Champion cavalry improvements

[real_tabasco_sauce]

5 hours ago, TheCJ said:

larger maps just mean more time for the enemy to react or build up defenses in preparation

For rushes yes. But if you try to do an early p3 infantry attack on a large map , and anyone has cav on the enemy team, you are pretty much guaranteed to get surrounded and 2v1ed.

in smaller maps, you are closer to your own buildings, walls, and importantly your allies.

in any case, I’m glad there’s more sentiment for speed balancing, we try out a couple alternatives in community mod versions.

[Fabius]

What about a damage reduction bonus that has spearmen take less damage from cavalry, a reverse multiplier if you will, specifically for melee cavalry. Eg does 0.75 damage against spear/pike troops.

[Deicide4u]

@Fabius there was already a precedent for that, so it's possible.

Elephants had a "Stench" aura in the early alphas. What that actually meant is they had 50% additional damage reduction from cavalry attacks.

[Fabius]

6 minutes ago, Deicide4u said:

@Fabius there was already a precedent for that, so it's possible.

Elephants had a "Stench" aura in the early alphas. What that actually meant is they had 50% additional damage reduction from cavalry attacks.

That is a rather cool perk. I would be in favour of a negative multiplier as an interesting alternative to a positive one. Adding positives takes us closer to Age II levels of Spear/Cav counters, and I would prefer we did not have that degree

[Fabius]

Definitely agree about the speed reduction, current cavalry is way to fast on screen, you barely get any time to react to their coming and going

[LienRag]

On 16/06/2025 at 11:41 PM, TheCJ said:

I agree. Melee cavalry needs to be faster than ranged cavalry if its supposed to be a counter.

Light melee cavalry needs to be faster than ranged cavalry. FTFY.

Ranged cavalry, being light, should certainly be faster than heavy cavalry.

 

If we make disengaging from the enemy quite costly (as it was historically) either in time or in blood (the choice between the two options being made by the player through specific formations), then we can have light cavalry engaging the ranged cavalry and the heavy cavalry coming behind them to finish the job.

 

Is it difficult to implement Charges mechanism with cooldown timer after use ?

That would allow even light infantry to somehow counter ranged cavalry, and more so for champion cavalry.

[LienRag]

1 hour ago, Fabius said:

Definitely agree about the speed reduction, current cavalry is way to fast on screen, you barely get any time to react to their coming and going

That should be addressed by specific anti-cavalry formations (again, as it was historically).

[Fabius]

15 minutes ago, LienRag said:

That should be addressed by specific anti-cavalry formations (again, as it was historically).

Formations do not currently confer bonuses, so while that is a nice idea there is currently no method for application in that manner. So until something alters that, bonuses will have to coded onto the units themselves

[LienRag]

I wasn't thinking about bonus, but about AI : put the vulnerable units behind melee ones, close gaps, have the fast units engage the cavalry and the strong then come and destroy them.