You decide to try a quickmatch against a real player, you pick Prussia and buy your big bad 21cm mortar to show off your superiority.
Your adverstary is Italy and you laught about it
Then in 3 turn 2 unit of cavalry come out from the forest and destroy in a single turn you big cannon, and every time you tried to shoot them, they always run away and hit you again making you ragequit.

Hi, i'm ElPresidente and i'm the son of a pasta that have always used this tattics, meaby even against you.
But i want to have a fair fight and give some advance on how to minimize or counter cavalry

This game is a strategy game, so you need to be smart thinking what the enemy could do and what you could do to beat him and defeat.
To do that, you need to know your enemy and what are his capabilities.
Let's start to the basic:

MOVEMENT
All cavalry can move in all direction even diagonaly, but his type will determines how much it move

Light cavalry: Move 3 exagon, have less coesion some have 4 HP, other 6HP

Heavy cavalry or dragoons: move 2 exagon 6HP 4-5 coesion

You can understand that a light cavalry can be more dangerous than a dragoons for the extra movement letting them move behind you troups more easly.

ATTACK
All cavalry have one things in common, they can attack with their weapon one square foward and can charge in all direction.
Like your infantry, cavalry can have different weapons. There are 3

Saber: This doesn't mean they have a buff or anything. Every cavalry have a saber but if you see this symbol that means they can only fight melee. This make them the less dangerous cavalry of the three: they need to have at least a single movement range to engage in melee combat, that's mean a light cavalry that move 3 tiles cannot attack that turn. Not only that, but if you manage to set your infantry on square formation, you make them useless.



Single shot rifle: if you don't see any indication that's mean they have a rifle. They can be a problem, but they arent' too much troublesome but you must be carefull. If a light cavalry have this rifle, they will move 3 tiles, shoot you, and next turn they will charge. Troublesome but manageble.



Double shot rifle: Look at it, this is your enemy. This is why your cannons melted in one turn. A dragoons with this can give some problem, a light cavalry with this is a nightmare. One of them can can bring in close death a single unit if they manage to sneak behind them. But there are good news, your rival spent 80$ to buy that rifle, meaning they have a less troup in the field, second good news, they need to spent 3 order for one single cavalry if they want to make a good use of them, and if you move one of your unit before they shoot, they have waste 3 order.



Another Quicktip, cavalry take more damage than foot soldier, that's mean one single frontal shot on a cavalry unit take 3 damage. 4 on side, 5 on back

Perks
Like most unit, cavalry can have perks here what they do

Shock: When you see this, that's mean they will try to charge. They have a +2 on charge, so always check if they can reach someone back.


Melee Drill: With this new update this perk give one extra damage when in melee combat, it's common for dragoons so if you see a dragoon behind an unit in open formation be sure they will try to charge you from the back or side when they are close enought.


Skirmisher: With the new patch now any direction you fire at this unit will be consider as a frontal attack. If you manage to hit an enemy cavalry with 4hp you will reduce them to 1hp, and because it doesn't ignore attrition anymore you can consider this unit already dead.



Range Drill: Only British Light dragoons, dragoons and dragoons guards have this trait. +1 damage that's mean they do 4 damage on the back with a single shot. Beware



Rugged: Only 2 nation have this one, Italy and the confederate. I don't have the DLC so i can talk only for Italy. The 2 cavs with this perk are the Mounted Guides and the Carabinieri. You need to be carefull because moving on the rugged terrain means they always have a save zone to run away and lick wounds. DO NOT EVER FOLLOW THEM IN THE BUSH or you become fresh meat.


Efficiency: There is only a unit with this perk and is the Prussian's dragons. If you see this
unit, it means your adversary is trolling.


Broken: With this new update broken was totaly changed. Now if a unit will end with 0 coesion they will lose 1hp every turn. Light cavalry have usually low coesion so if you manage to break that you manage to deal at least one damage, and if they don't have Skirmisher, 2.

Now first of all, USE YOUR BRAIN

You will never be Napoleone Buonaparte but at least you can have common sense, like don't sent your troups in the bushes if they don't have rugged and you are surrounded by some evil Carabinieri.

This is a mental game, you should know what your adversary think, how the act, what will he do and in what order, how he is feeling, how you can exploit and defeat him.


A clear rappresentation of a 1v1

Ok, meaby i'm exaggerated, but you should consider this questions:
"What are the best targets my adversary will attack?"

I put a simple tier list on the possible targets
1) Artillery: is the first target, expecially if you are Prussia that can shoot twice in a round. artillery have few coesion and HP and they get more damage if charged, that's make them the esiest target.
2) High quality infantry: Granadiers are very tough but they can attack specialized troops with 4 HP
3) Line infantry: If they decide to attack one of them there is a chance to kill one in one turn.
4) Units with Breakable: With the 1.3 update breakable units don't retreat back, meaning they are a good target but not essential
5) Dragoons: It's hard but sometime they can attack dragoons, if they see an opportunity they will try to surround it and kill it.
6) Light cavalry: This happen only in 2 case, when they can or when they must.
In the first case If there is a situation like one of your light cavalry is stuck in the wood or they are ingaging in a melee combat, you should know what is coming next.
If instead there no other option, they will try to sacrifice one of their cavs making a charge, so they force a unit to stay in position on that turn making it exposed.


When he will move:
This is questionable, and you should analyse your adversary, how he move and how he fight. But most of the time, the firsts orders are movements and the lasts orders are attacks orders. This change if you see they have a set up for a charge or you have moved one of your unit with the back of his cavalry.

