Light Horse

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"The nail supports the hoof; the hoof, the horse; the horse, mankind; and mankind in turn the world." Arab saying


In game[edit | edit source]

Lightcav TAP.png
Light Horse — Vital statistics

Light melee cavalry, lightly armoured but cheap to create and capable of good speed and flexibility.

Prereq: Build time HP LOS Attack Attack speed Movement
speed
Upgrade of
  • Heroic Age [2]
  • Level 3: Military Tradition Military
11.9s
(175t)
136 5 11 1.6s
(25t)
37

Redos-kc.png l Merkabim icon.png

Cost Created from Armour Weapon range Specialty
Base Ramp Pop
Food.jpg: 60;
Timber: 40
Food.jpg: 1;
Timber: 1
1

Stable.png

2 Melee
  • Bonus damage versus light infantry.
  • Defensive bonus versus Archers.
  • Attack penalty versus camel cavalry and elephants.

Roundel othala.png Roundel assur.png Roundel celtic.png Roundel gaul.png Roundel ord.png Tartessos.png Roundel korea.png Lauburu.png Roundel greek.png Roundel scythoi.png

Overall strategy[edit | edit source]

Light Cavalry are (as their name suggests) meant to perform forage, reconaissance, and raiding. Although considered light, these units have some added armour and attack to them, meaning that if need be, they can be used to knock down enemy units in combat, particularly archers and siege weapons although medium infantry such as Swordsmen may pose problems. Far worse are other cavalry units and heavy infantry. Any area infested with spear infantry is a no-go area for Light Cavalry.

Not all factions with a nous for cavalry train Light Cavalry. For instance, the superior skills of the Phrygians ensure that instead of training both Light Cavalry and Horsemen, they instead will have access to Phrygian Horsemen, which is in essence a Light Cavalry unit that enters the game one age earlier than normal Light Cavalry. With this, the Phrygians will often have an early game cavalry advantage, until other nations either obtain Medium Spearmen, or train better cavalry units of their own.

Unit summary[edit | edit source]

  • Better Something Than Nothing At All — While not as good as Lancers in single combat, Light Cavalry have some added armour and attack so they can be used to knock down enemy units in combat, particularly archers and siege weapons.
  • He Who Liveth By The Sword ... — As always, Light Cavalry have sufficient armour and punching power to plow through hails of arrows, but not a wall of determined pointy objects. Thus while they are most effective against enemy archers and infantry, their worst enemy will forever be pikemen.
  • Vsadniky —  the Russian Vsadniky is a weaker but cheaper version of Light Cavalry that can be massed for impact, which with the Russian bonus for added damage against support units can be highly versatile.
  • Baatur — In contrast, Mongol Baatur are better considered as medium cavalry, meant to serve in multiple roles, including frontline assaults on enemy cavalry.
  • Border Raiders — The Scottish Border Raider is better suited for defence and skirmishing as opposed to the Mongol cavalry which with its added stats can be used to harass heavy infantry.

See also[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

This unit should be far more representable, and probably has Semitic influence for both Aryan and Akkadian civs alike. Asian cav probably has a sword and a helmet of leather - possibly dressed like the Yi?

  • Hong has left behind a skin for Asians, lighthorse2.tga - still need more.
  • Default, GReek, a mix between denyen cav and assur cav.
    • Probably: assur_Swordcav.tga and denyen_swordcav.bh3
    • We can reuse Uthum's old skins for German cavalry for the Indo-Iranian version.
    • Bring these units in pronto for WBI right away.

History[edit | edit source]

Although heavy cavalry tactics would well dominate Europe for three hundred years after the First Crusade, light cavalry continued to be important, especially in areas that were impoverished, highly open, or filled with broken terrain, such as the mountainous south of Spain or the open wastes of Central Asia. The Turks and the Mongols often had the best light cavalry, because of their access to horses and the necessity of light cavalry for operations in the open grassy plains of Asia.