Ranged Cavalry Tactics - Bannerlord Battlefield Tactics Guide for Horse Archers and Javelin Cavalry

[@Strat-Guides]

It's been almost 3 months since I've made a legit guide so my apologies if this one doesn't have the same quality as the previous ones but I need a little time to shake off the rust lol Hopefully the info is useful! Also we will be starting Amir Timur next week and I'm really hoping to have the first episode ready by or before next weekend. I'm going to make an intro that is editing-intensive so we will see how long it takes. It will be glorious though! :D

[@woc_levievan2097]

I’m so excited to see this guide I was just about to do a horse archer campaign

[@eivindmosesen767]

It doesnt really matter if ur quality is worse, if it is still better than everyone else

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol I appreciate that :) I will continue to try for the best quality within my skill-set

[@Nognamogo]

Traditionally, the size of horse archers compared to foot archers/crossbowmen was one of their main weaknesses, but since horses suffer no degradation in performance until they're dead in Bannerlord, the increased size profile of horse archers isn't really much of a weakness at all. They act as a giant tranky health pool. Maybe arrows (especially arrows fired from foot archers) should have a chance to cause a horse to 'trip' causing a dismount on horsemen depending on the mount's current health percentage. That way, normal archers would have an easier time dealing with mounted archers. Another option would be to implement a 'wounded' system to horses, decreasing their speed/maneuverability when they take enough damage. Total War Warhammer did this to balance large single entity monsters, and I think that 'wound' system would work well on horses too.

[@Strat-Guides]

That's a really good idea! They already have the mechanic to cause them to rear up and I've seen it happen when being hit with throwing weapons so it wouldn't be much more work to add in dismounting to that.

[@DBSilver2024]

Doesn't that already exist? I'm positive I've had several instances where I've shot a rider and did barely any damage but still caused him to fall off.

[@kube410]

​@@DBSilver2024Im pretty sure thats because of some perk and it happens very rarely

[@Bishey]

Nice to see the javelin cavalry countering the horse archers. Loading up on javelins before invading Khuzait might be a smart idea!

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah for sure! Javelin cavalry are a tricky unit type to use effectively since they are so limit in ammo and most units they throw against have a shield. I think against specific factions like you mentioned (Khuzait and Aserai) they can be extremely important.

[@gerogero2011]

First time i invade Aserai Land with my Khans Guard and imperial legionary combination i got heavy Casualties.. Those aserai Faris and its upgrade destroy many Khans guard and my infantry lose in frontline cause of aserai line have 5 Javelin in stock before clash... Those mameluke Palace js broken too in clash..

[@HistoricalWeapons]

Historically horse javelins did not counter horse archers. This is because the horse is not armored except very expensive cataphract which is not cost effective to chase after horse archers

[@Deathelement53]

Thrown weapons should specialize in shield damage and do at least twice as much to the shield health as they do now​@@Strat-Guides

[@HistoricalWeapons]

@@Deathelement53yeah they should not be specialized to take down horse archers because they have much fewer ammunition and much less range. In this game I think the thrown weapons are throwing too far

[@tink5488]

Excellent opening. Glad to see Bannerlord back on the table, hope that we can get some more worthwhile updates to keep you busy in Bannerlord! Thanks again for another education video.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for watching! Lol I was trying to make a joke about most KZbin video intros (lot's of useless nonsense that contributes nothing to the video). I think an update is coming soon since they have not had a legit one in 3 months or so. Soon?!

[@Uzzgub]

​@@Strat-Guides A Interaction for the Interaction God, a Comment for the Comment Throne, for the Almighty Algorithm

[@Strat-Guides]

Heeeeey Uzzgub, how you been?? I hope everything is going well for you. Have a bit coin doge coin as well :)

[@Uzzgub]

@@Strat-Guides Hey buddy not the best at the moment to be honest. But my computer is now back up and running which is good, still not enough time to game tho

[@Strat-Guides]

@@Uzzgub I feel you, I was there for a few months as well :( Hopefully things turn around in the future for you. If only I had legit bitcoin to give away, I would lol

[@butterflyvision3084]

Nice that you're back. I always use Realistic Battle Mod now so I can't translate the numbers since archers are generally much weaker in RBM, but I still learn a lot about the effects of different formations. I personally found the most effective use of horse archers to be as a mobile line of archers to easily reposition rather than as skirmishers, they do so much more damage when standing still, probably because of the accuracy penalities they have when riding around.

