I was playing mount and blades warbands a little bit ago and was watching how the cavalry would move through the infantry and it got me thinking. Does anyone ever charge a group of cavalry in then, with priority or a heroic, withdraw them from combat to line up and charge again? From watching the AI in the game I got the impression that trying to use cavalry to wade through a formation of infantry way not a good idea. Is the way we are playing cavalry contributing to the reputation of them being fragile? Thoughts anyone?

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Nice question. Is true, some players charge on whenever possibile, splitting the units that then end up surrounded. When you got cavalry, you want them to attack whenever possible. If you fall back to regroup, the enemy will do the same: those who got knocked down will stand up and then they will come back in formation. Plus, archery will then get another round of shooting against your horsemen.

I think is up to the player to understand the flow of the game. Sometimes you'll just need to push further, other times you have to fall back and regroup.
There's only one think I never do: letting someone go solo. It always ends bad.

Lone horsemen tend to become juicy targets as Dikey says, I would use them in small groups, primarily on a flank. I would at least not normally go "full rohan" on the main center unit.

My normal cavalry is Morgul knights, I run them with a ringwraith (Knight of Umbar) or possibly with a Dark marshall depending on my whims of the day. What I find is that cavalry tend to be good on the charge, but against a prepared line, it's a gamble. I want to rough up the line a little with shooting or other combat before charging in to clean up rather than a headlong charge.

I've seen one of the worst use of mounted heroes in a video report on youtube, Grey Company vs Isengard. in this video the way Mounted Elladan and Elrohir were used was completely wrong. Charging alone against Warg riders with Saruman nearby was not the brightest tactic. In the second turn one of the twins got 3 wounds. I've noticed that this player uses the twins in this way, away from the main army and from support. Which is risky under optimal circumstances and suicidal when someone who could cast immobilize on 3+ is near. Plus, even if you have a full bow-armed Grey company they cannot shoot in combat, so the knight is on his own. Warg Rider are, de facto, S4 models. Which means they can wound a D6 on a 5+.
My opinion: this is totally wrong. Eventually you will run out of luck.

Basically, any time your cavalry can get seriously counter-charged, you want to be backing away. That's the gist of it.

The tactics can get much more complicated, but for the most part that is a good rule of thumb to follow. If you can charge without fearing your opponent's counter-charge (so, either your opponent had priority, or you did a good job occupying his/her models), do it. If not, just set yourself up for the next turn.

If haven't already, you should check out SBG Issue 1 here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx4gLDU0F2Qgd0ZObGFaNHRNS2c/view

It has an entire article dedicated to cavalry tactics.

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