Horseman swarming in HttT

[ryn]

I have often found that "swarming" horsemen in HttT pays off. For example: using this strategy in Muff Malal's peninsula gave me a knight, quite a lot of xp, and a quick finish. In the Bay of Pearls, my land army is almost totally composed of horsemen, with only a few elves mixed in. They move fast, have a powerful attack, and aren't all that expensive if you really think about it. I generally play a level 2 or three times, one of them using the above strategy and the others using a much lower number of horsemen. I find that the horsemen method often wins. The rest of my army is generally composed of mages, shamans, fighters, and archers as well as their higher level relatives. At any one time I tend to have about 2 or 3 knights (they are expendable) a druid, a ranger or two (in higher levels these become avengers) and a commander. On most levels I recall an avenger and several elves/mages to hold one side/part of the map and horsemen accompanied by a commander for the other. Maps to which this is appliccable include Blackwater Port, The Isle of Anduin, Muff Malal's Peninsula, Blitz, and others. Note that this works best when the two halves of my army can meet. Any comments/suggestions to improve this strategy?

[Kirdan]

Hmm... not really. I've found Horsemen pretty useless except for a few special occasions. (SoE to assassinate the necromancer and for an escort in Dwarven doors).

I feel they are too fragile (even the Knight can be in danger if he has taken damage in a charge). And they don't move well in non-open terrain.

[Glowing Fish]

Have you tried this strategy in TRoW?

It would seem to be a good idea to start promoting those knights into Paladins early, because you are going to be fighting a lot of undead.

As opposed to HttT, where you only fight undead in 5 maps, and none in the last 6 or so maps.

[Fortify]

I think horsemen are great and I try to keep a few on hand at all times. I could see a mostly horsemen army dominating if it was lucky on those hits(+100%) dammage. I have a problem with the mostly horsemen army that is for night, fighting 'elusive' opponants, defending against ranged opponants.

Sorry I don't see it but maybe if you give a few more details as to how your horsemen army can overcome these problems I could be converted.

Cheers,
Fortify

[Shadow]

I like them too but only for an fast hit not for a longer fight I mostly use them for a killing blow of an wounded or weaker units but only on big maps with mostly grassland in other cases I use mostly tougher and cheaper units for the roughwe terrain

[ryn]

Apparently I was not clear on my use of elves.

As normal, they defend the horsemen's flank's at night while they retreat. However, I use cannon fodder lightly.. ie, I won Muff Malal's peninsula using 3 elves and a mage, the rest horsemen. Only one elf (a commander) stayed with the horsemen which went west, while my fighters and mage stayed to defend konrad in the south. The elves and konrad advanced when victory was clear, giving a very easy win. For the Isle of Anduin I had 3 horsemen backed up by 2 elves and defaldor in the west, and then 2 rangers and a mage moving south. When they were close to meeting in the southwest I moved konrad south and won a knight as well as an avenger. This is hard to use in BoP because your land army doesn't have enough room to split. The strategy is not as useful on maps such as blitz, but if you use horsemen with a low xp-to-level MP game and back them up with a couple of elves they can easily win either side of the map. Attacking on both sides often results in a loss, however, since your opponent will be far more inclined to use ranged and poisoning units; he won't use these as much if have a defending sides with more elves because they're harder to hit on most terrains (poison not as effective) and they have a ranged attack as well. If your opponent does use a large amount of poisoning units, simply put a few more elves on the horsemen's side of the map and get a horseman to the elves' side of the map - the opponent will find his recruitment strategy less effective.

[Kirdan]

I must say I've reviewed my opinion of horsemen. I've just reached "Test of Clans" and for once, my usual small elite group of units can not cut it. They can simply not hold enough villages to prevent the 4 bad guys from taking them out one after another with mounted units en masse.

I have to go back to "Home of the North Elves" to correct my mistake of having too little money and too few knights in "Test of Clans".

[Doros]

I must say I've reviewed my opinion of horsemen. I've just reached "Test of Clans" and for once, my usual small elite group of units can not cut it. They can simply not hold enough villages to prevent the 4 bad guys from taking them out one after another with mounted units en masse.

I have to go back to "Home of the North Elves" to correct my mistake of having too little money and too few knights in "Test of Clans".

I'm pretty sure it's just about impossible to beat TotC legitimately. The only way I know of that works is to send an elite force of leveled horseman to the southwest to assassinate the leader. I also think it's going to be removed.

(David said that it either needed to be seriously rebalanced or removed, and the creator of the scenario said that he did not have time to rebalance it)

[Kirdan]

Well... I got so far as to recall for $100 of my best troops (3 Avengers, A Shyde and a Knight). Let the Knight take as many villages as it can while you rush South to kill the southern leader. By then, you should have money enough to hire 3 more units. (Sharpshooter, Silver mage and an almost Avenger). Then rush to the west to kill the objective.
... I managed to get within range of the castle, but I guess I made the mistake to split my troops in an atempt to hold of the hordes of enemies at the river. No unit lived to tell the tale.

[Dave]

I have long thought that horsemen can be very powerful if used properly. Good to see some people share this opinion.

One of the greatest strengths of Wesnoth, imho, is that there are a variety of styles one can play with, and very good players can differ in their opinions of good ways to play. It's games that have only one way to play that get boring fast...

David

[Mortsubite]

I have found a great deal of success in using a group of horse (5 or 6 paladins) as an independent attack force. I cannot claim that it was my idea- I actually thought of it while reading a book on the Zulu War of 1879. In big battle situations, I use the Zulu "horns of the buffalo" attack formation. A mix of level 1 elves/loyalists/outlaws on foot forms the center, or "head". They move forward as a feint. When the enemy advances to meet them, they fall back at full speed to a line of level 2 units, or the "loins". As the head moves back, my level 3 foot on one side and the horse on the other advance at full speed on both flanks (the "horns"). The horns smash into the rear, the head and the loins move forward, and it's over in less time than it takes to describe it.

I also have found that massing level 1 horse on the right wing in BoP, behind a thin screen of elvish fighters/archers, can create the opportunity for a massive "left wheel" that in one turn pins all troll whelps and orcish archers on the beach. The mermen rush to the coast and become the anvil; the elves fall back to become the pivot; and the horse become the hammer. The effect is devastating.

[santi]

On the whole, horsemen are not a terrorizing force and it is easy to neutralize them (e.g. assasins or saurians), and are rarely useful alone. But that's well in accord with Wesnboth's design(no overwhelmingly great unit-well, I think bladewraiths are kind of a superstrong unit)

[Elvish_Pillager]

On the whole, horsemen are not a terrorizing force

in HTTT they are, you can win the campaign with just horses even on Medium, they slaughter everyone and are great against all enemy units except in caves and in bad terrain like Northern Winter.
Not if you're an AI

Yup, it's generally agreed that ghosts and their upgrades are overpowered at this time.

[Circon]

You don't even want to think about the fact that Wraiths used to get plague on their ranged attack.

[Darkmoon]

I pretty much passed HttT by now... but to get to where I am it took me long hours.... my brother used mainly horse(and related fast strategy), and managed to get where I was in barely 1/5th the time it took me...

Then I started using a few horses in a small way... quiet successfully... they can be rather useful even if not used as a hammer force for the main strategy.