Using cavalry in T&T

[Poliorketes]

After playing T&T nearly from the release of the rules - many of the games including Björn & Christian, the rules makers - I was sure that cavalry really, really sucked. In the games where we used cavalry there used to be no more than one unit per player and this usually ended up being shot to peaces soon or at least taking so much casualties that when getting in close combat they where no match for a unit of bajonet-wielding infantry (luck at dice aside). Then Lt. hazelö, Aeneas and me started top plan our table for Hamburger Tactica 2010 and we decided to use an all-cavalry army for the bolsheviks (RCW at Tactica). When we tested the scenario we had not enough mounted miniatures completed so we played again with only one unit cavalry and again it was shot down fast. So we didn't expect to much from our all-cavalry army. We were wrong. To our astonishment in two of the three games at the convention the reds won, in the third victory was stolen from their grip in the very last turn. What happened?

I must admit that the table set up in the first two games aided the bolsheviks, but not so much that it was obvious they would dominate the table. They had the largest units, but overall they had only 5 Miniatures more than the white or anarchist factions. They had no heavy weapons and being mounted they suffered from a -1 penalty when shooting - made worse if they moved. Most of the time they needed a 10 to hit - if they could hit at all!

The key to their success was movement. In T&T cavalry moves 6" as everyone else - but they are allowed to reroll both the dice for fast move and charge plus they can do two consecutive fast moves. All three players used their riders in a very aggressive way. Pic a target and then get to grips as fast as possible, preferably with a second unit as a backup. The first unit nearly everytime got badly mauled by ranged fire before making their charge, most of the time getting cut to pieces in close combat. But the second unit would be able to charge nearly unharmed and destroy the infantry that got decimated by the first unit. Repeated cavalry charges resulted in destroying most infantry opposition (with a little luck of course) as these where forced to come to the cavalry to deny them the objective. Mind me, it's a bloody business and the casualty rates of the cavalry were very high, but so were their opponents.

Thus these are my tips if you use cavalry in T&T:
- use more than one unit
- gang up - use your superior manoevrability to creat two or three to one situations
- play aggressive
- go for the objective fast
- don't spend your time with shooting, go in close
- use cover, even charge from cover - this will save one or two riders you'll need for close combat
- avoid heavy weapons if possible - you're more mobile and faster and should be able to evade more than on turn of heavy fire before charging.

[Driscoles]

These are some really good hints.

Actually these are  tactics cavalry is useful for.
 
The look of the huge cavalry force on the gaming table was incredible.

When we wrote the cavalry rules we wanted fast units to go for objectives, to destroy weak units or outflank units. We didnt plan them as the crack units on the table.

Cavalry sure is vulnerable. Especially when they are used in the dying age of cavalry - when modern weapons came up. Nevertheless they had their successes, even in the early 20th century !

Cheers
Björn