8th edition Cavalry tactica:
ok so here's my experience with making cavalry work for you in 8th, its mainly gleaned from my experience with high elf cavalry, but due to priest's hatred + cheaper infantry i see no reason why this shouldnt carry over to the empire.
List designok so, i'll start off by saying that a cavalry list shouldn't be built solely on cavalry. when i talk about a cavalry list i mean a cavalry heavy force, in that it uses the cavalry aspect to do the heavy lifting of the army.
Infantry
in an elf army you must have some infantry (no core cav choices anymore!) so i was forced to learn how to use them alongside my horsies. whilst it seemed at first like this was a hindrance, it is actually the best way to build the list, as the infantry allows you to negate what the cavalry cannot; steadfast.
to use a cavalry heavy force well, and to reliably break units on the charge, you must combo charge with a ranked unit of infantry.
i recommend a unit of 30-40 troops, 5 or 6 wide. for this task, all the state troop choices are roughly equal in performance. that said, as ranks are so vital for the strategy to work, i'd probably favour swordies over the others due to the 5+/6++. halberds obviously kill more, so i can see the argument for those guys too.
i'd take a block of infantry per cavalry unit. and assign one to support the other throughout the game.
smaller units of BS shooting can be useful for the watchower mission and for clearing chaff/stripping wounds of big beasties.
elites such as greatswords should be avoided IMO, due to expense. knights are your elites in this type of list. they need the support of plentiful cheap bodies to deny steadfast more than they need elite infantry to provide kills.
cavalryobviously there must be at least a couple of cavalry units in an army for it to count as a cavalry list.
each combat focused cavalry unit should be 10 strong and house a character.
you'll need at least one of your cavalry units to be core to meet minimum %, and the standard suggestion is for these to use the great weapon option for permanent S5 attacks.
its advisable to also take an ICK knight unit due to the higher strength, and the general concensus is that the lance option is better for these guys, as they can fall back on S4 attacks and 1+ saves if they dont break the enemy in one go.
in a 2.5k army, i'd imagine you'll have x2 knights units, one core + one special supported by x2-3 infantry units.
there is a role in the army for supporting smaller "detachments" of 5 'nilla knights to hunt WM's/fast cav and flank charge, however treat these as a luxury item to be bought with spare points after the bulk of your list is complete. dont weaken your hammers for the sake of providing a weakened hammer with support. xbows and pegasii can do this role as well.
artilleryin a cavalry list???
yep.
keep it cheap though, one cannon and two mortars should be fine.
this allows you to tenderise big blocks prior to engagement while you maneuvre on T1. cannon allows you to deal with big beasties/opposing WM's and also provides a threat that fast cav will be keener to hit than disrupting your movement plans. keep in mind that its cheap, its a distraction and will be useless from turn3 as you'll be in combat anyways. dont cry too much if these get eaten by harpies.
combat charactersthis i believe is the most important part of the list, as these will be doing the most of the killing/enhancing the kiling potential of your hammers.
all of your cavalry units need a character. they increase the attacks that a small unit puts out, racking up more kills, with which to win the combat with.
at a minimum, all knightly order combat units need a priest.
I'd seriously consider a TGM as your general and place him in the killiest knight unit. i'd want the sword of sigismund and laurels on mine. the 4 S5 attacks with ASF and re-rolls are golden, let alone when each kill counts for double. the priest/AL is obviously there to provide hatred so the rnf dont miss, as well as providing magic defence + GW attacks.
I can see an argument here for a kitted griffon general. the whole list is dedicated to the idea of force concentration (most kills in smallest area) so the ability to put out large volumes of attacks/griffon attacks/thunderstomps in addition to cavalry hammer + infantry should help you break units rapidly.
BSB should be mounted too, this will grant x3 high S attacks to boost output of damage on a knight unit.
If you do not take 'nilla knights to hunt wm's/fast cav or use BS shooting to cover this role, then a Captasus would be golden and fits very nicely within the bounds of the force concentration, as he can easily rear charge and support your knightly hammers.
magicyou'll have enough points at 2.5 k to take a tgm, AL and lvl3-4. i suggest you take at least a lvl3 + lvl2.
you'll have a couple of priests/AL so should be benefiting from 2-4DD per turn.
obvious choices for arcane items include RoP and dispel scroll. this gives you flexible defence + reasonable offensive magic.
