Best MA Calvary Unit

[MaxWilson]

Or else I just didn't realize the Niefels had a fire vulnerability. That makes it even worse, and probably explains why the in-game test went so much more harshly for them than my simulation.

My understanding is that vulnerability comes before protection, so yes, it should be against(9,9+cold/2). Thanks for the catch.

-Max

Edit: No, actually I think that's still wrong because the multiplier applies to the DRN, too. (6+DRN)*1.50 - (9+DRN). Ouch for the giants. against() won't do this without a new parameter.

[Xietor]

Did you try the KOA against non blessed niefels? I do not think Koa's are special use only. I try to get a pack of 20-30 together over several turns, and they have steamrolled about everything they have faced.

Now, that is sp, so they have not run up against human made sc's. But they do take out mammoths, giants, summer lions, without too much trouble. They rarely break, have fantastic speed to kill anything trying to run, and they heal up their wounds, so by mid game they can be full health with 3-4 exp starts each. Most of mine in the present game have 4 stars, and i gift of reason one, and made him a commander. Man should have had a mounted commander, but with gift of reason it is no big deal that they do not, since the KOA makes a good commander, especially with 4 exp stars.

Also, while the koa cant be blessed, mass protection and mass regen gives then 2 regen, and 23 armor. And most of man's casters can cast those.

[normalphil]

Black Knight.

They don't work 100% of the time, but when they don't: no matter what happens, there's always another unit of black knights to throw at the problem. "Good enough" beats "the best".

[Xietor]

Black knights die too easy to spells because of insanely low mr. For the cost, black knights should at least get 10 mr. 9 is just ridiculously low. If you go against a race with priests that can smite, that have a some tough infantry shielding them, they can smite down those black knights in nothing flat.

[Dedas]

You have to use the knights with Ulm's unique spell Tempering the Will. That will raise their MR by 4.

[Sorlakind]

Dedas said:
You have to use the knights with Ulm's unique spell Tempering the Will. That will raise their MR by 4.

Tempering the Will is thaumaturgy 5. Thaumaturgy is not what you would call an essential school for Ulm, and with Ulm's researchers not being particularly gifted compounded with the fact that you usually take drain 3 making indep. mages mostly worthless for researching purposes, it can be a while before you get to thaumaturgy 5. And as a matter of fact, once potent magics enter battlefield, and due to their higher costs, regular cavalry looses much of its force.

Pythium has the Serpent Cataphracts (69, 56). The usual stats for cavalry but only two attacks, a light lance and a bite.

Man has the Knights and the Knights of Avalon (80, 61). The latter, while capital only, have a magical weapon (the alicorn) and also recup (= staying power). Pretty good cavalry, but expensive.

Ulm has the Black knights (55, 68). Higher prot (20) but lower def and low mr (9). Their subpar mr can be a real liability, e.g. do not go against an astral nation that can field large amounts of mages to mind burn, paralyze and (Heaven Forbid!) enslave them. For example, Mind Burn is only at Thaumaturgy 2 and is accessible very early, easily castable (level S2), 100 precision, 100 range and low fatigue. Ouch.

Marignon has the Royal Guard (50, 49) and the Knights of the Chalice (90, 61, capital-only). The latter are sacred and with the right bless can be very potent *and* Marignon has the priests to divine bless them. Remember that even a minor bless (e.g. death for SC crippling jobs, nature for regen = less afflictions = staying power, etc.) can be quite effective.

Tien Chi has several types of cavalry, including the Red Guards (65, 38) that are sacred. They have the strength of spring ability which is a double edge sword. They are also one of the few nations that have archer cavalry. If there was a command for fire and retreat, with retreat being an *orderly* retreat, they could become even more fearsome. As it stands, fire and flee is a waste, since having to gather the units that have retreated into a great number of provinces is a real PITA.

Machaka has the Spider Knights (55, 26) that can poison and web your enemies and have more than one life, since when the rider dies the spider continues. The sacred version, the Black Hunter (125, 36) is capital-only but with even more impressive stats. Add that it is sacred and you can pile on it some blesses.

Caelum does not have cavalry per se, but it does have flyers. Before potent magics enter the battlefield (that can shut down flyers) they can reach the rear lines more reliably than any cavalry. The Storm Guards (15, 31) may be the best ones. Their resistances can also synergize with filling the battlefield with a barrage of cold and/or lightning spells.

Pangaea has the centaurs, which by themselves are already cavalry. The serpent cataphracts may be the weakest of the bunch, since they are resource heavy (and one of the obvious ways for Pangaea to get design points is sloth 3). They have only two atacks (but one of them is a one-shot first strike with the lance that can kill lightly armoured troops in a single blow) and no javelin to throw. The Warriors on the other hand are stealthy, have javelins to throw and can berserk. White Centaurs, being sacred, are even more formidable. They all have recup (= staying power).

Vanheim has the Vans (70, 12). What can I say that has not been said already? Sacred, with stealth and glamour, with some wicked bless (W9F9) they are regularly killing machines.

Bandar Log (100, 17) has the sacred tiger riders. Never played the nation so can't say much about them.

From this list, Pythium's cavalry is one, if not the, weakest. Sacred cavalry can always be boosted with blesses and that tips the balance in their favour. I would choose Van's as the strongest - sacred + stealth + glamour guarantees that they are viable even late game (think raiding parties). Some of these cavalry can serve purposes not usually assigned to cavalry, mostly Caelum and Pangaea that I have, in a stretch of imagination, counted as cavalry. To augment the inconsistency (as per Emerson: "Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds") I have not factored elephants in.

[Dedas]

Well there is always the low tech version of Tempering the Will, also in the thaumaturgy path. It will definitely work in the beginning when you don't have so many knights.

[Xietor]

Do not underestimate the power of the alicorn of the KOA. A magical strike dealing 14 damage.

Magical strike, 3/30 movement(with forest) means they get where they are going in a hurry, both on the map and in battle. High morale, 17 defense, a shield, 3 attacks, 14 hp, 17 prot. And recuperation. While extremely expensive, these are my favorite calvary, the more so for being brutal without the need a a level 1 priest trying to bless them.

To get the full benefit of the 3/30, you need to gift of reason one of them into a commander. Pick the one with the most exp., as he will lead the most troops(no star leads 40). There are 3 mounted heroes, but one has a leadership of 10(: With luck 3, you will likely see 1 or 2 of them.

As Sor mentioned, if you do not mind the blessing, which can be a pain without divine blessing, some of the sacred calvary can be deadly, though the white centaur has 9 protection, and is extremely vulnarable to arrows.

[Graeme Dice]

Remember that the white centaur also has berserk, so with a nature/earth blessing he will go berserk, raise his protection by a fairly large amount, and be very hard to kill.

[Xietor]

I do not like going 9 earth when i play Pangaea though. That is spending a lot of point based around a capital only troop
and priests do not have divine bless.

And with the speed they have, many times they outrun the range of their level 2 priest for the bless. Without the bless, they are 9 protection. After they are at reduced hps, they go berserk and pick up their prot to 13, which is still sub par for a 70 gold calvary unit. Berserk is nice, they do not retreat, but the KOA rarely retreats either. And that added protection of berserk comes at a price to its defense.