Cavalry Tactics

[teamfear]

Cavalry Tactics

In my upcoming wars our team intends to use bike cavalry to our advantage to win wars. Cavalry can be effective for a number of reasons; One, riders can carry large weapons and move faster than most heavy infantry to dismount and support other fighters. Cavalry can speed by opponents who are already engaged and shoot them with light weapons such as carbines. Cavalry can be used for scouting to discover the enemy’s position. First off all you must know the two types of cavalry. Deployment Cavalry and Skirmish Cavalry.

Deployment Cavalry
Deployment Cavalry carry heavy weapons and are not intended to fight from their mount. They use full size bikes so the can move extremely fast and carry their weapons using shoulder straps. They should be used to reinforce units already engaged with the enemy so there is no need to change course to get away from unmounted enemies. They most likely would carry heavy assault rifles and heavy cannons. They may also carry carbines to protect themselves incase they run into enemy picket lines.

Skirmish Cavalry
This is your regular cavalry. They carry foam swords and carbines or pistols. They many ride full size bikes but smaller wheels may give them more control on turns. Their job is to engage the enemy from their mount. They may also dismount but this will not be as effective as they would be armed with light weapons that are meant to be used from their mount. The situation where this cavalry would be used is when the enemy is already engaged by deployment cavalry or infantry units on a terrain which cavalry can ride on, most likely concrete and they charge through attacking the enemy who is already engaged. It is hard to turn in combat with a bike so after their initial attack they would bike around the fire zone, regroup and charge again. Skirmish Cavalry can be armed with many things ranging from squirt pistols, light pistols, heavy pistols, carbines and foam swords. Battery powered pistols or a WW tarantula would also be effective so that they don’t require pumping. A cavalry unit should carry two pressurize weapons along with their foam sword so they can avoid pumping in the fire zone. Impractical things like small water balloons and water bottles would also be effective.

Terrain
Most Cavalry is only effective on flat terrains like concrete or a solid terrain like packed dirt. Any elevation or wheel resistance renders the cavalry useless, as they no longer have a speed advantage.

My Battlefield
My battlefield is in my neighborhood. We have a block which is a loop consisting of sidewalk and my street which is L shaped. There are teammates houses on every corner of the block. There are also a lot of grassy front lawns, a few trees and some parked cars. This is a perfect setup for cavalry use as they have a route where they can loop around after their charge and travel around the entire area.

Cavalry Usage
Here are some tactical plans for cavalry use which apply to most battlefields that are bike assessable.

False Strike


Deployment Cavalry is used in this simple tactic. First the commander sends out his infantry to engaged the enemy who is fighting on grassland. Then the cavalry charges down the road to the battlefield after a few minutes of fighting so the opposition has time to fully engage the infantry. They then dismount and join the battle.

Rapid Deploy


This tactic involves Deployment Cavalry. This tactic basically just uses the speed of the mounted warriors to engage the enemy faster. The Cavalry rides down the street to the enemy position, dismounts and makes first contact with the enemy.

Charge



The Skirmish Cavalry is used in this tactic. The infantry engages the enemy and tries to push them onto the street. Then when the commander calls for the cavalry they ride top speed to the opponent who is being engaged by the enemy. Then the cavalry coasts on their bicycles and fires off their weapons until they ride out of range. The cavalry can now either regroup and charge from the back side or ride back to the base.

Reconnaissance
Cavalry doesn’t just have to be used for combat. Teams can send out lone riders to scout out the enemy positions and fortification with the ability to escape if noticed.

Overall Cavalry is very useful. Player must remember the safety of others when riding is involved. Scraped knees are not fun!

[HBWW]

Mounting a splashzooka or power pak on bikes would be a good idea, keeping the guns locked to the grips so the rider aims by steering the bike. This would be a helpful setup for people who can't weave through obstacles and terrain while steering with one hand.

Ideally, of course, tricycles would be used instead. Safer and easier to steer and hit targets. Not as fast as bicycles of course, but since most wars take place on terrain, its not going to matter that much.

I havent tried wars with bikes around (or any other "vehicle" for that matter), though it'd sure be interesting to try.

[steelboot.]

