Cavalry division?

[Crimguy]

If I remember right, when I've created a division and added nothing but cavalry, it just shows as an infantry division.

Since the movement rate for the commander is the same as infantry, will the unit move at infantry speeds? If so, how do I make a cavalry division?

[Spruce]

what do you mean with "shows as infantry division" ?

I think with the new rules you should see a pic of the general (if the art picture has been ready) or a generic icon (in fact the old div HQ icon) meaning the art is not ready yet - or because it's a generic general.

by the way - you can easely check this yourselves by merging your cavalry divion with one inf. brigade and check if there's any difference in movement.

by the way - this brings us to another remark = can't we have the option to recruit cavalry brigades (with multiple cavalry regiments) ? This will reduce the micromanagement to re-enact the Stuart and Forrest combat groups ...

[McNaughton]

What he means is he sees the Infantry NATO symbol instead of the Cavalry symbol.

[Crimguy]

What he means is he sees the Infantry NATO symbol instead of the Cavalry symbol.

Not just that, if you look at the info panel for a unit, it shows their movement rate. For a general, their movement rate is "Infantry." Cavalry units have their own movement rate.

[Spruce]

any chance to get multiple regiment cavalry brigades to be recruited ? Would reduce to some extent the micro management,

[Paul Roberts]

Not just that, if you look at the info panel for a unit, it shows their movement rate. For a general, their movement rate is "Infantry." Cavalry units have their own movement rate.

Hmmm. Shouldn't Generals have horses?

[PDF]

Yep, I think also Generals should have cav movement speed, it's not normal they "slow up" cavalry-only divs.
Pocus waddaya think ?

[mikee64]

Surprising but true - a quick test shows that even attaching a leader with the Cavalryman attribute will indeed slow down a pure cavalry unit - in some cases only. In other cases the same leader speeds up the same unit.

Quick test: A single cav regiment crossing a river from clear into clear terrain takes 3 days. Attach a cavalry leader (B McCulloch in this case) and the time for the same trip increases to 4 days. Next move the same cavalry regiment from clear terrain to clear terrain, no river. The trip still says 3 days. Attach the same leader and the travel time is reduced to 2 days.

(I spent a lot of time earlier trying to figure out all the nuances of movement rates and eventually just gave up and played the game - this one should be real easy to test if anyone wants to investigate further and save Pocus' valuable time.)

[Pocus]

Leaders move with a special cost, either 2 or 3 days, whatever the move type indicated. What can slow down them is if they are not activated.

[mikee64]

So in most cases leaders will not slow cavalry, and in some cases will speed it up, which is great. I think I'm clear on everything but the 4 days posted above to cross a river with cav + leader.

A bit more testing reveals this:
Single cav regiment crossing river, clear -> clear = 3 days.
Add leader to cav stack, but do not imbed, time = 4 days.
Imbed same leader with cav regiment, time back down = 3 days.
Now add another cav regiment to stack with leader+cav imbedded, time still = 3 days.
Configure same stack w/ leader + cav + cav (no imbedded leader), time = 4 days.

Conclusion: imbedding the leader with a regiment increases his travel speed when crossing a river. Probably just an abstraction of some sort (his staff all borrows faster horses from the regiment ) and just another reason to attach those leaders in addition to the combat incentives. If you are tracking down raiding enemy cavalry this is important to remember, however.

Addition: clear to clear move (no river crossing) with cav alone is still 3 days, but adding a leader to the stack does shorten it to 2 days. In this case it does not matter whether the leader is imbedded or not. Leader in above tests was activated.

[Spruce]

any chance to get multiple regiment cavalry brigades to be recruited ? Would reduce to some extent the micro management,

good question, I wonder if somebody could shed some light here

[Pocus]

I believed we were adding some by events, but it seems not. So we will do that, but for a patch in august then.

[blackbellamy]

I believed we were adding some by events, but it seems not. So we will do that, but for a patch in august then.

actually some of my Virginia cavalry have been sucking up spare regiments - i got one with 3 or 4 now i think

[mikee64]

Each side does get several true cavalry brigades eventually. For the south there is the Laurel bgde and one VA state unit - maybe the 1st VA but I don't remember for sure. Later there is Granbury's (sp?) bgde. The north gets some but may have to wait until later.

The thing to do is watch the TOE for these units so they fill out - some can hold 3 cav regiments plus a horse arty element; others can hold 5 pure cav regiments. If you have them running around raiding or chasing raiders they will never fill up with elements.

I have found that using the little "+" button when it is grayed out is a good easy way to check unit TOE - just select 2 or 3 units that cannot be combined and mouse over the grayed out "+" - the tooltip will then list the max TOE for each unit.

[Pocus]

yeah, flavor brigades are in, but it seems we have not added the 'regular' cav brigades. We will do that in august.

[Spruce]

Each side does get several true cavalry brigades eventually. For the south there is the Laurel bgde and one VA state unit - maybe the 1st VA but I don't remember for sure. Later there is Granbury's (sp?) bgde. The north gets some but may have to wait until later.

The thing to do is watch the TOE for these units so they fill out - some can hold 3 cav regiments plus a horse arty element; others can hold 5 pure cav regiments. If you have them running around raiding or chasing raiders they will never fill up with elements.

I have found that using the little "+" button when it is grayed out is a good easy way to check unit TOE - just select 2 or 3 units that cannot be combined and mouse over the grayed out "+" - the tooltip will then list the max TOE for each unit.

the point is that regular - or big cav. division sized - cavalry units are not in the game as "constructable" option. Now you have to do a lot of micromanagement to build a decent horse army for JEB Stuart and N. Forrest.

it's about the micromanagement