Cavalry discussion

[David Wasilewski]

"Getting points exactly right is hard - but when a choice is automatic it is an indication that the points are wrong"

Spot on.

Dave

[andydorman]

I've yet to start playing warmaster - have a couple of armies but epic's taking up my time right now.

How bad is the cavalry situation as it stands? If it's as broken as everyone seems to think it is, it really should be fixed. Would a small points increase across the board do it?

[Aquahog]

There are three things that make heavy cavalry very cost efficient I think:
Excellent movement
Small frontage
Resilience

Excellent movement: As they don't have to be within 20cm of their target (-1 Ld to the test) when given the order to charge they have a greater chance of pulling of a multiple order charge and setting up flank attacks.
Small frontage: Means that they can pull of the earlier mentioned flank attacks to greater effect.
Resilience: 4+ save in combination with infantry not being allowed to pursue makes only other heavy cavalry the obvious counter. Also, their superior movement lets them stay further away thus making pulling of flank attacks with infantry against them even harder due to multiple orders. Attacking them head on will give them more attacks than the attacking infantry which is a bad idea. Again, even if you get the flank attack off, they only have to endure one round of combat before they run away (and hit you in the flank next turn).

[forbes]

I agree with all of what Aquahog says

I would suggest 140pts for the standard knight profile.

[Stormwind]

We are discussing the "common" knight here which exists as the Empire Knight, the High Elf Silver Helms, the Kislev Lancers etc. etc., but what about cheaper cavalry like the goblin wolf riders or boar boys?

[forbes]

Too me its the 3/3/4+ cavalry that are too cheap - these are Knights to me

Boar Riders (and Demon Cav) are interesting - they get an extra attack, but loose out on defence - this tends to make then a touch weaker than knights, but still very good - perhaps 130pts

More expensive Cavalry like Cold Ones and Chaos knights would get a bump in points, but not sure to where.

Wolf Riders are tat - they are fine at 60pts

Camel Riders are perhaps the only lighter cavalry that could do with a small points increase - as they are very good value at the minute.

[honestmistake]

Wolf Riders are tat - they are fine at 60pts

One of my regular opponents fields an 2000-3000pt orc and goblin army that's basically the minimums + a whole horde of these pesky buggers.... they can be devastating in numbers

[Dobbsy]

It's interesting that people are calling for a price increase on a unit that often costs more than double that of an infantry unit. In essence, you already pay a hefty premium for the abilities granted and Cav can't utilise terrain.

If any change is to occur, I like Dave's suggestion of counting support beforehand. It's simpler and doesn't effect how many units you may have.

[jchaos79]

Wolf Riders are tat - they are fine at 60pts

One of my regular opponents fields an 2000-3000pt orc and goblin army that's basically the minimums + a whole horde of these pesky buggers.... they can be devastating in numbers

As honestmistake notice there are many ways of playing rather than going for max in heavy cavalry. So beware of changing points from only one point of view. Just my opinion.

[forbes]

Some of my thinking is influenced by WMA where shock cavalry are much more expensive, and infantry get the benefits of support counted first, support moving, and limited rounds of combat.

It's cool that someone has managed to make a light cavalry army work in WM - but it's not common at all. In Hail Caesar I particularly like horse archers in an army.

A decent set of points should enable multiple strategies, not tip the balance in favour of one over the other.