How large should Cav Divisions be?

[HidekiTojo]

Seeing as there aren't a lot of cav elements available, and usually not a lot of horse artillery either it seems that cav divisions by necessity should be a lot smaller. General composition of cav divisions as well as cav corps is what im looking for.

[Gray Fox]

A Division can only have 15 sub-units. The CSA has some multi-element cavalry brigades, but the Union only has one on the west coast that I know of. However, the Union has several 2 element volunteer cavalry brigades. McClellan, Halleck, etc. can train these into a 2-element regular cavalry brigade. So a General with the cavalry boosting leader ability, two 2-element brigades and 13 single element cavalry sub-units would make a full 17-element Cavalry Division. If you want a Cavalry Corps, then you could assign several of these to it along with a Division of horse artillery perhaps under the command of a General with the artillery ability. Your Corps commander could also be a cavalry leader, although "fast mover" is also possible. Perhaps a forager or logistics expert would be more useful, since I assume your Corps will not be dragging a supply unit along.

That would be the largest size possible. I really wouldn't bother doing this unless you just wanted to have Sheridan and Stewart go at it in a sort of grande show down. Cav have three missions traditionally, recon, screen and pursuit. You should tailor your force size to enable you to do those missions successfully. If you have more cav than the enemy stack you are trying to recon, then you get more detailed info on that stack. The same happens for their recon of your stack. It's the same numbers game for determining whether you can screen a stack's withdrawal or if you take extra pursuit damage.

[HidekiTojo]

what about mounted volunteers can they be trained into regular troopers?

[Gray Fox]

Yes, if you stack them with McClellan or Halleck or Sigel. The trainers upgrade them to regular cavalry. The mounted volunteers were the 2-element volunteer cavalry brigades that I referred to in my post.

[HidekiTojo]

yea the problem I see is that there are only one element cav units available to the Union

[Gray Fox]

Correct. I believe that you can raise enough mounted volunteer units to have a total of 8, IIRC. So you could train them to regular cav and have a few 17-element Cavalry Divisions.

[Captain_Orso]

One thing you should be aware of is that those cavalry divisions and brigades you read about in your history books have nothing to do with divisions in the game. The game 'division' is scaled to typical infantry divisions of the era. A cavalry 'division' at the time had no specific size an were always far smaller than infantry division.

Generally there is no real need for putting so many cavalry regiments together in one place at one time. Evaluate what you want to accomplish with a cavalry division and scale it to that size. Anything larger and your just waisting troops.

[HidekiTojo]

And when you're doing recon with cavalry, do you move them into the same region as an opposing force on b/g evade?

Say have them do a round trip in the course of one turn?

[Gray Fox]

I would not advise entering the same region. You would be directly in their ZOC. Maybe you can evade, maybe not. A small unit shouldn't. If you mean a cavalry Corps, well that depends on whether the enemy can match you.

Also, I am not sure where the rules stand currently, but in the AGEwiki, if a unit is in anything other than P/P and you enter a region with less than 6% MC, then your unit switches to Offensive posture and you will find out exactly what kind of enemy stack is present.

[Durk]

Depends upon how you are going to use the cavalry corps and divisions.
If you have in mind an independently operating division for raids, chasing down intruders and breaking enemy supply, then a force of a half dozen cavalry with a couple of artillery would suffice.
If you mean to use the cavalry in a corps or army, then it is better to integrate into other divisions or be independent, not in a division.
A full cavalry corps I have never done.
But as recon, stay away from known enemy units. They have a hard time with you, unless you do as Gray Fox says, then you lose them

[Captain_Orso]

Using cavalry as scouts, I often do move the scouts directly into the enemy's region with them set to B/G with the EC SO (Evade Combat Special Order), in order to get the best information possible. Cavalry will not automatically change to OP when entering a region with 100% enemy MC. Also realize that nearly always the enemy stack(s) will be in DP, so your scouts cannot be attacked.

If you do this, you MUST move your scouts out of the region immediately the next turn lest the enemy changes to OP and attempt to attack your scouts, in which case, if they are caught they might be destroyed.

Years ago I read a statement from a British officer during WWII, "the only good scout, is a dead scout". He was referring to his own scouts. I don't know if he meant infantry or mech. recon., but I'm sure the scouts will have had a different take on their role

[Merlin]

It's entirely possible as the Union to get a full cav division in the southwest, a half division in Misery, two full divisions in KY/TN, and three in the East by 1863. You can organize the last two into a single corps and split off divisions or reform them into smaller forces as necessary. In the West and Trans-Mississippi, you'll mainly be conducting anti-partisan and anti-raiding operations. In the East you can easily stage Confederate-style raids once you push them back closer to Richmond.

The CSA is completely different. Shelby, Forrest, Mosby, Hampton, Wheeler, and Morgan are all excellent raiders who are very hard to catch. By 1863, I often organize a full three or four division cavalry corps in KY/TN solely for raiding. Highly effective and extremely versatile, as long as your careful you can make an absolute mess of the Union rear. Jo Shelby is probably best kept west of the Mississippi, but west of the Appalachians I rarely use less than full cav divisions.