I love cavalry!

[Storminator]

Expanding my army significantly these days. We're playing a campaign, and the rate at which you add units is prodigious.

 

So, since I'm surrounded by Elves, I picked up a couple troops of Deathriders. I used them last night for the first time. In one game just having the Deathriders on the board drastically altered the enemy strategy. Planning to protect the archers paralyzed his Deathseekers, allowing my forces to overwhelm them. That game was tainted by my foe forgetting about his magic weapons and magic armor on his Deathseekerss, but I still ended up with a huge number of models left.

 

In the other game Qwyksilver played my forces, and he whomped the elves. The elves, over 2 turns, took 34 shots at the Deathriders, managing to drop... 2 of them. That's pretty much the end of the fight right there.

 

As a great bonus, the cavalry make the Onyx Chevelier useful, since there's an entire troop of fast movers to deal with, not just the lonely Chevy.

 

Very, very, happy with the cavalry so far (beastriders on the way...)

 

PS

[Brushmaster]

The elves, over 2 turns, took 34 shots at the Deathriders, managing to drop... 2 of them.

Lots of bad dice rolls ?

[Storminator]

The elves, over 2 turns, took 34 shots at the Deathriders, managing to drop... 2 of them.

Lots of bad dice rolls ?

 

 

Some. They needed 9s and 10s, and managed to get 4.

 

PS

[Qwyksilver]

Yeah, I marched Dauron and 5 Death riders full bore into the face of a wall of Elven archers on their first activation. I stopped purposefully 7 inches away (make the choice bub, Rav 4 or two shots at Rav 3)

 

My opponent opted for the double shots. Round 1 was 17 shots. Only one model took a hit. 5 of the models needed 9's & 10's to hit. Dauron needed a 10. He rolled very well. Lots of 7's and 8's, but those were not good enough. SA: Cavalry is beautiful.

 

Since there was a solid wall of Cavalry between my Crossbowmen troop and his archers, I just marched them up without fear.

 

His next activation sent his warrior force in to engage the cavalry. Okay, fine. First round only one of the 8 models could attack, and he missed, and I whacked him with a DS. The rest just swarmed in for support.

 

All the cavalry were engaged, so those that could, just hit the guys in b2b and got a good portion of them. He responded with his archers, and another 17 points later, the one wounded model was killed. The other model took a wound. That's right. 34 shots, and only three wounds, one casualty.

 

His warriors took out the wounded Cavalry.

 

My Crossbowmen were able to move into firing range and split into two wings, one picked off 3 archers, the other picked off three of his warriors. Then my troop of 5 knights walked in and slaughtered pretty much everything else that was left. He was able to pick off a total of 4 Spectral Cavalry. That was all.

 

Using the Onyx Chevy in conjunction with the Cavalry makes them VERY effective. I shudder to think what will happen when Pete gets his own Overlord Cavalry and also gets his faction SA back again. BLEECH!!!

 

 

All I can say....

 

I CAN'T WAIT TO GET MY BEASTRIDERS BASED AND ON THE FIELD!!!

[Froggy the Great]

With my Beastriders and about 500 points of Lesser Orcs, I managed to neutralize Jimmy's skeletal archers and intimidate his entire force into one 2-story cottage. That gave me enough time to bring up the Bull Orc warriors and archers, and then it was over in two or three turns. The Gobbies died horribly, but that's what they're supposed to do. They're Goblins, after all.

[Brushmaster]

By the sounds of it , I can't wait to get my Crusader cavalry !

More armoured Crusader goodness !

[Storminator]

By the sounds of it , I can't wait to get my Crusader cavalry !

More armoured Crusader goodness !

 

I'm pretty tired of archers (maybe because I play elves all the time?!?) so I'm really glad to have cavalry. None of my fact ion yet, but hey! I have two kinds of evil cav to choose from, so it's all good.

 

PS

[drjsallison]

As a great bonus, the cavalry make the Onyx Chevelier useful, since there's an entire troop of fast movers to deal with, not just the lonely Chevy.

 

PS

 

 

Onyx Cheveliers don't have to be lonely in an all O-lord army. They may be solos but lose their unique status so you can field multiples. Has there been a change to this rule in the Warlord book? (page 112 under heading "All Armies")

 

Onyx Zephers are coming soon for adept Calalry. (Great for O-lords, terror for their enemies)

[Storminator]

 

As a great bonus, the cavalry make the Onyx Chevelier useful, since there's an entire troop of fast movers to deal with, not just the lonely Chevy.

 

PS

 

 

Onyx Cheveliers don't have to be lonely in an all O-lord army. They may be solos but lose their unique status so you can field multiples. Has there been a change to this rule in the Warlord book? (page 112 under heading "All Armies")

 

Onyx Zephers are coming soon for adept Calalry. (Great for O-lords, terror for their enemies)

 

You can include more than one Chevy, but since they are solos they can't act as a unit which greatly limits their effectiveness. With a troop of Deathriders I can move the OC thru the Deathriders, and it becomes vastly more effective. In the game I played the Chevy killed 2 elf archers (pays for itself right there...) and collapsed the defense around it. The Chevy plays far, far better next to a troop.

 

PS

[spiritual_exorcist]

I've got a unit of these guys, although they came with the wrong bases so I';ve yet to use them, that being said I am looking froward to bring them out from what I've heard here.

[Tsetsen Muur]

I've got a unit of these guys, although they came with the wrong bases so I';ve yet to use them, that being said I am looking froward to bring them out from what I've heard here.

I cut a paint stir stick (free at Home Despot) into 2 inch lengths. They make a fine base for cavalry.