[@Strat-Guides]

Once I finish this series I'm going to be doing a campaign using RBM! It looks so much more satisfying that vanilla AI :) Thank you!! It's great to be back

[@1992buky]

I am impressed with Strat's almost academic approach to testing. I wish there was a way to set up these tests programmatically so that a higher sample number could be reached. Then Strat could do a one-sided ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey HSD tests to check the statistical significance of his findings.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for watching! I would loooove to have the ability to run thousands of trials lol the data analysis would be so much more meaningful as we could use all sorts of plotting techniques - fit to mean being one of my favorites (but it sucks with small data sets).

[@f-man3274]

I heard that making programmed battles can have very different results in comparison to when player is present

[@almond5560]

@@Strat-Guides have you tried the super speed (updated) mod? It allows for fast forwarding during battles. Saved me many, many hours.

[@stemer77]

Last video i watch before i almost become a free man and finally finish the exams. Missed the times when i woke up and watched your videos while eating breakfast. Good job Strat and welcome back!

[@Strat-Guides]

Nice, freedom is near! Good luck on the exams and don't forget my favorite motto when I was in school "C's get degrees" LOL It's great to be back, I got more stuff coming soon :D

[@n3vascared501]

Smashed that like and subscribe awhile ago… wish I could smash it again, but now it’s broken. Best channel is best.

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol Thank you for all the help! I really appreciate it :D

[@vinnie6591]

It's great to watch you again, Strat. The jav cavalry tests were especially useful, I've wanted to make them work well for quite some time(excluding Faris, they're pretty good). Implementing some of these tactics in a Sturgian based army to offset their poor ranged options and slow infantry seems like a fun idea.

[@Strat-Guides]

That's a great point about Sturgia - I feel like using terrain and army composition can be useful to overcome the ranged deficit. Like putting units behind a hill for cover or shield wall to absorb arrows and flank wide with javelin cav to pelt their archers. It makes for some interesting battles for sure!

[@fnutarf2085]

If you hate fighting horse archers you should use them yourself. For personal combat you should look to use the longest two handed weapon/polearm you can find that has swing attacks, it lets you mow them down without issue

[@psigh8161]

yeah the best way to deal with horse archers is hoping they don't have many and have at least some cavalry ready, from my personal limited experience i'd also suggest holding fire if some of your cavalry is ranged, if there are few enemy horse archers, since they'll just waste a lot of your ammo by being small moving targets i'm actually curious about the column formation though, i've had extremely mixed results and i would have loved for it to be analyzed properly

[@DraxTheDestroyer]

yes I was also waiting for column charge with horse archers, I guess I have to test it on my own

[@danileon5754]

When I set up column they don't follow

[@Woogsie]

@Strat, as an early fan and follower. I just wanted to say it's been a pleasure watching your, well deserved, channels growth. And you know all about you getting an in game Easter Egg. And with this many subs, TW watching your vids, and your superior content. I believe your chances are better than ever. TaleWorlds, make this Master of Maths. He's been out here doing the Lord's work a long time meow!

[@Strat-Guides]

And I greatly appreciate all the support and feedback you've given along the way :) As for Easter Eggs, maybe they can name a weapon the "Strat"? Although now that I think about it, they will probably take the dumpiest dagger that nobody ever uses and slap the name on it hahaha

[@malepagamer7281]

glad to see the game is performing according to realistic tactical results .. thank you for verifying this ...

[@Strat-Guides]

LOL TW Maths at it's finest :)

[@braydenbryant9309]

I mean like it's cool but so fucking annoying as a casual player that just wants to not get absolutely mega-colossally by the horse archers, I mean if they had a spot in the encyclopedia that explains coumters to units and shit like that it'd be a bit nicer but nope fuck that wanna play our game decently? Waste dozens, hundreds, and maybe even thousands hours on stupid shit that you could get taught in a encyclopedia entry within minutes but nope, fuck that noise waste your time on our game that we just throw you into and barely guide you. Fuck that shit.

