Repost. Stolen from an Asian news site in the 13th century.
Which in turn reposted it from a Roman source
Fucking Parthian tryhards
The age old conundrum of the unit that may or may not be strong in real combat situations, but becomes absolutely gamebreakingly busted when added to videogames, because it's strenghts translate into overwhelming advantages with none of the real life drawbacks it had to endure, usually via game design, bad balancing or games putting said units in unrealistic situations.
Take for example anti-aircraft guns since WW2. Other than the obvious real example of the FlaK88 being turned into an AT gun by the Germans, several others of these become anti-infantry or even anti-armor rapid firing nightmares in war games, because they're put well inside their optimal range and within threatening range of infantry and tanks. Which would usually destroy them from afar. The OTO Melara gun is a good modern example. Italian radar guided 110mm naval gun, was never mounted onto a proper line vehicle that was adopted by any country. But the prototypes, like the OTOMatic, absolutely terrorize every game where they appear, as a hyper accurate, rapid firing, high damage anti-everything gun.
Horse archers are just the ancient ages example of that.
Um...archers on chariots were almost certainly extremely effective in any era they appeared. The main reason they stopped being popular in combat was because horses became big enough to ride after thousands of years of breeding.
Also because they were absurdly expensive for the civilizations that were using them. The loss of their chariots to Sea People invasions and the cost of replacing them is sometimes listed among the reasons for the Bronze Age collapse of the Hittites and the decline of Egypt despite their battlefield victories.
So you're saying we just have to add a "horse farm" minigame that has to be played every time the units are used?
Announcing the new "Royal Stables" DLC: "Marauders & Massacres" is sure to spice up your medieval farm simulation!
The horse archers in civ 6 are so pathetically lame that the only reason to build even one is to get 3 points toward a golden age. The computer builds swarms of them, of course, but anything can kill them, even a recon unit.
I guess they wanted a change after Keshiks and Camel Archers being completely busted in Civ V.
And in Civ VII Keshigs are once again completely cracked.
I am mostly talking about bannerlord and total war.
In Rome Total War they are really nicely balanced imho.
Less about balance and more about them being fun to play against
Would balancing not make them fun to play against?
Not really. They still take a lot of time to deal with.
They're pretty easy to counter in Rome 2, you just need to remember it's necessary and not all-in on heavy infantry. Infantry skirmishers clap them right back to the steppes and there are good auxiliary cavalry options from the start available in Italy.
I definitely remember being frustrated when I first played it trying to chase them around with legionaries but the correct answer is don't do that then.
You can have a giant swarm of them though, it's fun
It's chess where I find they're super op - I mean seriously, the ability to no scope bishops from across the map while moving like a knight is totally unbalanced and the Devs need to too back the update.
Horse archers are amazing lmao. If you're throwing them directly into the front lines they will be fucked several times over. Understand: they are merely archers that can quickly reposition. This makes them one of the best units in the game.
Deploy them to the far flank and reposition them frequently. They are excellent at drawing out the enemy cavalry so you can harass them, hit them with your own cav, etc. Big block of infanty? Harassing fire. Other horse archers? Wait for them to engage your footed archers and then deploy your horse archers to double up on them.
Their weakness, as you've noticed, is large blocks of powerful foot archers. That is what your cavalry or heavy infantry is for. Once your other forces engage, then deploy your horse archers. They're a reserve force and a force multiplier.
That's fine. But it takes so long to deal with them that it kills my patience
Horse archers, or skirmishing units in general, are countered by archers or siege units. Unless the game is wildly unbalanced it always works.
Thank you. You just gave me a flashback to Total War: Rome campaign I played as a kid. I didn't play long, because it got boring fast. I had exclusive horse archer armies that wiped out whole armies without losses.
Much like in real life, see them off with large groups of light cavalry. Meet them on their own terms with something that can chase them down and mob them.
Edit: but yeah, I find them to be largely ineffective or game breaking and nothing in-between.
I like them in fire emblem, I suppose they have too much range in three houses but in most games (in the franchise) they're actually pretty bad.
Counter with archers behind anti large units. Or other cav. Get something to bog em down in range of your ranged units
My favorite anti large unit in warhammer : https://totalwarwarhammer.fandom.com/wiki/Bolt_Throwers
IDK. I skipped horse archers in my latest dark elves playthrough of total war warhammer 3, because they are so trash. No shields + large targets means they die really easy to missile fire, And since you can't use a longbow on horseback they lack the range to engage other archer units without taking a few volleys first.
Basically they are only good for fighting factions like undead that that have no ranged units.
Chariot archers > horse archers
The Huns would like a word with you.
Depends on the terrain
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