Cavarly Charge to the Death

[Raleigh]

Is there a way to make cavalry and knights charge to the death instead of retreating? I saw the comptuer do it with a unit that had more than 1 health. Anyone know how we do it?

[Venger]

Just guessing...

Did the unit not have any more move points available, i.e. it attacked on it's last move point? That would make sense that it couldn't then retreat, that'd be exploited as an extra movement point.

That is, a 3 movement cavalry that attacks after spending 2 move points burns it's theird move point with it's attack - allowing it to retreat would be giving it an effective 4 movement!

Also, a unit must have a safe hex to retreat to, so when attacking a mobile unit it may not be able to flee...

Venger

[Monoriu]

I am curious, why do you want to do that?

[Raleigh]

First, thanks for the answers. I'm not sure what happened unfortunately in terms of save havens to retreat to or movement expended.

Second, the reason I want to send them to possible death is that, I feel like I am only getting 2 hps (3-4 for veteran and elite). If I KNOW or even believe the enemy has only one soldier left, and I think I have a chance of taking him out in his city, I would rather risk the whole cavalry. Why? b/c let's say the wounded veteran rifleman defending the city was brought down to 1 hp from 4. Next turn, he will be at 4 hps again! My Cavalry will only be at 1hp and worse, probably in enemy territory. Then he will have to hope he can make it out of there and gradually heal near the enemy and come back again only to retreat when he gets down to 1 hp again. Grr! What ever happened to an heoric charge?

[GNGSpam]

If the Cavalry reduces the say Musketman to one hit point and then drops down to one hit point himself, he will continue to attack, I think.

But thats only if they both have one hit point and the defending unit was inflicted damage.

This is because the cavalry unit retreats if its "losing". Therefore if it drops the musketman to 1 hit point then drops down to 1 hit point itself, its not nessecarily considered "losing".

If it had one hit point to begin with, when it is considered losing, its to late and its dead.

And finally if the defending unit began with only 1 hit point, and the Cavalry unit drops down to 1 without having inflicted any damage at all, then its considered losing

These are guesses on my part based on game experince, I havent done actual intentional testing.

[Sevorak]

In my experience, units with the withdrawal ability will only withdraw if they would have died without it.

In other words, if the Cavalry is at 1 hit point and the Musketman is at 1 hit point, they will first determine a combat result. If the result is a hit on the Musketman, the Musket dies and the Cavalry survives at 1 hit point. If the result is a hit on the Cavalry, instead of dying it retreats.

I have seen my units stay in the fight at 1 hit point many times just because they were not hit again. There is no benefit to making your units fight to the death.

-Sev

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Sevorak
In my experience, units with the withdrawal ability will only withdraw if they would have died without it.

In other words, if the Cavalry is at 1 hit point and the Musketman is at 1 hit point, they will first determine a combat result. If the result is a hit on the Musketman, the Musket dies and the Cavalry survives at 1 hit point. If the result is a hit on the Cavalry, instead of dying it retreats.

I have seen my units stay in the fight at 1 hit point many times just because they were not hit again. There is no benefit to making your units fight to the death.

-Sev

This has not been my experience. If the cavalry (tank/whatever) and the defender are both at 1HP, it becomes a fight to the death regardless of any other factor (movement remaining, etc.)

[Rust]

Also Cavalry Can't Retreat from Cavalry

[gamma]

Cavalry will fight to the death against a tank, not because of the tank having only 1 hit point, but because the tank is a fast unit. Fast units cannot retreat when fighting other fast units.

[Raleigh]

Thanks for all the thoughtful respones. I'm beginning to think there is no way to do it

[Stromprophet]

Re: Cavarly Charge to the Death

Originally posted by Raleigh
Is there a way to make cavalry and knights charge to the death instead of retreating? I saw the comptuer do it with a unit that had more than 1 health. Anyone know how we do it?

In my experience they will retreat when in the open.

But they will not retreat when attacking a city, or defending a city.

[saracen31]

Sure they retreat when attacking a city.

[Stromprophet]

Interesting, then Why are my Elite cavs, dying to Spearmen, Pikemen, etc. when attacking cities. And that just happened like 2 seconds ago.

[Raleigh]

my cavalry has retreated attacking a city as long as they didn't start with 1 hp. Maybe there was a fast unit in the city, like a horseman or something? I dk?

[Stromprophet]

No. No there is not. I've played Civ a long time, I think I would know if that was the case. I've been massing with Cavs, and while it doesn't happen often sometimes they lose without retreating to units that aren't as fast.