The cav update, speed buffs, and range nerfs in TWW3, definitely have given these guys more breathing room. Its good to see, even if their competition in other factions often outclasses them.
True, but I've said it for the infantry, if they were that much better the Empire would be Good At Everything, and that's pushing it. Its ranged is so robust. I'm covering the non-gunpowder missile infantry soon.
Not the best melee cav, but they provide a critical piece of the puzzle that is the empire roster. Like all things empire, they dont have to be great on their own, they work together with their fellow mem of the empire to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Fantastic units, great to use, they look awesome.
Its very interesting what CA has done to Empire cavalry. They created 3 flavors of shock cavalry with slight tweaks instead of creating 3 units with much more defined and specialized roles. I think that they could make small stat changes to make the units fit their roles better: Empire Knights- no changes, base model Reiksfuarg- increase HP to 125, MD to 34 to solidify their role as top tier Empire Cavalry and make them more competitive against other Cav units Knights of the Blazing Sun- increase their speed to 84 or 90 to make them even more "shocky". Also, give them a skill, maybe something like Beastmen's Rowdy to encourage them to charge as much as possible.
REALLY hoping that the next DLC introduces some of the other knightly orders for the Empire. Just gotta make sure they all stay specialized so that the new options doesn't make all the rest obsolete.
Empire knights get really good in my opinion when you pair them with Volkmar's faction. Where he and his arch lectors can use the 'war eternal' perk to give them +10 to charge, +20% speed and wayfarer ability
I haven't played Cult of Sigmar yet as of today but that does sound deliciously strong. That kind of speed and they'll be racing neck and neck with Centigors?
@@OffToBattle I actually need to make correction to this: as of now ONLY Volkmar has that passive ability. I seems to have been removed from arch lectors at some point, because it's still a thing in TWW2
@@mikurusagawa6897Thanks for clarifying. I remember the Arch Lectors being good stuff in that game but I didn't level one so far as to enjoy all the perks.
I do really like empire knights, worse case scenario they do work well as a mobile anvil to face-tank another cavalry charge thanks to their 100 armor while they get supported by close range fire power or infantry, kinda the same way i use jade horsmen for cathay.
It is kind of similar, though Cathay benefits from being a new faction. Maybe the Knights get a new coat of chrome but they've always looked great and they've always been solid troopers for the cause.
In terms of what Empire cav needs- they are clearly missing a light Cav unit- 80-90 HP, 50-60 armor, 95 speed, 28 Weapon strength with a Bronze Shield. It would fit perfectly with Empire's needs- chasing routing units, countering harassers, disrupting ranged units, etc. They also need a melee cavalry variant with armor piercing attack- not as good offensively as Questing Knights- maybe 12/28 weapon strength split. They could be better defensively, with higher armor and even a shield. These changes would make Empire cav more versatile, without making them overpowered.
Empire Knights and Reiksgard threw me off at first, because they are such a strange unit in the Empire roster if you go by the conventional wisdom of "Empire is a boxy defensive faction." They don't have the staying power *or* the killing power of other Faction cavalry, but that's fine. You're right in that Empire Knights fill a very aggressive gap in the Empire's Roster that is absolutely crucial for several faction match ups. I would *never* take an army into Athel Lorren for example without couple units of Empire Cav to disrupt Wood Elf ranged spam. And they do so much work in Empire Mirrors since you *need* some way to break the skirmish war. Conversely, you wont catch me with a large group of Cav in a Brettonia match up. You're always going to end up outnumbered and out gunned when it comes to cavalry, so its best to bring the ranged hammer down instead and fill those slots with more anti large to ward off that massive wall of horse.