[@lupus_lupi]

I had few battles with Khuzaits where they had so many HA that terrified me, but I had 50% Fians, 25% inf, 25% cavalry. I took the high ground, put my infantry to a shield wall a bit turned to the left where HA usually come to encircle so that they take their arrows, and told my ranged to face the enemy. But my knights were on the right flank, when the enemy hits the peak of my left flank (which isn't really a flank since my archer lines face them too) I hit the charge command. Worked great, if they go melee after my archers and infantry, my cavalry will smash them, if they turn and run my cavalry interceps them from the flank they can't shoot at. High ground and mobility are also very important.

[@Strat-Guides]

This is a great example of how to counter HA - a mix up unit types, tactics and terrain. Thank you for sharing! I agree with it 100%

[@lupus_lupi]

@@Strat-Guides I combine what Poles, Hungarians and Russians did to fight Mongols, denying them mobility. My doctrine is to control the field and have range superiority, I avoid plains (I hate gamey tricks using the edge of the map), and if my allies charge I always take the left flank to destroy their mobile cavalry. Whenever there's a chance I charge with cavalry and quickly recall them back to formation.

[@Strat-Guides]

@@lupus_lupi I totally agree, cheesing the game by using the map edge kills some of the fun for me.

[@dylansedgwick3086]

He is back! Return of the king!

[@Strat-Guides]

It's great to be back! :D

[@dbuyandelger]

Good see you back! I think it would be interesting to see how F6 matches up to different formations

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you, it's great to be back! Yeah for sure, I'll have to add that into the testing for the army vs army ones

[@Awesomewithaz]

Great to see you back

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks Swagless! I've missed you guys, hope you are doing well

[@Ananda_The_Destroyer]

@19:15 This is the way, "Fast archers". For HA x HA I can only say get to the back left of the map ASAP so they can't circle you, and face diagonally at their approach, they usually mess up... but sometimes your side does too, but it's much better then letting them circle.

[@Strat-Guides]

Agree! The map is the best defense against the hordes of horse archers :)

[@aputin654]

Glad to see a new video! Seems like the AI can't be trusted to take care of the Khan's Guards after all lol A small number of them used as mobile artillery for flanking with you leading works wonders I've found in the last couple of playthroughs. Circle around, plant them behind the line or to the side and unleash, move as needed. Their glaives (hold fire) will mince all but the heaviest of cav flanks that the enemy AI likes to have too.

[@Strat-Guides]

Very true! Khan's guards are really nasty when they are sat still too, super accurate and each arrow does tons of damage. 100% agree with you on that, mobile artillery! Lol that's a great description

[@takuoku2546]

love ur guides. a youtuber called threatx was able to counter horse archers by creating an 'L' shaped formation on the left using footarchers and horsearchers. the enemy horsearchers try to circle but get confused and stops while the foot and horse archers masscre them. you should try it once

[@Strat-Guides]

Hey Taku, long time no see! I hope you are doing well :D I'll have to look that up and give it a try, thank you for the reference! I appreciate it

[@nicolasorlandini7022]

Hey Strat i can’t figure out why you skipped over column formation for this one. Is it because it wasn’t worth covering or just forgot about it? I found making 2 formations of Horse Archers in columns to work very well. Other than that well done on the guide and welcome back to the Tube

[@Strat-Guides]

I remember covering it in one of the other tactics guides, but I probably should have done it again to be complete :( The video was already over 20 minutes so I decided to cut it. I think you're right though, I should have dropped some of the bonus material to put that in. Thank you! It's really nice to be back at work again :D

[@nicolasorlandini7022]

@@Strat-Guides fair enough man. My bad for not remembering

[@Strat-Guides]

No no you're good! My guides are usually very dense with tons of data so it's hard to keep track of it all. I actually forget the results of half of my testing so I go back and rewatch them from time to time lol

[@victorcapel2755]

Column is king with horse archers in my experience .

[@ozymandias3097]

Great work 🍻

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you!!