Wow, "Captian" Fear, you sure put a lot of effort into that post. Some interesting ideas there, but you'll definitely want tricycles, as CA-99 said. It's unfortunate that you guys will never beat my team. Our team, the Flash Flooders, will remain the top ranked team in the Greater Toronto Area(GTA) forever.

[HBWW]

Oh snap! We got some epic rivalry going on here!

Anyways, you know my take on using toy melee weapons, not for safety, but for being a water war purist. (those items compliment airsoft and nerf much better than water warfare)

Due to the fact that tricycles are rare, duct taping the water guns to the bike handle may be the only thing that works on a larger scale. Since long shot times aren't always that common, getting a single gun mounted on a swivel could work better, at least for many of the guns out there.

Given all members of teams have bikes (which is not hard to do), a whole new game arises; the dogfight. I've never really liked using the term cavalry for fast mobile movement. (after all, the Nazis on their motorbikes were never called cavalry either =p)

[teamfear]

@ steelboot: we are not really what you'd call greater toronto area. We are two hours east to be exact. If your team is every travaling this summer my team is up and ready for a war. Im not so sure about your statment of you being the best. If you look at my team thread you would see i can enlist 9 regulars, 4 reserves and I could proably rustle up and army of twenty for a battle (You have three). If we fight im sure some of the people on my team would be more than willing to fight by your side though to even it out unless you disagree. I also am building water balloon launchers and other things this spring so I will be ready. I noticed on your armoury and you seem to have a few heavy cps weapons. I would be more than willing top trade you a wbl or just cold cash for your 2500 or any others. If you are ever coming down we could negotiate this. Also would you be ok with fighting around our block because thats usally where we have wars so we have a water supply. I also have quite a younger players on my team so I am unsure if you would mind playing with younger kids and also would you allow me to use my armoured units (tanks)? Bring It On...

@ CA 99: I am quite your oppasite. I find the name cavalry very fitting and use it alot. I mentioned motorized soakers and have pondered the idea of mounting a water gun but I and fine with just carrying it. I also don't belive in tryciles as they have a very slow speed and are down to the ground. They would be good to build into a tank to use as propultion, this I may very well do. I will report back once my team starts skirmishing about how the cavlary has been used.

Thanks,

[steelboot.]

Fear:

Actually, we have over ten members. Five are permanent members who come and practice once a month. Four are temporary and moderately skilled warriors. One is a soaker n00b and we've been trying to get him to quit ever since I started this team. The rest are on the "taxi squad".

Thanks for your offer of a spare member (if we fight), but that all depends who travels and who can come.

The CPS 2500's bladder was burst by the annoying n00b, but if you want it, say the word. We NEED a WBL (and are too lazy to make one).

[teamfear]

Maybe I could make you a wbl this spring and you could trade one of your cps's. We could trade if you came down for a war. Mail would be expensive so if any of you were comming down to my area that would be your best bet. BTW what type do you want? I could build you a douchenator. If you told me your lengths and we found a way to trade this could be possible. (I also could build other models, douchentor prefered)

[HBWW]

WBLs, oh snap. IMO, unless you develop the higher tech ones with breech loading, they may not be worth it due to the tactics that can be done to make their primary use ineffective. If your playing fields, however, are constrained in an open base to base setting, and the enemy tends to group together, "artillery strikes" could work out reasonably. Though this has not been tested, it seems that the most effective use for them would be direct fire, but that also presents safety concerns, especially if you're warring around houses. (don't want the launcher to be too close to a window if you accidently shot it)

As I said about the tricycles, bicycles are also somewhat slow on terrain, and most of the time you're not fighting in a parking lot. (which if you do, either presents a lack of cover, or an unsafe environment, or both) Most tricycles may be too small to be really used as a tank though, perhaps some sort of push cart would be better for that. (one where you can mount a WBL, a high powered air pressure gun, a tank of water, and some balloons and regular soakers)

[teamfear]

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!
I've got it! If I can get my hand on one of these .
A garbage cart would be insane. I could cut a hole in it for the driver to move it or they could push from the back or something like that. I can make a roof and holes to fire out of. This would be very effective. As for a breech loader maybe if you have no other options you could use a threaded peice of pvc attached to the barrel so it could unscrew from the firing mechanism. This would require replacing the tape a few times but could work.