The title says it all, I have never in my life won using cav archers. They always lose to knights. Even in Arena post imp they lose to cavalier or paladin. I see pros using them a lot. How much skill do you need to win a game with cav archers? My rank is around 1400 i do try to micro them i try to stop and shoot and run. It feels like knights are always the better choice. What am i missing here? Do you have to be a certain elo to use them?
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cavalry archers are very upgrade intensive and require a deathball for them to be effective.
you shouldn’t be going for them straight out of the gate in castle age due to the large number of upgrades required for them to be effective, instead starting with something else and transitioning into them.
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So is that the reason why koreans and vietnamese cav archers arent worth it, because they lack some upgrades despite having some civ bonuses…?
Vietnamese have perfectly serviceable cavalry archers in DE (Husbandry was added). It is that their Unique unit somewhat feels like a blend between Tatar Cavalry Archers (attack, high pierce armor and speed) and Arbalesters (range, cost and counters). Vietnamese also have one of the best Arbalesters in the game.
So it is not that the Vietnamese cavalry archers are bad. They have some good competition.
I would also like to add to Mat. Apart from the huge number of upgrades, you also need a large mass of Cavalry Archers.
Directly going into cav archers is risky. So players usually play archers into Crossbowmen into Cavalry Archers - this works only when civ lacks Arbalesters, so there is no reason to stick with Archer line or Scouts into Cavalry Archers.
Vietnamese go for archers rather than scouts, and they have Arbalesters. Tatars can go either. Indians, Magyars, Mongols and Huns go Scouts, so then Cavalry Archers.
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You also have to put a meat shield in front. Cavalry archer/hussar is one of the best combos in the game, you just have to make sure to keep your CA out of the melee.
And yes, start with something else in early castle. Also when going up to imp you need like 60 farmers for the food cost of upgrades plus your hussar spam.
Also, idk the meta on arena because I never play it. So they may not even work on that map. Someone else will have to speak to that.
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CA in open maps are better than closed one like Arena. What make a CA great unit is the mobility; in open maps like Arabia, you can make a big troubles to your enemy and make his eco useless by keep sending CA on woodlines, gold, stone and even farms and run away and make many vills idles. With enough numbers of CA like 20-30 you will have a death ball it is very hard to stop.
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Cav archers are literaly the most annoying unit in the game.
use halbs to protect from knights.
or just MAN UP and use melee units !! 
PS. I really hate all ranged units except logbowmen (dont know why i dont hate them though, i should)
Same elo as you, see you on the battlefield
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Just don’t use cav archers in arena. It is maybe the worst map for them. Well protected bases, basically no natural obstacles to use.
In Arena you need pushing comps.
And when you try to use cav archers, don’t overboom behind, make enough other military to hold back the opponent from your base. Cav archers usually slowly add up oer time. At first they are a small raiding party you have to retreat every time the enemy tries to kill them. When you get to the critical mass they become powerful themselves, but not before.
Some civs can mass produce cav archers in certain situations, but you need to be very aware what your opponent is doing.
Often if you make cav archers you do it instead of booming in open maps and whilst the enemy tries to outboom you. Maybe that’s the most useful advice. As they are the best raiding units in the game you can punish the greedy boom in open maps quite effectively.
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Are they not the same speed as knights? It feels like they are the same speed. I have been raided by knights while going cav archers and I struggled to catch up to them ( with husbandry)
And what if he makes knights instead of booming? Then you cant go cav archers anymore?
If you can somehow protect your base, you can. But usually you want go cav archers if your enemy is booming. As I sad, they are the best raiding unit in the game. Why going for a raiding unit if your oponent doesn’t boom? It makes no sense unless he’s not protecting his eco at all.
Of course cav archers get strong once you have the upgrades and critical mass, but before they are quite weak and only pay back via their raiding potential.
If this happens you shouldn’t have gone for cav archers. It’s most important to have a well protected eco yourself when going for cav archers, since it is almost impossible to push back with them if you don’t have the critical mass yet.
Cav archers are no power units like archers or knights. You need to know what your opponent is doing to decide if it’s a good move to add them or not.
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