[@Petr_Dmitrievich]

in recent patches, more mounted crossbowmen have appeared, they can be used as mobile crossbowmen with a high range, simply by moving infantry shield walls behind enemy lines. They need horses rather for mobility. Like dragoons. In addition, you can put them in 1 row behind 2 rows of foot crossbowmen, they will be able to shoot over their heads while sitting in the saddle.

[@Jwsponky]

They did? I am only aware of the sword sister troop...

[@kunatosftw]

nice, analytical and very informational thanks!

[@Strat-Guides]

No problem, thank you for watching!!

[@Itgetsbetterofficial]

Great work man. Love this stuff.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for watching! Next episode from this series will be full army battles and testing a lot of what we learned from these tests :)

[@XUndergroundRap]

Do you prefer doing your own drywall installation or producing youtube videos? ;) Welcome back dooud

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol the drywall is fun the first 2 or 3 times you do it, but by the 50th board I'm ready to sub it out :P Thank you!!!

[@viktorvodrazka4756]

To be perfectly honest. I play this game for like year and here is what I have found. Horse archers by default always try to circle around enemy but that is the weakness because they do not avoid the close melee line fighting. So how to work around that? Well... use your horse archers as more mobile archers only. Get into medium shooting range but not too close. Wait for them to come closer and then run away. Repeat. If you can engage the enemy with other type of troops (heavy infantry is preferable) then it is even better result because you can circle around the engaged infantry or heavy cavalry and shoot in the back. See the difference?

[@MarksmanGamingPk90]

Awesome cav archers are my favourite,

[@Strat-Guides]

As long as they are on my side, I'm fine with them lol :P

[@hbzahkrii]

He is back comrades

[@Strat-Guides]

Back with a vengeance :D

[@marcosbrwan]

thank you for your service

[@Strat-Guides]

No problem and thank you for watching! :D

[@sorenkazaren4659]

Part of me wonders about column formation and charge. Since the tendency of horse archer AI is to circle and column is basically line formation but vertical instead of horizontal… so advancing horse archers would in theory create a longer circle. 🤔

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah as long as you don't have too many, it works really well! I tried it with 200 - 300 and it's too many but 50 - 100 and they will follow your path. I covered it in another video and the numbers compared to just charging is crazy!

[@sorenkazaren4659]

@@Strat-Guides oh cool. Good to know xD

[@Lunethex]

Welcome back.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you!! Long time no see, hope all is well :D

[@chanceopinion]

What about column formation and charge? The idea is to get as many arrows pointed at the enemy at all times, and column+charge spreads the bows out more. I only use it when I have less than 30 horse archers per formation though, since having too much horseys column up causes traffic jams.

[@Strat-Guides]

Agreed, column can be very useful! I think I included it in one of the other guides at the end - I like to call it the ring of fire :) Funny you mention that, I tried it again for this video but wasn't able to get it to work lol I had too many horse archers.

[@Hroshimababa]

MONGOL FOREVER YEAHHHHHHH

[@Strat-Guides]

*Throat singing intensifies*

[@jeremypedigo9802]

Watching these videos today I think I found a lot of my mistakes and by The Imperials stomp me bro I mean stomp me try to hold that Shield wall on hold ground with strgia shit went side ways real fast I though why ant my spread devouring those horses and I found out holding ground with calvery was a very bad idea the hard way picked up on that one quite fast thanks this videos where help wish I'd paid closer attention to them

[@Awesomewithaz]

A thought for a video. Could you show how each of these react to a "normal" army comps. Have varying inf/rang/cav/rang. cav

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah for sure! I'm going to be doing army vs army testing soon and will fight the same battle multiple times - using a couple different methods to compare. I'll probably fight it the same way 3 - 5 times and then use a different method 3 - 5 times to get a decent sample size. We will see how long it takes though, maybe that will be too much :p

[@ashutoshtripathi.]

Horse archers are unfortunately almost useless right now in 1000+ troops battles given how the enemy tends to spawn right on top of them as they try to get in the engaged infantry's rear.

[@Strat-Guides]

I mostly use them as highly mobile but stationary firing platforms. It seems to work okay and I can usually keep them away from the spawn drops, although TW maths can still surprise from time to time lol

[@ashutoshtripathi.]