Strongly agree with all your points. I mostly had to deal with Brettonia back in TWW1, but boy, you needed to beat them away with a stick and lots of gunpowder. My cavalry was just there to keep them honest... until we got to Demigryph Halberds but that's coming in another video 😁
How exactly don’t they have other factions staying Power? They have some of the best armor of all cavalry and some of the best melee defense and Leadership For their price range. And reiksguard have good Leadership overall I would Say, not just For their price. Heck, besides monstruos cav which is better than normal cav, only grail Knights, chaos knights,blood knights, dragon Princes and perhaps cold one knights are better
@@tudormunteanu4094 Well, other factions include cavalry that's quite a bit more expensive than these horse cavalry options, and they're still, in the end, shock cavalry, not melee cavalry. I do like them, but they can be vulnerable to certain matchups and that's fine for such a balanced faction.
@@OffToBattle well yeah, But that is what I Said as well, with the exception of blood knights, grail knights, chaos knights, dragon princes, Horned ones and cold one dread knights. There’s only like 6 cav units truly better than the reiksguard For example. But yeah, I’m not including monstrous cav here
Quick 2 questions. What benefits does Karl Frantz provide to Reiksguard? You mentioned a specialty building in Talabecland- how does it help the cavalry?
I have a script for Karl so video pending, but TLDR, reduced upkeep, better melee attack, a mild bonus vs. large and an army-wide charge bonus buff. For the other, better to look at the wiki link: totalwarwarhammer.fandom.com/wiki/Blazing_Sun_Chapterhouse
Hm. I've been using empire cav in general in the opposite way to babysit my ranged assets (I've been playing with like 4 handgunners max and 2-3 arty pieces, so infantry and cav protect em). So I've been keeping them close to the infantry, and running them to brace infantry against mass, to plug holes, to block enemy cav and buy time, and to get into the enemy back line after lines meet. Never felt like empire cav works without that sort of tactic tbh, wonder what your exp is
I've done that PLENTY in the older titles. I'm going to mention that tactic specifically with Demigryphs (wrote the script last night among others). I remember telling people that's something I've done to deal with bats/ hounds diving artillery (a frequent Empire problem). Someone has to do it, and Knights are one of your early options for saving the day like that, they have the speed and the charge bonus. It's still aggression, you're just applying it in a different location.
Knights sound like an affordable way of dealing with backline harassers. They should be able to dominate the hounds, Bats, furies and other nuisances. And since Empire's heaviest hitting units tend to be in the ranged department, protecting them allows the Enpire utilize its greatest strength.
@@kirillrivkin4842 It's often the case. There are times when I use cavalry in that role early and then the battle doesn't require it anymore, so the cavalry go right to the next job on the list, whatever that is.
It's not as if that's a bad decision, cavalry can just be used to support a style like that, or more aggressively, but either way working with friendly forces for maximum effect.
Are they good compared to bretonnian cav? Nah, I think just with the lance formation that increases their mass, charge bonus and charge speed they are better.
These three aren't going to out-cav the Brets without those special tools, no, but "keeping them honest" is at least somewhat achievable. OTOH, the Empire has cheap infantry options that give those beautiful knights fits. The real solution is Demigryphs with Halberds I suppose... lacking that, I'd get Halberds to stick 'em first and then crash knights in to stick 'em with other pointy things. Kind of ugly, but cav + anti-cav infantry are going to win fights that cav alone won't.
Have you thought of covering moded units from some high quality overhauls SFO and immersiwe bret upgrade? The balacing in these is much more interesting and sfo adds a lot of thematic passive abilities to all units.
People keep asking me, and basically, this is the content I could make from a rough period in my life. SFO, I do not know anything about the content. I suppose I can try and cure that, but it really will render all my previous knowledge useless. Here, I'm largely using knowledge from years ago (well, for Empire). No doors are closed, I just haven't done a dive into SFO yet.
@@spacemichael1177 Right, many have spoken VERY highly of it. Well, I'll take some steps to make it available to me and we'll see. With my health on an upswing it's day by day but in a good sense. Maybe I can take a good look at it. We shall see. And if not, by all means ask me again sometimes, I WANT to do it, just a matter of making it happen.
