Over time a lot has changed with light cavalry. When fully maxed out what is the best?
• ERKs do less damage to infantry and have less ranged armor.
• Ruyters have +1 range at guard.
• Russian Cavalry Archers have been buffed in melee and have slightly more Melee armor and better stats when fully maxed out.
• Ottoman Cavalry Archers get faster releases.
• Javelin Riders have been nerfed since previously OP states.
• Carbine Cavalry went from mediocre to OP and have been nerfed again.
• Bow Riders likely used to hold the title, but since then they’ve lost damage vs vills.
I think the Russian counterattack dragon is the best light cavalry there is, although it is only limited by shipments. It has a bonus against all cavalry.
After calculation, among all light cavs, fully carded Eagle runner knights and Keshiks rank number 1 and 2 in terms of DPS vs heavy cavalry per population, and FU Keshiks, surprisingly, has the highest ranged HP per population than any other light cavs out there, at 340 HP, 35% RR.
Interesting, I wasn’t aware of that. I think I remember hearing that French can get pretty good dragoons after the French Revolution. I thought there was a non-standard bonus in there. Maybe it’s similar to Counter Dragoons from Russia
France revolution Dragoon make their anti cavalry multiplier from x3 to x5, and they also got tech that enable researching Imperial Upgrade for their Stable, Barrack, Dock, and Foundry.
The only thing Napoleon France missing is Capitol upgrade, but the Sansculotte do not get the benefit of settler upgrade, and Explorer upgrade is kinda meh. So what they truly lost by going Napoleon is only Legendary Native/Merc.
I think the portuguese goons is one of the few that can become an army by itself later on in the game, I have to give that to him.
But don’t sleep on the keshik as far as dps/res goes ! it’s only problem is bad armies and paper thin hp, that got fixed recently with the Dual Faceted Armor card.
Honourable mention to the Italian Dragoon that got a nice buff in the last patch.
In any case, they should automatically improve to imperial statistics once they reach said age without the need for a revolution, since the unit is limited by shipments.
The unit classes should really be melee cav and ranged cav not heavy and light. Most of the heavy cav in the game is actually light cav irl (Hussars, Uhlans, Cossacks, etc).
Heavy and light cav should be distinctions within melee cavalry. Heavy could include things like Cuirassiers, Elephants, and Lancers and light could include things like Hussars, Uhlans, and Cossacks.