@@Strat-Guides thank God for realistic battle mod

[@Strat-Guides]

@@ashutoshtripathi. I just upgraded my internet speed at the new house as well so I should be able to easily switch between different patches, which means I can try out mods and still get back to the beta branch for guides! I'm so excited to start a campaign using RBM

[@ashutoshtripathi.]

@@Strat-Guides NIce!

[@darkequation]

My idea of countering horse archer is to avoid field combat altogether and only siege them.

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol this is one of my favorite tactics as well! Most of Europe did this IRL against Napoleon, so why not? :)

[@whiterabbit4945]

what about vlandian sharpshooters with their huge shields on the back especially if you have the perk that helps shields deflect arrows having their blind side defended and shooting deadly volleys when the HA are in front tbh i dont expect too much from them against horse archers you will always use the terrain to your advantage and rush yourself with your cavalry into them and try to get a bunch stuck in mellee but i will keep the skirmishers in mind from now on

[@odin1185]

Not related to this video but something I cannot find is what is the best faction to take when you create your own kingdom. Like which one has the best buildings and policies as there are some faction specific ones.

[@Strat-Guides]

That's a good question, I have not tested each culture to see which free policy you get with each. Buildings will all be the same no matter who you use, but you get a free policy or two based on the culture. It shouldn't make a huge difference though since you don't need much influence to pass policies early on (when you're solo, just save up influence and spend it all on policies).

[@odin1185]

@@Strat-Guides ah I thought they had diff buildings like the empire gets Senate

[@Strat-Guides]

@@odin1185 senate is the policy name. I never thought about that before though, it would be really cool if they added faction unique buildings! Great idea :)

[@j.ackermann9110]

Cavalry is op in Bannerlord. I mean thats fine but the Khuzait and Aserai have a ridicolous amount of cavalry. I'm still trying to get a win against them with 50% melee and 50% archers infantry but it's hard

[@ThePospe]

This is a really good guide but you forgot to include the Khuzait Khans guard horse archers with 260 bow skill Equal to battanian fians champions. Bucellarii only has 140.

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah those Khan's guards are so good! I left them out mostly because they are so strong, it doesn't matter much how you use them lol I was more trying to show cases where the balance of power was very close. Thank you for watching!!

[@stronkveak5917]

Question in regards to this video series, just to clarify: When in your vids you say shield wall and charge command, do you imply that just before the charge you disable the shield formation, or you just command your troops to charge?

[@jacoblandis4535]

If you pay attention, any unit in shield wall formation will charge differently than if it was in normal line formation.

[@Strat-Guides]

So I give the command from the start when they are a few hundred meters apart. The biggest difference would be travel speed. Line formation units will move much faster than shield wall, so you can approach in line and switch to shield before meeting to be more efficient.

[@MusicFreak0426]

Yes yes yes yes yes! Yessssss!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for watching!

[@MusicFreak0426]

@@Strat-Guides Always! I’ve been using every single guide you’ve made in my recent Bannerlord play throughs, there’s just so much information I’ve not been able to find elsewhere and certainly not as conveniently either. You’ve done an absolutely amazing job with it all!

[@Strat-Guides]

I'm working on a website to host all of the into and guides as well which will make it much easier to revisit stuff after the fact. It's such a pain to go back and look through playlists and videos, so I think once that's online it will be helpful. I'm also having the hero builder integrated into it so Notion won't be necessary and you can do it straight on the site. (Also trying to get an interactive map of Calradia on there, but still not sure if that will work in the end). Coming soon!

[@kanrakucheese]

With the micro needed for ranged cavalry to work well, perhaps delegate command would work well?

[@Strat-Guides]

The only issue with that is the AI mostly uses the charge command and they end up running into the shield wall half of the time. I'll test it out in the next episode when we look at army vs army battles though just to be thorough!

[@kolpere1625]

I think i ve already late to the party, but im gonna ask it anyways: Did you managed to micro a single volley of javelins before ordering the cavalry to charge? idk why but its really hard since normally the charges are too fast to switch weapons.

