Cavalry are knight upgrades that are introduced in Legend of the Conquerors. They are associated with the horse farm upgrade building, represented by the horse farm tile. Because the two components are heavily associated with each other, both are discussed here.
Appearance
As with other player pieces, cavalry are wooden pieces in English and plastic pieces in international sets. In English set, the piece for knights from Traders & Barbarians is used to represent cavalry, while international pieces use an entirely original horse figure of this purpose.
Horse farm tiles are irregularly-shaped, depicting the cost of the horse farm upgrade building on one side, and a description of the cavalry’s upgrade benefits and detach cost on the other side. Aside from the picture of the cavalry piece, they are identical between the English and international versions.
Gameplay
Cavalry are a knight upgrade associated with the horse farm tile.
- Each player begins the game with the horse farm tile showing the horse farm upgrade building and its cost, and the cavalry piece in their supply.
- Once the horse farm is built, the horse farm tile is flipped, and the cavalry may be attached to a player’s own knight.
- The rules do not state whether the horse farm may be built when the cavalry cannot be attached to a knight.
- A knight with an attached cavalry piece is known as a cavalry. When a cavalry unit is moved, it may move to any unoccupied intersection on the board, but if the destination is not connected to a player’s road network, it must move back to its original position.
- Although moving to intersections not connected to a player’s road network appears to be a case of burning a knight action for no effect, this is not the case in some cases: in the scenarios of Legend of the Conquerors, moving cavalry to intersections off of a player’s road network allows players to position the unit in a location such that it is able to defeat conquerors or forts. The battle is resolved before the cavalry is forced to move back, in effect allowing cavalry to win battles “remotely”
- That said, the rules do not dictate whether it is permitted for a cavalry unit to burn its activation in this manner for no effect.
- Note that all other restrictions on knight movement still apply: for example, cavalry are not allowed to move to intersections where they can be immediately removed from the board (for example, due to defeat in battle or encirclement), as this would constitute voluntary removal of a piece.
Manifest
1 cavalry piece for the red, blue, orange, and white players are included with Legend of the Conquerors. 4 horse farm tiles, one per player, is included with Legend of the Conquerors.