Cavalry effectiveness and other reflections

[Bemused]

Really starting to get the hang of this I think. I tried the full battle as the French with a 1:1 sprite ratio and it ran really smoothly until I decided to fling everyone into the battle as the French and I mean everyone!
I think I may go to the default scale to see if it is kinder on my system. For the most part the AI did a good job when I gave it command and it was nice to come back to an area of the battlefield that I had left to focus elsewhere only to find that my troops had done the job assigned to them e.g. taking Hougemont.

I started to carefully watch cavalry actions and a few things strike me as strange. Firstly I like that the AI is good at forming square but also that they don't always do so in a manner that seems to reflect the training of the troops e.g. militia will not do so very effectively. Cav are very effective at causing an enemy infantry target to rout if they are not in square - all to the good. The problems to me though seem to stem from 2 things: Firstly cav seem quite slow even when charging - as soon as they make contact with the enemy the latter typically turn and run. Fine but they seem to do so at virtually the same speed as the cav! This results in very few casualties which is my second concern. Cav vs cav is plenty bloody, akin to inf vs inf but I just watch a cuirassier regiment pursue a routing dutch militia unit and cause not a single casualty even though on my screen they are fully in contact. They also tend to stop charging and I have to hit the charge button repeatedly to get them moving again.

Has anyone any thoughts on this? Oh and final question: how do you rally routing troops? They just keep on running in my game.

[jomni]

Maybe the unit is too fatigued to pursue. As mentioned in the manual, melee combat causes a lot of fatigue.

[benpark]

As to the square observations-

I agree that the square formations should be variably executed based upon unit experience. The speed now is too fast for even the most experienced veterans. I'd cut that back a little, and make it twice as slow for inexperienced/poorly trained units.

I also think that low morale and less trained units should have to pass a morale check (maybe this is in and I have yet to see it?) when in/forming into a square with cavalry charging towards it.

As to the cavalry observations-

I agree that the charge speed seems a little slow. It's important to not overpower the cavalry, however. They were generally most effective in causing casualties to retreating units/scouting/and the implied fear of shock getting the enemy into square so they could be blasted with artillery (which the game models wonderfully).

I see the issue being more the pausing that seems to happen when multiple targets are available. An explicit "target unit" button would be useful for all branches, but cavalry seems to need it most of all.

[Bemused]

Jomni,

They were fresh as dasies and began the charge about 70 feet away. Benpark, you're right the square formation does form incredibly fast and seems to effect the incoming charge even when it is not fully formed. I think cavalry speed, especially at the charge needs to be significantly increased. At the moment it seems that infantry can just about keep pace with them which is ridiculous. This will not make the overpowered imho as the key balancing factor for cavalry is fatigue - they are essentially a one shot weapon that need to withdrawn to recuperate after each charge.