[@Strat-Guides]

Not really - you can hold fire and move them close, but like you said it's pretty hard to get the timing just right

[@dmknght8946]

Before start watching video, i found out there's a bug that if your formation has too many troops, the whole unit cant get into formation at all during pre-battle state. It ends up with floating troops on screen :D

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol wow that's all we need is floating horse archers! No need to siege towers, just float them over the walls :D

[@dmknght8946]

@@Strat-Guides ah no no the formation just float in pre-battle state (when you set formations like in Total war). When battle starts, all troops are fine except the formation is messed up :D

[@Strat-Guides]

@@dmknght8946 oh lol i was going to say, that would be a hilarious bug!

[@dmknght8946]

@@Strat-Guides well if all the troops float, it will be funny as hell haha. And if you dont' have so many troops, you can just order them to charge while you are still in that pre-battle state. I'm sure you'll see very odd floating haha

[@imspudus]

As a horse archer addict I can safely just don’t bother with tactics just let them loose

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol fair enough! Aside from the Khan's guard, which is your favorite horse archer in the game?

[@imspudus]

@@Strat-Guides the kuzaiht tribal warriors cause they are cheap

[@terrificlife1576]

Any list with all the perks who increase the range cavalry performance ?

[@Strat-Guides]

Sure do! Check the timestamps in the description for the horse archer captain build - kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJeweoyehbWYZ5Y

[@Steve-ps6qw]

So line charging javelin cavalry is key to beating horse archers? Not charging the javelin cav in shield wall towards the horse archers, right?

[@Strat-Guides]

So either formation would work - my advise is to use shield wall if you know you will take a lot of incoming arrows and use line if the enemy HA will be shooting at something else (like a circle of shield infantry out in front). Line formation is much faster to engage, but shield wall much safer and they fight in melee better.

[@Steve-ps6qw]

​@@Strat-Guides thanks for the advice and more importantly for answering this comment, that is not a common event for many youtubers!

[@Strat-Guides]

@@Steve-ps6qw I try to get to as many comments as I can, but it's hard when each video has thousands of comments! No problem, I'm happy to help :D

[@nilexinator5901]

since i have chesthair, i only use charge on every unit :D

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol I must have used your face in the thumbnail on the right then, you Giga Chad :D

[@asdfqwer-b9m]

The analysis is incredibly rigorous and detailed. Hoi4 might be a good game based on your strategic microscopic thinking skills. Are you a math or physics student in University?

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you! I picked up HOI4 a couple months ago on sale but have yet to play it. It looks like a really fun game though. I studied Physics and Astrophysics but this is as close as I've gotten to actually using my degree hahaha

[@asdfqwer-b9m]

sounds good. I studied physics and math during undergrad at u of t. I’m currently pursuing master degree in applied physics. Ur rigorous voice tone sounds like my colleagues that’s why I asked. Hoi4 is a really good game and I strongly recommend it, especially if u r interested in analytical studies.

[@Strat-Guides]

@@asdfqwer-b9m when I first started out, I was a physics and math major. For upper division linear algebra, the professor gave us a single question final - "Derive linear algebra from scratch". Needless to say, I switched from math to astrophysics lol! I'm definitely going to give HOI4 a shot, the biggest issue is time. I looked for guides on YT and it's either 2 hour marathon tutorials telling you how to do every single click but without any context or reasoning, or a 1 minute video that would help once reaching 1000 hours of play.

[@asdfqwer-b9m]

You have to be considerate about doing hoi4. On one hand, that game is super time consuming. One game can easily take over 5 hours. You also need probably hundreds hours of playing to really understand all the mechanisms. On the other hand, most current hoi4 youtubers are simply doing tricky playthrough. For instance, if you click this research followed by that policy, some tricky event will occur. Tommykay is attracting many viewers cus he is funny. Strategy gaming is doing some simple comparisons between all the options in the game. So far I’ve only seen one video that uses computational tools to optimize the combat width. So if u do hoi4, it will be a unique channel. People focus too much on the order of clicking buttons instead of the real strategy there, which can be duplicated in every game and loses the fun. Im currently reading ‘Achtung Panzer’ written by guderian to get some inspirations.

