How good is cavalry?

Your not doing anything wrong with the system Colin.
We use the term “Glass Hammer” for cavalry.
In that, they can impact really hard but the low unit number leaves them vulnerable to loosing figures.
So they may only get one successful charge off in a game, maybe two if your lucky.

Knights are a good example, very hard hitting and res 9 but as soon as the enemy shoots at them with longbow, it can be a disastrous.
So choose your fights very carefully, and don’t charge big units of bow or spearmen.
And YES upgrade them, having warhorses suddenly doubles the attacks that small unit puts out.

Check out those sneaky goblin wolf riders, they can have 6 in a unit and dire wolves get X2 attacks, so that’s 18 attacks from those units!!!

I think you’ll find WoE is an excellent game, with lots of twists and no really super troops. As soon as our group finds a frightening unit, someone else comes up with an easy way to counter it!
Keep practicing.
We’ve just had our first mini tournament, and that has helped us all understand the game better.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Tim Haslam.

Were all of the hits from the Long Bow ranged attacks being rerolled when targeting a Calvary unit that had been issued a Run order? That should make a big difference in how many casualties you take when charging. You’ll still probably end up with a pin, but you may be attacking with a full strength unit instead of being 2 models down.

Also, did you remember that attacks made during Exchange of Missiles suffer a -1 ACC penalty?

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Doug.

It looks like when 5 Mounted Samurai charge 10 Archers that have been upgraded to having having Long Bows a draw is likely, but the fight could easily go either way depending on who roll well. That’s probably what you should expect when a less expensive unit charges a more expensive unit. That extra pin from the Exchange of Missiles can be hard to overcome when you are only throwing out 5 attacks. Due to their high Res, putting a hit on the unit Leader to hopefully soak with Tough might be enough to put the Mounted Samurai ahead.

Calvary is probably better off charging units that have already received pins from your own ranged units. I think I’ve seen the phrase “Pinning is winning” used in regards to WoE, and I think that’s probably really solid advice.

Here’s the napkin math on how the charge plays out:
10 Archers with Long Bow ACC5, STR5, RES5 Sword +1STR/SV1, Longbow SV1 (152 pts)
5 Mounted Samurai ACC5, STR6, RES8 Sword +1STR/SV1 (132 pts)

Exchange of Missiles 2 hits, 0.6 expected casualties to Mounted Samurai
5 Mounted Samurai should expect to inflict 2.4 casualties on when charging Archers.
10 Archers should expect to inflict 1.8 casualties on the charging Cavalry.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Doug.