangea.
On the other hand if you're well ahead and can win with one final campaign then cavalry could be the way to go.