N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

Cav vs. cav battles happen all the time. It's rare that a player wins a game with the use of an infantry based army only. Keeping this in mind, it makes sense that we evaluate some factors of cavalry. Everyone knows that cavalry slices through light infantry and there is no question that you will engage light infantry with your cavalry. We also know that our cavalry needs to avoid things like pikes and dragoons, except in small numbers.

However, inevitably you will encounter the scenario where your cav meets another individuals cav. Too many times I've gone into battle with cav and left the battle thinking how the hell did I loose all my cav and he still has most of his left?

Lets talk numbers:
Lets say your 20 hussars meet his 30 hussars. In the end he should have 10 more left over if you let the battle work itself out? Right? Nope, wrong. In fact your opponent will likely have in the neighborhood of 17-21 hussars left over, while you have zero.

Lets factor in more numbers and cards:
Lets say you have equal numbers of hussars and have sent either a cav attack, cav hp, or cav combat card. Alternatively, an upgrade to verteran hussars can be used. The difference in attack or HP can mean the difference in killing in 8 hits, instead of 9; or it can mean the difference of surviving 9 hits rather than 8. This is quite alarming and dangerous because a Hussar surviving with low hp still retains its full attack. So in this situation you will loose a huge number of your hussars, while your opponent will have many left over once again -- even if starting numbers were relatively equal.

This has nothing to do with micro, which is a whole other category, but rather strategy and decision making. In reading this you can begin to understand the implications of cav vs cav battles and perhaps see that it usually is not a good idea to commit unless you have a straight advantage. When in equal numbers you want to avoid the battle unless you can take advantage of building placement, tress, and other natural barriers that cause his cav to have pathing issues.

Again, this is all about decision making, evaluating your opponents numbers and the strength of his cav, and deciding whether or not it is a good idea to engage. I still make mistakes in decision making, but it has improved and the theory is the reason behind it. Happy cav hunting.

I would also like to add that I prefer to use HP cards on cav and attack cards on ranged infantry since cav is often used as a tank while the infantry deals most of the damage.

so true, and in smaller numbers, like 3-4 hussars, it is good to run away with one hussar(through the gap between the opponents hussars) and let the opponents hussars chase him and let them get a few strikes on your hussar, as your hussars attack them constantly.

also, ther is the speed penalty if your unit gets attacked, meaning you can't really run away with your cav once they're circled and attacked

Good points, Drew. There are some micro things you can do when there are small numbers of cav, but in large-scale battles, you need to know your strengths and weakness before going "all-in." I know from experience that uhlans are very good at killing other cav, simply because they do so much damage per hit and early game you can generally mass them faster than hussars. With the Age 2 and 3 cards, they have 256 HP and 55 attack while your opponent still might only have 320 HP and 30 attack. Numbers are everything. If you have 2 uhlans hitting a hussar at a time, that's 110 damage. It's the multiple hits in return for no hits that will really crush a cav army.

Aaryn is also right that, in early fights with under 10 cav, you can run an injured cav away, allowing your enemy to chase it, then you attack them as they chase. That lets you hit them without taking any hits in return. That's ultimately what wins cav-on-cav battles.

unless u get the german 10% faster speed card, which is a lot.

[quote=""JKL4LiF3""]unless u get the german 10% faster speed card, which is a lot.[/quote] i haven't seen spainish riding school in alot of decks, but i did peek at a few of IAMGRUNT's german decks, in 2 of them he had this card, i have always opted for the age 4 cav combat card and the infinite 1 heavy cannon and 4 uhlan card, but now i am thinking maybe i need to add this spainish riding school card also, even tho most games don't get to age 4, even still this could be a nice option to have

i think it changes the cav speed to 8.10 for uhlans and 6.60 for ww. going into a fast raid in late game and running away from other cav/infantry is a big boost with the spanish riding school card. i have it in my cav decks so that i can just rush in fast and leave fast, while they cant do any real damage to me.

Don't forget the arsenal upgrades for Cav as well. I am also leaning towards more healing now, due to cheaper churches. Rolling a hussar out of a fight and low on HP, heal them and send them back in. This should pay for itself pretty early on ...

normally, it is only advised to heal units with a nice resistance(cannons, black riders) and low hp, so it doesn't take too long.
you won't be able to do it effectively because of focus fire, that's why very few people use priests to heal units :/

I like to heal my mamelukes and elmetis when I can and remember that priests exist.

[quote=""Sporting_Lisbon""]I like to heal my mamelukes and elmetis when I can and remember that priests exist.[/quote]

Did you ever thought about this field hospital. It's cheaper now, but i never built it. Might be an interesting option in some situations later in the game.

This was one of the reasons why I liked India. The monks always ensured your units would be back to full health for the next clash at the FB or at your base.

true, i always use the brahmins for healing the units, especially the 10 to 30hp they lose when a tc caused a bit of damage or my sneek peek on a fb ended with some shots

Drew does tip of the day mean that there will be another tip every day?

I like to send attack card first for cav, but that's probably because most of the times I don't use them to fight another army but I'm raiding instead

[quote=""HuggyPierre""]
Did you ever thought about this field hospital.[/quote]

Thats the only building that a) I have never built and b) never seen any1 else build. Strange really that the Devs never picked up on that building and made it a little more attractive strategy wise. I remember in AoEI priests ran over the entire map.

out