[Darthiir]

Expanding my army significantly these days. We're playing a campaign, and the rate at which you add units is prodigious.

 

So, since I'm surrounded by Elves, I picked up a couple troops of Deathriders. I used them last night for the first time. In one game just having the Deathriders on the board drastically altered the enemy strategy. Planning to protect the archers paralyzed his Deathseekers, allowing my forces to overwhelm them. That game was tainted by my foe forgetting about his magic weapons and magic armor on his Deathseekerss, but I still ended up with a huge number of models left.

 

As a great bonus, the cavalry make the Onyx Chevelier useful, since there's an entire troop of fast movers to deal with, not just the lonely Chevy.

 

Very, very, happy with the cavalry so far (beastriders on the way...)

 

PS

 

Cavalry bites....super fast hard and hard to hit. They make the elf faction virtually useless. The advantage the elves had was distance, but when one of your enemy's troops can fly across the field of battle in one turn your dead.

 

They need to come out with elven cavalry, not just the lonely centaur with his 24 range. Now a unit of centaur cavalry would be nice give them a little more armor and forget about the ranged attack.

[Vil-hatarn]

They need to come out with elven cavalry, not just the lonely centaur with his 24 range. Now a unit of centaur cavalry would be nice give them a little more armor and forget about the ranged attack.

 

Elf cavalry...fun...

Though I imagine a centaur or eagle could head them off pretty well. Or the threat of being fireballed/firestormed by lysette.

[Qwyksilver]

As Storminator likes to say about tabletop battles "It's like Rock Paper Scissors, Cavalry beats Archers, Archers beat Grunts, Grunts beat Cavalry"

 

If you're going to face a lot of Cavalry, bring lots of foot soldiers. You can get 8 models on any single Cavalry model.

 

Any army that depends soley on a specific model type is doomed for failure. Even against elves, most armies can field multiple models with only minor upgrades that will require you to roll 9's and 10's. Heck, some have stock grunt models that can do that. DV 11 + Deflect = DV 12 vs Elven RAV 3.

 

Archers are the elven army's strength, but it's not their sole feature. You've got good mages, great movement on most of your models. Field a troop or two of Warriors, Spearmen and Deathseekers.

 

And, most importantly to elven archer survival. Run away. Your guys have 7 inches of movement and a 30 inch range. You should be able to get at least 2 rounds of fire off, if not three if you can manage some elevation to increase your range and reduce your opponent's movement. Fire and move. Fire and move. Spread out. Cavalry can't get you all, and you can shoot into melee without fear. LOS of sight issues for you are a virtual joke. So, you sacrifice an archer or two. The reason I was able to cream the elven archers when I faced them is that they didn't move. They stood there and kept firing at almost close range, hoping for the one lucky shot and double the chances of it instead of moving up another inch to get a +1 bonus to RAV for being within 6 inches, and then standing there shooting at just the Cavalry when 2 more troops of units advanced. If they shot, and then ran so they remained in their range, but out of the range of the Xbow and all the troops, it would have been more rounds to chance rolls. Plus, he could have used his melee troops to soften everyone else up.

 

Surrounding Cavalry is the way to kill em. Once you have a guy in b2b, if they are packed in formation, they cannot do defender adjusts, so your second guy in is going to be on a rear base if you're smart and they can't Defensive Strike him, so bring in the heavy hitting low DV guys (like Death Seekers or Breakers) there.

 

Cavalry doesn't bite, it just means you have to add another facet to your strategy and army building as a defender.

[Tsetsen Muur]

As Storminator likes to say about tabletop battles "It's like Rock Paper Scissors, Cavalry beats Archers, Archers beat Grunts, Grunts beat Cavalry"

 

If you're going to face a lot of Cavalry, bring lots of foot soldiers. You can get 8 models on any single Cavalry model.

 

Any army that depends soley on a specific model type is doomed for failure. Even against elves, most armies can field multiple models with only minor upgrades that will require you to roll 9's and 10's. Heck, some have stock grunt models that can do that. DV 11 + Deflect = DV 12 vs Elven RAV 3.

 

Archers are the elven army's strength, but it's not their sole feature. You've got good mages, great movement on most of your models. Field a troop or two of Warriors, Spearmen and Deathseekers.

 

And, most importantly to elven archer survival. Run away. Your guys have 7 inches of movement and a 30 inch range. You should be able to get at least 2 rounds of fire off, if not three if you can manage some elevation to increase your range and reduce your opponent's movement. Fire and move. Fire and move. Spread out. Cavalry can't get you all, and you can shoot into melee without fear. LOS of sight issues for you are a virtual joke. So, you sacrifice an archer or two. The reason I was able to cream the elven archers when I faced them is that they didn't move. They stood there and kept firing at almost close range, hoping for the one lucky shot and double the chances of it instead of moving up another inch to get a +1 bonus to RAV for being within 6 inches, and then standing there shooting at just the Cavalry when 2 more troops of units advanced. If they shot, and then ran so they remained in their range, but out of the range of the Xbow and all the troops, it would have been more rounds to chance rolls. Plus, he could have used his melee troops to soften everyone else up.

 

Surrounding Cavalry is the way to kill em. Once you have a guy in b2b, if they are packed in formation, they cannot do defender adjusts, so your second guy in is going to be on a rear base if you're smart and they can't Defensive Strike him, so bring in the heavy hitting low DV guys (like Death Seekers or Breakers) there.

 

Cavalry doesn't bite, it just means you have to add another facet to your strategy and army building as a defender.

 

Thank you for this wonderful post. I should print it out and hang it on my wall. One of the problems I have in Warlord is "square unit thinking" . I tend to keep my units in boxes, even when doing so is not useful.