How do you use cavalry now?

[Iamdead7]

When I first started playing EU4 I know cavalry was really useless, but I'm pretty sure I need to get out of that mindset and start putting more than a couple cavalry divisions in my stacks. What is the optimal ration now? (primarily as western but other tech group discussion is helpful too)

 

[CPMuskovy]

From my experience, I generally have like 4 cavalry per army stack in the mid to late game, followed by a 50/50 split between infantry and artillery ( The exact amount depends on the supply tech level).

If I'm playing Poland, I may increase that amount to 6-8, especially if I'm stacking discipline + cavalry combat ability.

 

[slv]

Well, as much as you can? It seems that in early game X infantry/ X-2 cav is the way to go (you should never have the military tactics penalty). Why have you ever thought cav is useless? It was magnificent.

Around tech 15 no more than 2 regiments are needed, though. Maybe 4.

 

[Zak Preston]

I prefer to have 10-4-8 comp in early game, 20-6-18 in mid game and 40-10-30 in late game.

Infantry is rather expendable and suffers the most, while artillery rarely gets seriously damaged.

 

[Zander]

Well, as much as you can? It seems that in early game X infantry/ X-2 cav is the way to go (you should never have the military tactics penalty). Why have you ever thought cav is useless? It was magnificent.

Around tech 15 no more than 2 regiments are needed, though. Maybe 4.

Pretty much this. Early game (for battles, not for sieges obviously) the ideal amount is as much as you can without taking the penalty. Later in the game it's useful only for flanking.

 

[grumphie]

once fire modifiers start to be a thing, i tend to stick to 4 cav max in my armeis(who follow a 50/50 arty infantry with an minimum amoutn of infantry). early game can be a bit diffrent, it depends on hwo rich i am and what my targets are. as an OPm in the HRE i tend not to build a lot of cav, but if i'm rich i'd push the 50% border and go with massive cav stacks as they really rock early game.

 

[Denkt]

Cavalry main weakness is that shock is always the second phase, never the first which I think should be random to get some more randomness in battle.
However cavalry do have an advantage over infantry and that is that it can get more boost from ideas then infantry.

 

[balmung60]

It depends on if cash is an issue. If you can afford it, something like 60/40 or infantry/cavalry is quite effective and generally prevents insufficient support, provided that your unit type is 50/50 max cavalry.

However, if money is an issue, the old standby of Combat Width minus 2/4/6 inf + 2/4/6 cav is still fine.

EDIT: Also, if you have NIs giving at least 20% cavalry combat ability, you should probably always use as much as you can get away with because that's a pretty huge bonus to cavalry performance. Especially if you're Poland and its +33% mounted gods.

On the flip side, if you have huge +infantry combat ability and not cavalry combat ability like Sweden and Prussia, you should probably use relatively minimal amounts of cavalry and lots of infantry.

 

[Falestine]

So are you telling my that if i can afford it, a equall amount of artillery and infantry in one stack is good?

 

[Kalderus]

100% cavalry! That is when playing unreformed hordes past 1510 (and excluding merc infantry for looting).

 

[balmung60]

So are you telling my that if i can afford it, a equall amount of artillery and infantry in one stack is good?

If you can afford it, you want a full combat width of artillery behind a full combat width of not-artillery.

If that's a typo and you meant cavalry, not quite, since higher infantry casualties will lead to you getting insufficient support and losing a lot of combat performance.

 

[Falestine]

No wasent a typo, Ok so if my combat width is 25 witch it currently is, i should have 25 infantry and 25 art, that would be optimal teoreticly since you cant stack 50 divs in early game.

 

[chrnno]

Basically it goes like this:

Are you playing a nation with bonus to Cavalry?

No - Early on as much as cavalry you can get without risking getting the insufficient penalty too easily(x, x-2 is the usually said but you should keep track to manage it yourself). When art first pops up it becomes less useful but still should be used. By mid game fire has climbed high enough that cavalry is not worth it anymore when taking everything into account so 2-6 for flanking.

Yes - Just enough cavalry to not get the insufficient penalty too easily for most of the game, very game late it might not be worth it anymore but then it doesn't really matter anyway.

And if you are playing Poland with Aristocratic + Quality* - Just enough cavalry to not get the insufficient penalty too easily and laugh as your armies utterly annihilate everyone else's for up to very late game. At that point yours are just better.

This is off course a generalization and doesn't take into account potentially important things like having with a 1/6/6/3 general, NIs about infantry ability, money not being a worry, having to fight a ridiculous number of small stacks thus benefiting from flanking a lot more and such so you have to keep those in mind for when any happens. Easier to get the experience to judge by playing yourself though.

*There is a policy that gives 20% cavalry ability so adding that makes you basically godlike but requires Espionage so unless you really, really want that bonus not worth it.

 

[Dracolithfiend]

2 cavalry per army early game. By the 1600's I usually have 4 per army. Late game I expand this to 6. Poland however is a snowflake and gets 4 early game and 6 usually in the mid 1500's. Late game Poland can practically span cavalry and the only forces that can compete might be their Brandenburg March. Russia is another snowflake, I haven't played Russia since AoW was released but I use to have pure infantry stacks marching around Siberia to crush rebellions during westernization and ToT. Doing so saved me thousands in upkeep on cavalry that would offer very little advantage.

 

[Crimen]

No wasent a typo, Ok so if my combat width is 25 witch it currently is, i should have 25 infantry and 25 art, that would be optimal teoreticly since you cant stack 50 divs in early game.

More like 21 inf 4 cav 25 art.
You can avoid attrition by splitting them up into two or even three armies, just make sure they stick close to support each other.

Also, keep in mind that terrain affects combat width. If you're fighting in the mountains, your combat width is going to be significantly smaller (is it 50%? i can't remember right now), so sending all 50 division in at once would be pointless. Send your second army in after a bit, and you can retreat your first army. Your first army will take less damage, and the second army will have a full morale bar to fight against the weakened enemy.