Cavalry

[Zypheria]

Ok how exactly works cavalry units. Rules says they operate as units in transports, but I have several questions about them and how they where used during WWII by several armies.

Can they shoot being mounted or should they dismount prior firing? Some units where trained to shoot at the enemy while mounted.

Can they assault the enemy while mounted, as traditional cavalry charge, or should they dismount and assault the enemy as infratry does.

[sultanbev]

Am just looking at the French 1940 cavalry stats now,
with a move of 25 and CA of 5, that's definitely on horses. Shooting range of 2/10 reflects shooting from horseback on the move. which would be very inaccurate.
So all that indicates to you can can charge on horseback if you wish.
I would however allow cavalry to dismount, and as most WW2 cavalry have LMGs pretty much the same as infantry, and were all trained as infantry, using the standard line infantry factors would be fine.

They've messed up with the points. Cavalry tend to be 25 points a stand, including the horses, but if you dismount them the infantry would be 40pts a stand! Oh dear.

For the few historical army lists I've written so far that have mounted troops, I've put the horses separate as a transport item.

Thus for example a Soviet 1941 regimental recce platoon is:
Infantry Scouts 75pts Move = 10  A/I = 6/10 & 2/30, A/T = 0, CA =5 H= 5  Limit = 1 (all SMG armed, with LMGs, and Recce ability)
Horses              5pts Move = 25 H =3 Limit = 1 Transport (1)

which I'm not sure was the intention but makes more sense to me.
As I'm now doing May 1940 lists, there's going to be a lot more cavalry......

[Big Insect]

The issue with Cavalry has been beaten and batter about a bit in previous errata threads.

One of the challenge is that you can play the game in different scales - so in 3mm or 6mm you might chose to not have dismounted cavalry variants - in 10mm + you could probably do so; in 20mm or 25mm you'd definitely want them..
In the original play-test feedback on BKCIV there was lot of 'fuss' made about the difference between 'true' cavalry and mounted infantry - e.g. the idea that some mounted units (let us say Cossacks or Mongolians or Poles etc.) were trained to fight aggressively in hand to hand combat from horseback and that they needed special stats etc.

The dismounted effect of a Cavalry unit should IMHO be less than effective than an equivalent Infantry unit for lots of very diverse reasons - but it then results in odd points issues (as Sultanbey has stated).

I think that Sultanbey's approach works well.
Adding horses to Infantry units to mount them as Mounted Infantry works well enough - buy buying the appropriate 'transport' - a horse, mule, pony, camel or yak! But you then need to limit the mounted fighting ability of those units - so they don't all immediately become 'true' cavalry in indulging in mounted combat ... tricky.