[@Strat-Guides]

This is really helpful info, thank you for sharing! Yeah Tommykay is hilarious lol but I don't get the feeling I would learn much by watching him. There is a guy who did really short guides on HOI4 that I really liked - kzbin.info He's a good dude too, I reached out to him a couple times. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on his style of video because I was considering keeping things very short to begin with until I reach some level of recognition in that game.

[@i_love_crpg]

what are your thoughts on the delegate command option?

[@Strat-Guides]

I don't mind using it for smaller battles that are pretty much won no matter what I do, but for larger battles I try to avoid it at all costs. The only units I don't mind leaving on delegate are archers, but even then the AI moves them so much. I prefer to set them still and allow them to shoot constantly rather than moving forward and backwards all the time lol AI is goofy!

[@i_love_crpg]

@@Strat-Guides so for horse archers, the only viable strat is basically loose+charge right?

[@Strat-Guides]

@@i_love_crpg Yeah against other horse archers that seems to be the case. If the enemy doesn't have horse archers, then I like to keep mine stationary so they can aim much more accurately and just move them around as the battle dictates. It's really easy to flank a shield wall with horse archers, but much more deadly when they aren't moving.

[@i_love_crpg]

@@Strat-Guides a bit of a late question. why would face direction be superior than face enemy when using horse archers?

[@GrimzReapr]

How do you get your horse archers to circle the enemy

[@Strat-Guides]

Used column formation and the follow me command, then ride around in the path you want them to use!

[@mortache]

"Advance" is good if you engage the enemy with a different group of melee cavalry. But on their own they will just get whittled down and die.

[@Strat-Guides]

Interesting, I'll have to give that a try. So would you split your melee cav into 2 groups and use 1 to charge and another advance or something like that?

[@mortache]

​@@Strat-Guides No I was talking about advance for horse archers. The plan is to make the enemy archers and cav archers unable to shoot back at them by personally leading the cavalry into the enemy ranged formation. I don't trust the AI horse archers to not get stuck in melee with the infantry, that's why I don't let them charge. "Advance" lets them maintain distance and shoot at the enemy from afar while I hit the archers or at least force them to draw their swords and put the bow away

[@Strat-Guides]

Oooh that's a good idea, they get outperformed at distance, but if they don't have their bows out then it doesn't even matter. I like that!

[@AzoiatheCobra]

Guess who's back... back again... FREDERICK THE GAMING, MASTER OF CALRADIA, OWNER OF ENLIGHTED TACTICS, DESTROYER OF HORSE LOVERS, is back, tell Derthert to hide with his friends. Im gonna watch the video now... bye

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol old school slim shaddy! I love it, I listened to him in my high school days haha Thank you for watching!

[@botno69420]

Follow seems to be the god command for horse archers, but that obviously leaves the rest to you.

[@drackse1748]

SHEEEESH

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for watching!!

[@faruqakmal1146]

How to be effective as cancer upon calradia

[@Strat-Guides]

Haha so true!! It's better to be the cancer than to get eaten by the cancer I suppose.

[@iceiceice914]

Does this work on the current 1.0?

[@Strat-Guides]

They made some changes in 1.0 for cavalry, but most of this still applies. Melee cavalry are actually better now, but they still suck if given the charge command at the start without micro.

[@Kaador]

Square Formation is a huge fail without Landsknecht-equipment...

[@Strat-Guides]

It's definitely an odd one for cavalry!

[@chadstallings5558]

👍👍

[@Strat-Guides]

👍👊

[@Noplayster13]

Was column formation ever tested?

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah I had done that in a previous tactics video and it works well as long as you don't have too many in the group. I think anything more than 100 and it can be a problem.

[@Noplayster13]

@@Strat-Guides awesome, thanks

[@johnconnor8206]

Horse archers aren’t meant to fight other horse archers why didn’t you test against infantry or foot archers?

[@Strat-Guides]

I didn't want to repeat the testing that I had done in previous tactics guides. I did a lot of bonus footage covering that and figured it would be "double dipping". The next episode is going to be full army vs army battles which should be a bit more enlightening. I just wanted to run through each unit to gain a solid foundation to build on. I understand where you're coming from though, it's certainly not the most useful info relative to mixed unit battles.

