Unique role for cavalry: bypass forts

[Canute VII]

What if cavalry and only cavalry could bypass forts?

If it could move through all provinces neighbouring a fortified province (but not through the fortified province itself), so effectively ignoring "fort zone of control"?

Would we want to send our cavalry deep into enemy territory for loot?

Would this be balanced by the "insufficient support" modifier (-25% military tactics) which the cavalry inadvertently would have to stomach?

Would this nonetheless make cavalry worth their cost?

Would cavalry act as a reconnaissance unit?

Would Ming want to build a Chinese wall of neighbouring forts on its northern border to deny horde cavalry access? (could be made into a mission)

 

[Eruth]

What if cavalry and only cavalry could bypass forts?

If it could move through all provinces neighbouring a fortified province (but not through the fortified province itself), so effectively ignoring "fort zone of control"?

Would we want to send our cavalry deep into enemy territory for loot?

Would this be balanced by the "insufficient support" modifier (-25% military tactics) which the cavalry inadvertently would have to stomach?

Would this nonetheless make cavalry worth their cost?

Would cavalry act as a reconnaissance unit?

Would Ming want to build a Chinese wall of neighbouring forts on its northern border to deny horde cavalry access? (could be made into a mission)

That would massively debuff forts. Even with the insufficient support penalty it would now be possible to pursue a defeated enemy army into their safe zone and finish them off, or occupy land before they can build new units. Essential, if you can afford a lot of cavalry you can just pay cash to ignore forts, which seems exceptionally silly.

 

[Blk82]

You could use one regiment of cavalry to enter the fort from the back, then enter with your regular army. Then, move all but one regiment into the army with the one cavalry. Since you can always move back the way you came, then you could bypass the fort by moving the army back to where the one cavalry entered.

 

[Canute VII]

That would massively debuff forts. Even with the insufficient support penalty it would now be possible to pursue a defeated enemy army into their safe zone and finish them off, or occupy land before they can build new units. Essential, if you can afford a lot of cavalry you can just pay cash to ignore forts, which seems exceptionally silly.

Thx for feedback. The ZoC could exert a movement speed penalty on cavalry, to slow them down. Also cavalry that has passed a ZoC could suffer from no reinforcements snd/or higher attrition. I.e. there should be ways to make this work.

 

[Canute VII]

You could use one regiment of cavalry to enter the fort from the back, then enter with your regular army. Then, move all but one regiment into the army with the one cavalry. Since you can always move back the way you came, then you could bypass the fort by moving the army back to where the one cavalry entered.

Rules would need to be adjusted, obviously.

 

[Blk82]

Rules would need to be adjusted, obviously.

How would that be fixed, though? There is no way for the game to remember which direction the army came from, unless the path of each regiment is tracked, or merging armies is prevented within the ZoC of any enemy fort. The later would create situations in which an army is literally stuck due to armies containing regiments with different valid paths. The later would result in multiple armies sitting on any given siege due to the armies being unmergable. Both solutions would be very inconvenient.

 

[Canute VII]

How would that be fixed, though? There is no way for the game to remember which direction the army came from, unless the path of each regiment is tracked, or merging armies is prevented within the ZoC of any enemy fort. The later would create situations in which an army is literally stuck due to armies containing regiments with different valid paths. The later would result in multiple armies sitting on any given siege due to the armies being unmergable. Both solutions would be very inconvenient.

Just introduce a check on army composition?

 

[Eruth]

Just introduce a check on army composition?

What does that even mean? What is the game checking for? How does it use that information?

 

[Blk82]

Just introduce a check on army composition?

The exploit would be to transfer troops between armies. If an army has troops that entered from two separate directions, which way can the army move back out? Basically, the game doesn't know which way the individual regiments came into the province. Rather, it keeps track of movement by army. Otherwise, there would some armies with regiments with conflicting possible movements that could not move at all.