Carbine Cavalry Unit Size Penalty?

[JochenHeiden]

I am aware that artillery and skirmisher units are adversely effected when increasing the size of the units past 300 men.  The infantry brigades are not affected.  How about melee and carbine cavalry?\

Right now I am running two 600-man cavalry brigades per corps and they are all armed with the Pattern 1861 Enfield Carbine.  Am I wasting men with units this large?  How is cavalry affected by unit size, both mounted and dismounted?

[Andre Bolkonsky]

It's not that the infantry brigades are not affected, its that the extra men in the infantry brigade are worth the downgrade in efficiency because more men make for meaner melee assault units. Artillery and skirmishers are not going to close to melee for the most part unless something really bad just happened. 

There are some efficiency issues with very large cavalry brigades, but they are like Infantry brigades; personally I find it's worth the hit because there's a good chance the dragoons might be used to melee a target of opportunity. I have no problem sending Dragoons into melee if they find a target of opportunity. 

And i love running dragoons into the woods, dismounting, and causing mischief. At that point, big dragoon units are much better at holding off line infantry than small ones. 

Giving each division one cavalry brigade, I tend to build two or three dragoons for each hussar unit, and try to mass all my cavalry around a charismatic 3-star cavalry corps commander whose aura can work on all allied units, creating a heavy cavalry corps of mobile infantry, this can cause serious problems for your enemy. And I'm still ticked we were never granted horse artillery. 

 

[The Soldier]

Infantry brigades don't seem affected at all, because the larger the unit, the more damage it appears to deal.  So it *seems* like it's not affected, and I'd be surprised if it was.

Not sure if Cavalry are affected.  I think they might be, based on previous experience, but I couldn't give numbers on it.

Also, if you ask me, Cavalry in melee is a waste of men and resources.  Each horse costs $10 to replace, on top of the cost of any Veterans you want to buy, and that cost is furthermore totally unaffected by Economy.  The cost of keeping a Shock Cavalry unit in good fighting condition is simply not worth the price, let alone if you want to get it to Vet 2 or higher.

[Andre Bolkonsky]

38 minutes ago, The Soldier said:

Infantry brigades don't seem affected at all, because the larger the unit, the more damage it appears to deal.  So it *seems* like it's not affected, and I'd be surprised if it was.

Not sure if Cavalry are affected.  I think they might be, based on previous experience, but I couldn't give numbers on it.

Also, if you ask me, Cavalry in melee is a waste of men and resources.  Each horse costs $10 to replace, on top of the cost of any Veterans you want to buy, and that cost is furthermore totally unaffected by Economy.  The cost of keeping a Shock Cavalry unit in good fighting condition is simply not worth the price, let alone if you want to get it to Vet 2 or higher.

Using an analogy to air warfare; dragoons are your tactical bombers and hussars are your fighters. 

Hussars are deployed specifically to shadow and defeat enemy cavalry units, and feast upon routing units. You don't need a lot, two dragoons and one hussar can defeat the AI's ability to recon your flanks or help turn his.  Unless he is hitting you hard, at which point your guys bug out. 

 

[Hitorishizuka]

I still like a couple melee cav brigades per Corps on 20-24 brigade battles to hunt skirmishers depending on terrain. Otherwise skirmishers can get so obnoxious, especially if they have snipers and just sit outside your range and shoot your infantry.

[Jamesk2]

7 hours ago, The Soldier said:

The cost of keeping a Shock Cavalry unit in good fighting condition is simply not worth the price, let alone if you want to get it to Vet 2 or higher.

Here is where you get it wrong. I don't have one Shock Cav unit, I have a whole division of them! Seriously, the way casualty and morale is calculated means that 2 mediocre units are always better than 1 elite when it come down to melee.

[The Soldier]

I don't run more than a division of cavalry at a time in my entire army.  Not worth the expense to keep up two units or more of shock cavalry, not in my eyes anyway.

[Bobby Fiasco]

Now that I am loving dismounted carbine cavalry on the flanks and rear of enemy units, I send melee cav to sit there and protect them/sacrifice themselves against the enemy's freaking 1,0000-man two-star cav. units. I used to kill artillery with them too but their melee has been so nerfed that they can't even handle that anymore.