[@MoragTong_]

Gimme 400 Khans Guard and I'll crush any army up to 1200 or so..terrain doesn't matter.

[@rrron]

As an avid horse archer commander, i can swear by loose formation and charge

[@Strat-Guides]

Nice, I'm glad the testing confirms real experience :) Thank you for watching!

[@DraxTheDestroyer]

what would you say about column and charge with horse archers ?

[@BaconsTV]

I wonder what the difference would be now with 1.9 beta?

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah I bet things have changed a little bit. I'm going to be running those tactics guide for army vs army so we will find out soon :)

[@anonimas12]

What about scatter?

[@Strat-Guides]

Scatter only works during a siege and will direct troops to take cover behind objects in the field. I tried it many times in open battles but basically does nothing :)

[@anonimas12]

@@Strat-Guides doesn't it allow your troops to spread out more as the battle progresses? (Like they don't run back to regroup with allies after reinforcements spawn etc)

[@Strat-Guides]

@@anonimas12 So that's what I initially thought as well, but in all of the testing I've done so far, I have not noticed it doing anything :( however in a siege, it does seem to have an effect so that's why I think it's specifically for sieges.

[@anonimas12]

@@Strat-Guides oof. I have been lying to myself for far too long :(

[@Strat-Guides]

@@anonimas12 Lol welcome to the club! TW Maths does it to me all the time :)

[@dakari7817]

bet

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks dakari :D A bit coin doge coin for your troubles

[@Borgolii]

I hate ranged cav >:(

[@Strat-Guides]

They are certainly more annoying than they are deadly, but I hate them nonetheless :P I feel your pain!

[@yuriyi2859]

Please, PLEASE! Change background "music" to something... Silence even.

[@Strat-Guides]

Not a fan of Bach harpsichord I see... It's definitely an acquired taste lol I should have put something a bit more mainstream :) I'll swap it out for the next video.

[@TheGamingG810]

I thought this was aoe2

[@Sinner-lw9qg]

this is outdated most of these have a higher kdr

[@florix7889]

Stop wasting your time and your viewers time with stupid orders/formations. Only the recap and the interesting order/formation are plenty enough. Trying against different types of troops (infantry with shields, no shields, archers, melee cavalry etc...) instead of shield wall advance on horse archers would be way more interesting and actually useful.

[@Strat-Guides]

I think for some people you are probably right, but there are some who would like to see thorough testing for each scenario. I had several hours of video that was reduced down to 20 minutes so I've cut out nearly 90% of things, trying to not waste anyone's time. I agree with your second statement, which is when the mixed unit testing will come in handy. The whole point of this series was to isolate units in a controlled environment and figure out how each formation and command worked and which would perform best. I can tell you from personal experience (and with well over 3k hours into Bannerlord) that a lot of the info from these tactics guides have helped me out in real battles. A perfect example - enemy horse archers generally suicide out front every time and by watching this guide you would know that sending your own horse archers to engage them would end in 1.2 KDR at best. A better strategy is to bait them into circling a shield wall and ambushing them when they round off. Anyhow I appreciate you watching and for the input. I'll have much better and more useful info in the next guide for you!

[@florix7889]

@@Strat-Guides thank you for your answer ! I understand that it's tought to cut out even more things but at least for me these vidéos bore me a bit. We can take out all the interesting tactics just by the most interesting formations/orders and the recap. It's just my opinion though I may be the only grumpy one X) Anyway looking forward to your next vidéo !

[@Strat-Guides]

No problem, I appreciate all feedback (especially negative ones since they tend to help shape corrections the most). I agree with you on these being a bit boring as a lot of the tests are repetitive by nature. I always put the timestamps so people can skip to the good stuff ASAP if they choose so hopefully that helps some. Lol grumpy or not, I appreciate you :) I'm currently working on episode 1 of Amir Timur campaign which will be a very different kind of play through!

[@kittycatcat6962]

Empire culture heavy cav makes mincemeat of khuzaits using your last strategy.

[@oldomen3788]

What about scatter?

[@Strat-Guides]

It's good on sieges but doesn't do anything on field battle maps. I've tried it in several settings, that's the only place I got it to work.