I would by no means be going for magic supremacy with a list like this. what i'd aim to do is to get off 1-2 small buffs/hexes to either make you take less casualties, cause more casualties, or lower enemy LD to make them more likely to break.
to this end, i'd take light/heavens/shadow/death for my lore choices.
the reason i'd choose each of these is because:
light:
Is full of buffs that help you in combat. no brainer really. birona's/speed are perfect for this kind of army and are the spells you really want. there are some very nice supporting spells to hurt fast cav with magic missile's, prevent unit movement and reduce incoming pain by reducing hit rate make this an excellent lore for an aggressive list. (works best on lvl4 for spell range, though lvl2s still work)
heavens:
sig spell reduces incoming pain by reducing incoming hits (shooting and combat) by 1 (meaning lots of enemies will be hitting you on 5+), lessens threats of being shot up by repeater xbows/bolt throwers and also reduces LD by 1 to make it more likely that the enemy will break.
this is an amazing spell for a cavalry army as it helps swing combat res your way and improves your chances of breaking the enemy in one turn.
other spells in the lore act as minor buffs that will aid you in CC, with some moderately useful ranged damage spells too. (excellent lore for lvl2)
shadow:
miasma is a very nice spell all round, by reducing WS you can reduce incoming pain by lessening enemy hit rate, and prevent them from striking you first. you can also slow down enemy movement to engage them on your terms, preventing counter charges etc.
other spells help reduce enemy numbers through direct damage + lowering T so get more kills to win the CC with. needs lots of PD for higher spells though. (good for lvl4)
death:
being able to snipe the enemy general/bsb makes all the difference between a made break test and a run-down caught and killed 500vp unit
other spells allow you to reduce strength/toughness to get more cc kills with, reduce LD to increase likelyhood of breaking and purple sun helps chew through hordes of low I goblins at range. also repleneshis PD pool with kills (good for lvl 3+)
magic items
in general, you want to equip your characters in such a way that they inflict as many casualties as possible. you should never enter into a challenge (thats what your champs are there for) so dont kit your chars for challenges. they are there to kill lots of squishy RnF for combat res, so +S, +A items are golden.
knightly orders can take banners, i suggest your killiest unit (TGM & Priest in ICK unit) takes the warbanner. every pip of combat res is very helpful!
CoC is useful as well, as you then have a back up plan if your plan goes tits up/the dice gods decide to smite you.
Flaming banner is also very useful to help you finish/take out monsters like hydra's or troll units.
general tactics/usage of list
of course, every match up you have will be different, random deployment scenarios will hurt your plans etc, so this is the general aim of the army type:
force concentration.
keep in mind that you have the movement advantage but you dont have the numbers to grind, so never fight a fair fight, always make sure you make the odds stack in your favour, as heavily as physically possible.
with a list like this, you do not want to fight on a broad battle line. you must assess the enemies deployment, find a weak spot, and exploit it by hitting it with the majority of your force.
if no such weak point is apparent; try and create one using your artillery/magic/shooting.
the cavalry army relies a lot on maneuvring. move forwards, sideways, whatver. makesure you fight what you want to fight, when you want to fight it.
use your captasus/nilla knights to hold units in place, use magic to slow the enemy down/pin them in place.
apply overwhelming force onto a weak point and ruthlessly crush it, before moving onto the next unit.
if at all possible, you need to win in the deployment, movement and combat phases of the game, rather than just the shooting phase as we're used to.
limitations of the listhitting a stubborn unit will potentially ruin your day with this kind of list. especially if they are a particularly deadly one.
all i can suggest is to tenderise these as much as possible before you hit them if you must take them out. lower their leadership magically and if at all possible, get rid of the bsb's influence (bait/flee so they move out of range or kill him)
a policy of slowing them down/tarpitting the stubborn deathstar is also viable, though potentially difficult to achieve in practice.
please do not be tempted to go with a large ranked unit of knights. this massively reduces the threat level of the unit, as it can only be in one place at a time. they are still only I3, so become incredibly tempting to nuke with spells (metal/shadow/death will rip a deathstar apart). it also prevents you from getting your infantry into b2b contact and thus you cant deny the enemy their steadfast.
i hope this is a help for everyone, im looking forward to your comments/hate mail
