Horse Raider

Horse Raider — Vital statistics
Horse Raider	Basic-level ranged cavalry unit, armed with a slow javelin-based attack. Very useful against slow-moving targets, but must be protected from cavalry and archers. Strong versus light melee infantry Weak versus archers, buildings, cavalry
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed	Upgrades to
	15s (225t)	45	5	11	2.5s (38t)	29	l
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 80	: 3	1		None	1–5	Strong versus heavy infantry and Heavy Chariots.

Overall strategy

Horse Raiders are the missile equivalent of Horsemen, except for several differences - they can attack at range, but have no armour. Horse raiders are a substitute for chariotry, for most non-chariot users, such as the Celts, Euskaldunak, Choson and Germans, until better units such as the Celtic Karbantos or mainstream Javelin Cavalry become available. Horse Raiders, while seemingly cheaper, suffer two distinctive differences compared to Light Chariots and Horsemen - they don't have the armour available to a Light Chariot, nor do they have the same rate of attack as one. Low speed and lack of armour, as well as a slow rate of fire thus doom these units to being primarily support units, until they can be upgraded to the more powerful Light Horse.

To make matters worse for the Choson and Euskaldunak, Horse Raiders are the only missile cavalry units available for most of the game, making their cavalry armies the weakest, for they have neither the punching power of chariotry nor the movement speed of units such as Light Cavalry. As a result, these two civilisations will have little choice but to fall back upon their other units, particularly infantry, to seize the day, although it can be argued that the cheaper cost of Horse Raiders will always ensure that they can create swarms of these units — but with regards to their abilities, they are still no match ... chariots will forever be more versatile, other melee cavalry units more harder hitting. In the end, the most probable use for Horse Raiders will most likely be as their name suggests — for fast raiding and harassment, not defence against enemy units.

See also

• Light Chariot
• Javelin Cavalry
• Rong Raider
• Qiang Raider

Notes

Ostensibly, these units are the default cavalry unit trainable by Native American and some African civs if they gain control of a Corral. How many European units can we digest into Warbirth from K&C? Horse Raiders may need to be crafted from the models used on British cavalry.