What are my units and what can they do
Infantry are the cheapest and the most common adversary of the cavalry, the direction and the fire will make a enemy cav think where to move to avoid direct fire, long range rifles make them take a longer route, doubleshot rifle can kill them in one turn in the right occasion. Cavalry can hunt down other cavalry. if you order to charge, the cavalry will follow the target in 2 spaces. Nobody want to be in front of a cannon, expecially cavalry, so keep in mind.
Perks are also important, Skirmish make your troups escaping, charge and range drill will make them soffer, efficiency give the possibility to move faster or change formation and shoot.

How can i use the map?
Hills, city and forest are your best friends. Hills will give you 1 extra hexagon of range and ignore all obstacle, city will protect from range attack and forest create a natural wall against incursion (unless carabinieri) Use them as your advantage.

We know our enemy, we know ourself, now let's talk how to fight cavalry

The biggest danger is light cavalry with double shot rifle, they can do a lot of damage but they cost a lot in term of orders and points for soldiers.

A quickmatch have only 8 orders, one single unit of this use 3, lefting only 5 order or less on turn if they have more cavalry.
Even if i talked about cavalry you must know they will have other units, so we must spent the right amount of order to distract or cause serious damage on this one. Concentating all our units against them only worst the problem because at the end of the day, you now must fight a heavly fortified infantry with what is remaining of your troups.

Position: A cavalry cannot move in the same tiles of a enemy without charging, but they can move diagonaly. And, if they don't have rugged, they can move only a tile in the forest before they bugged down. Use this as an advantage. If you place your infantry in a position to build a wall they cannot pass and you protect yourself from a backstab with only a movement order.
also, if you have 2 units in the same tile, the enemy can only shoot the frontline, use this if you want to protect some valuable unit like artillery

Movement: They can shoot only one tile in front of them, make them waste their order. A single movement can distrupt a well crafted plan, they waste 3 order, you waste one.
If there is no other way to avoid it, you must move your artillery. If you have placed your artillery on the road this will make it more easly to move, expecially horse artillery. If you want attack them, move your units in the place they will be and not where they are. When the turn order start, they will escape and you waste an order and probably an unit.

Formations: Before the patch i would advise against square formation, now i'm suggesting to use it. Shooting against a square formation unit deals only 3 damage, they resist against cavalry charge and they can shoot in any direction. The only problem is they cannot move, but if you move your infantry on a hill and put in a square they will become a bastion against cavalry. Another good formation for this kind of scenario are the open formation. This will protect your flank. The line formation is the worst but not needless formation, protecting frontal spaces. The attack formation is good for movement and bonus on charge. If you find a cavalry unit in front of you, the best option is to charge them if you have this formation, if they move 2 square, at least you get them. Finally the march formation could be usefull if you have efficency. This formation make you move diagonally but you spent 2 order before attaking.

Attack:
You can order to shoot somebody that isn't in you range. Let's make an example: If you know a cavalry will move in a spot, and you have an infantry right there, you can tell him to shoot the cav. Now this is a complicated strategy that need you to understand your enemy, but when timed perfectly you will cause a great damage forcing them to retreat or die. This was the only solution before the patch, i suggest to use this tattic only if you want to focus on killing the cavalry and as last orders of the turn.
Remember, cavalry take more damage than infantry.

Fire at will:
With the new update "fire at will" will end up at the end of the turn or will be counter by artillery but it can be usefull. Just activate and when a enemy unit move in the red tiles your troups will automatically shoot, not only that but at the start of the turn an unit with "fire at wil" will shoot at one troops he have in front. you only need to place your unit in the right position, activate and they do the rest. Just a note, your unit cannot shoot twice a enemy, so i suggest to use long rifle

interception
(Old: If you and your enemy decide in the same order to move in the same tiles, the green player will always take the point. The same thing can be achived with the movement. if your movement intercept the enemy he will be stop and probably he will have a different direction from the one intended. If you achived this, most of the time is for luck, but beware sometime an unit will not just stay there, they will charge that position. )
I need to check this one, because this patch made that if you move in the same square a unit will land they will charge eachother.

Disengagement
When you are in a melee combat you can disingage moving in the rear space. Cavalry can do the same but they can chose one of the 3 space on the back. This is counted as a manouver, so if your unit have not coesion and not skirmish, they will lose health but you can then safely attack the cavalry ingaged in the combat with other units without risking hitting your troups.

Charge
This is the best and the worst solution. Charge let you save one order, you move and attack at the same time, the counterside is when you charge 7/10 time it will end in disaster. Your troups will die in the most horrible way, expecially if you charge in the front, that could happen if the order you give was at the same time of the enemy order to face in another direction or worst of all, you and your enemy charged at the same time, in this case you charge your enemy and than he charge you.
So it's useless? No, it usefull for pinning one unit. if you can pin the cavalry, you can move your troups and shoot it. Be carefull, because when 2 unit are fighting in melee every shot can kill both units.

Cavalry is a good tools, unpredictable, untouchable, a treat, but not unbeatble
A good player can make them a killing machine, but at the end of the day they are a cannonglass.
There is no overpower unit in the game only what Sun Tzu said:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Thanks to all of you that have read this, i thanks Armchair historian for making this game, all the community and 3Taylor who i stole some images
Read his guide here

Combat & Strategy: An In-Depth F&M Guide
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2688500623&searchtext=Cerca+tra+le+guide+di+Fire+%26amp%3B+Maneuver