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Total Warhammer fans are concerned that cavalry units are (still) broken

A fix to an old bug is causing infantry to do far more damage to cavalry than you'd expect

Kislev and Khorne cavalry charging each other in Total War: Warhammer 3

Total Warhammer fans are enjoying Warhammer II’s twilight now that the final expansion – The Silence and the Fury – has been released. Now all eyes are on the horizon for the looming arrival of Warhammer 3. While development is moving on from the second game, some fans believe there are some critical issues that need addressing.

Even after the massive free ‘Hammers and Herdstones’ patch that accompanied the latest add-on, it seems one issue is still plaguing tactical battles, namely that cavalry are apparently in a bad place right now, and have been since the start of the year. A recent video from Total War Youtuber milkandcookiesTW highlights the issue, but essentially infantry units – even those that don't have a specific anti-cavalry role – can do a lot of damage to cavalry just by counter-charging. More damage than you’d think is reasonable given the roles these two unit types are supposed to play.

It’s gotten to the point where this bug is apparently warping the meta and making all kinds of cavalry essentially redundant in both campaign and competitive play. The origin of the problem reportedly stems from an older bug that was affecting Great Stag Knights, but the fix seems to have made the situation worse.

Before we continue with the details, here’s milkandcookiesTW’s video:

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A post from April 2021 on the official Total War forums discusses the problematic meta around cavalry and what the causes could be. Creative Assembly developer ‘CA_Ducks’ posts on April 22 with a hypothesis as to what may be the cause, theorising that it was to do with the Great Stag Knight fix, which concerned the unit not applying its damage properly.

“We did some work to ensure that attacks that hit also dealt their damage reliably as well,” they explain. This fix was applied universally, which has now caused this unintended interaction between infantry and cavalry. They are now able to punch far above their weight and best heavier, costlier cavalry units, even ones specifically designed to counter infantry.

We reached out to Creative Assembly for comment, but hadn’t received a response at the time of publication. There is an argument that this an over-exaggerated feature, as opposed to a bug. You probably shouldn’t be charging cavalry directly into infantry anyway, and the interaction is only a problem if the infantry unit you’re attacking specifically counter-charges you back, which they can’t do if you attack from the sides and rear (which is what cavalry is meant for, if you think about it.)

Pre-order: Total War: Warhammer III has early-adopter bonuses

Currently, fans are wondering if this issue will get addressed sooner, or whether it’s something that’s been fixed for Warhammer III (if it’s going to get fixed at all). We won’t know until we get our hands on the game again, and there’ll be no further Warhammer III news until September now, when Creative Assembly will be looking into Cathay.

Total War: Warhammer III’s release date is later this year on PC via Steam.