How good is cavalry?

[Colin Bunting]

We had our second game of Erehwon this weekend – 1000pts “ranged” samurai against “cavalry” samurai. Both sides had a unit or two of infantry to round out the lists, but they hardly got a look in. I really enjoyed it – I shot up his force something good but lost as three of my units routed to one of his. Most of his units had only 1 or 2 models left. Gah!

Anyway, longbows are really good, but cavalry seemed a little bit anaemic. To be honest I built the list without warhorses, but 5 attacks in combat disappointed my opponent, especially when they lost to a unit of archers they had just charged. Did we do something wrong? Or, has anyone played ignoring the unit size limits?

Cheers,
Colin

[johngb1840]

My elven cavalry suffered a similar fate when charging a unit of dwarven rangers armed with crossbows. Next time I will upgrade to spangly armour and warhorses.

[Tim Haslam]

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.

[Colin Bunting]

Gotta love that spangly armour! And the sense of humour in the rulebook…

I must admit I haven’t looked at the goblin list in any real depth yet. Or cavalry, before last night.

I really like the game “as is”. My regular opponent was raised on the Reaper Fantasy Wargame (1978?) so he’s taking a bit more talking round. However, I have sent him the “build your own units” pdf from Rick’s blog so he can have his “skeletons with rocks” army. That might do it.

[Doug]

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.

[Tim Haslam]

Skeletons with rocks sounds cool!

[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.

[Gerry Brawley]

Depends if the Cav were in LOS of the Archers and had a run order on them or not, makes a big difference.

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

[Colin Bunting]

Yes, we were following those rules, Doug. I’d read the Fast special rule out to my opponent before we started (first game with cavalry) otherwise we wouldn’t have clocked it!

I rolled well most of the game, which is a source of amusement in our group because it’s usually my opponent who has the luck with the dice.

Interesting to see the cavalry should win more than they lose on average. Thanks for that analysis.

[Samuel V. Wilson, Jr.]

The other evening I had a good exchange employing my lightly armored Olympian centaurs (with spears) against a Wood Nymph Guard unit in the light rough. The guard were the attackers, coming out of hidden ambush; their chances looked good numbers wise; but they got checked with casualties. As first round victor, my followup HTH inflicted even more casualties. However, it got reciprocally bloody in the next turn when my opponent drew the initiative and decided to counter-counterattack. Mutual losses wrecked both units for the rest of the game. Still, I like my centaurs, they are surprisingly agile while having some heft. They can take a punch and return the favor. Kinda like light knights of a sort.

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