Cavalry bonus

[unmerged(170815)]

It says "you cannot have more than 50% cavalry compared to your infantry in a battle ..."

This statement is a bit confusing to me. Do they mean that 25 infantry + 25 cavalry is ok (50% of the whole army), or is the right combination 30 infantry + 15 cavalry? (50% of total infantry)

Thanks.

 

[sebas379]

I believe 50% of your infantry means 30-15 in your example. At least that's how I treat it

 

[unmerged(170815)]

It doesn't say "50% of your infantry" it says 50% "compared" to your infantry. So I'm a bit confused about what that actually means. Any more care to weigh in?

 

[sebas379]

I'm currently playing Ottomans and moused over the tooltip.
Quote:
"If the amount of cavalry in armies is less than 50%"

So I think you are indeed right, If I read this correctly I can field 15 inf and 15 cav and get the bonus.

 

[Ruanek]

The tooltip can be a bit confusing. What it means is that 50% of your army most be infantry to get the combined arms bonus. So 15-15 is fine. (Interestingly, artillery don't count towards this.)

 

[sebas379]

The tooltip can be a bit confusing. What it means is that 50% of your army most be infantry to get the combined arms bonus. So 15-15 is fine. (Interestingly, artillery don't count towards this.)

Thanks for clearing that up

 

[Emeny]

15-15 isn't quite fine. It needs to be less than 50%, so 15-14 is the most you can get to before you lose it.

 

[Ruanek]

15-15 isn't quite fine. It needs to be less than 50%, so 15-14 is the most you can get to before you lose it.

You're right, I forgot about that. You also have to take into account that you're more likely to lose infantry in battle, since they'll make up the center of your line.

 

[RobRoy3]

Yeah, it has to be just under 50%. And you should also allow for attrition battle losses; sucks to lose your bonus in a middle of a campaign. A lot of people go for stacks of 10 inf/5 cav, which seems to work well for them. I like a slightly higher cav ratio, if I can afford it, but I never go above 8/6.

 

[unmerged(465279)]

Also you can pretty much ignore it for the first century as cavalary is really strong

 

[cacra]

Indeed just use full cavalry armies for the first 50 or so years then use full infantry. It is so much easier

 

[Ruanek]

Indeed just use full cavalry armies for the first 50 or so years then use full infantry. It is so much easier

You shouldn't ever use full infantry. At the very least it's nice to have 4 cavalry for flanking, and cavalry remain fairly strong for much more than the first 50 years.

 

[cacra]

Latin cavalry is very shit. At land tech 18 you should use full infantry. After that cavalry is going to make so little difference that it is a complete waste of time.

 

[unmerged(465279)]

If you have your shock generals, which the AI ALWAYS seems to get in my games, cavalry majority armies usually stay on the top untill the 1550s or so.

 

[cacra]

Well if you are losing to ai armies you have a serious problem! The simple fact of the matter is that lt18 cavalry does not compare to lt18 infantry. No matter how you paint it, infantry is cheaper, has better morale and (once the fire stage comes into it's own) does slightly higher damage.

 

[unmerged(465279)]

I should add I do play MPM so maybe it's a little bit different there!

 

[unmerged(37198)]

You shouldn't ever use full infantry. At the very least it's nice to have 4 cavalry for flanking, and cavalry remain fairly strong for much more than the first 50 years.

after lt13 for latin nations until art becomes somewhat useful very late (I think that would be around cohorn mortar or something like that) you will do just fine with going 100% inf (and maybe 1 art regiment to boost the trade value of Copper producing provinces)

 

[Vainfall]

You shouldn't ever use full infantry. At the very least it's nice to have 4 cavalry for flanking, and cavalry remain fairly strong for much more than the first 50 years.

Battle line is 30 units wide, can't flank if you have more than that.

 

[unmerged(37198)]

Battle line is 30 units wide, can't flank if you have more than that.

also if I recall it right the combined arms bonus is only related to not having more then a certain number of cav (depending on tech group), so you would still get it if you only use inf

 

[TheArchMede]

after lt13 for latin nations until art becomes somewhat useful very late (I think that would be around cohorn mortar or something like that) you will do just fine with going 100% inf (and maybe 1 art regiment to boost the trade value of Copper producing provinces)

1 art is insurance against bad rolls. If there's somewhere safe to run to, you'll get away instead of being stackwiped in the first battle.