What is the most competitive and interesting Cavalry-centric army?

[Atrotos]

What is the most competitive and interesting Cavalry-centric army? I'm looking for to start an elite(small model count) Fantasy army with a focus on cavalry models but I don't know enough about the game to choose an army. I like cavalry models the most which is why I want them to be a central part of my force.

Any suggestions? I'm aware that Bretonians are the go-to army for Knights but I wanted to explore other options as well.

[Old_Paladin]

I don't play fantasy, but there are several choices:

1) Warriors of Chaos: Mix of marauders and chaos knights. Add some mounted killy lords or mages and your good to go. You can add marks to give a bunch of different bonuses; add some warshrine for more bonuses.

2) Dark Elves: Dark Riders and cold one knights. Hydra's add some pretty fast heavy hitters. Items like the ring of hotek.

3) Vampire Counts: Dire Wolves, black knight and blood knights. Some of the best cav in the game, with some great lords and heros; plus you can bring dead models back to life.

4) Empire: They can also add some shooting, with outridders and pistoliers.

[Atrotos]

Thanks for the response! I think I'm leaning towards Dark Elves because the Cold One models are so excellent

[Bean]

Wood Elves put out a pretty funny cav list, too. Wild Riders are pretty hard hitting for fast cavalry, and Orion's Wild Hunt list can be pretty entertaining.

That said, it's certainly not the best.

Dark Elves focused on Dark Riders is probably the best all cav list, followed by Warriors of Chaos. Knights are the important part of that list, but marauder horsemen are a cheap and effective way to fill your minimum core choices.

Brettonians should be a good cav list, but they just don't quite hack it these days, for one reason or another.

Empire has some reasonable cavalry, but an empire cavalry list is going to end up looking a lot like a chaos cav list--but being worse. Don't bother.

[Mazelf]

if youre doing a Dark Elf cav list I would suggest you build it around Malus Darkblade, hes pretty killy and not having to roll those stupidity tests is a blessing! your special slots would go out fast tho...

Im envisioning chariots, cold one knights and tons of dark riders with crossbows, as well as a couple of hydras.... scary!

best of luck and be careful with those stupidity rolls!

I dont know about it being competitive tho...

[Lunar Camel]

Brettonians should be a good cav list, but they just don't quite hack it these days, for one reason or another.

As a Brettonian player, they are the ultimate in cavalry. Everything is mounted with a 16" charge range and have a S5 on the charge plus the lance formation. They have one of the best fast cavalry units in the game. And Grail Knights are not to under-estimated.

I have many opponents that dance around the board because they do not want to be charged. Sometimes the game ends up with me chasing them off the board because they would rather flee than accept a charge from my Knights.

The only weakness is in the magic and points. The damsels are only good for dispel scroll carriers and not much else. Points wise, they are almost like Space Marines. Exceptional armor saves but at 24 points a model you will always be outnumbered.

[Mazelf]

Bretonnia is a pretty good army troops wise (pegasus knights are killers), imho I think their magic items and casters are outdated and useless (for the most part), Im curious tho, what is this "best fast calvary unit in the game" you speak of? I really dont think theres anything better than Dark Riders at the moment...

[slxiii]

lizardmen have cold ones too! and they have carnosaurs.and theyre dinosaurs mounted on dinosaurs.

[Old_Paladin]

As a Brettonian player, they are the ultimate in cavalry. Everything is mounted with a 16" charge range and have a S5 on the charge plus the lance formation. They have one of the best fast cavalry units in the game. And Grail Knights are not to under-estimated.

You clearly like your Brett's, but they are starting to show their age.
They no-longer have the top tier armour; Empire and Chaos both get better saves.
Chaos knights get more attacks and can get marks for even greater bonuses, plus come with magic weapons that give them strength 5 all the time; they become a real grinder unit.

Blood knights are the best cav in the game. Base strength 5, but strength 7 on the charge, 3 attacks due to frenzy, you can bring back a single lost knight in the magic phase (plus the other magic that Counts usually have, like ASF, extra movement, extra attack out of phase, etc.). Put in a mounted vampire BSB with the regen banner and they're almost twice as hard to hurt.

Lance formation is good, but gives you huge flanks to be exploited and if you don't break the enemy on the charge they can often wear you down.

[Fizyx]

I love Chaos all-cavalry lists. Imagine two units of Marauder Horsemen and three units of Chaos knights in a 1000 point game. The problem comes when you are running larger games and you just don't have enough special slots to run a complete cavalry list without playing with expensive heroes.