What people expect, as can be seen in the amount
fantasies people project even in this very thread, is one of two things (or in many cases):
- Cavalry line up, charge, and then the impact will immediately cause every infantry in the first and second row just keel over and die on the spot, and the infantry line decimated -- with no regard to other factors like how well the infantry are armed
I agree that how the infantry are armed should play a part.
Pike infantry should stop and impale a charging horse.
Large shield infantry should stop a couched lance charge.
Any infantry with no pike or large shield should be vulnerable to a couched lance charge.
This will make cavalry useful at fighting some infantry. Right now they suck against all infantry unless you babysit them and they have help. Considering they cost more than infantry, this is not OK.
For one thing, most of the cavalry in the game, are loosely modeled/inspired by the historical cavalry of the timeframes between around 6th century ~ 10th century, although the arms and armor may include mixed designs of different eras. In the game only the Vlandians really field couched lances in the first place (other than the Sturgian Druzhinaks, which went through a very strange ordeal since launch), and their lances are not yet at the length which one might imagine when thinking about knights charging head-on into infantry formations.
These lances in the game, are about at the length when the very first "western Knights" began to show up in meaningful numbers circa 1066, Battle of Hastings, and at this point the lances themselves were in a state of transition. They were (barely) long enough length that could be used in the under-arm couched position, but short enough to be handled conventionally, and a significant number of knights (actually, way more and common than couched depictions) show up in depictions still using the classical overhead or underhand thrusts.
Cavalry lances need to be slightly longer or held slightly further forward. On the topic of Hastings, having looked at the Bayeux Tapestry myself and compared it to a side-on view of the lances the player and Banner Knights can couch, and how far it extends in front of the horse's head, they are actually slightly too short.
Compared to this, where the couched spear extends about a head or so in front of the horse, Bannerlord couched lances barely pass the horse's head.
the Byzantine cavalry were also expected to play more conventional role of cavalry as flanking melee units (as opposed to the "shock charge" of knights).
Byzantine heavy armoured cavalry would prefer to flank if possible, but if they could not, they would batter their way headfirst into enemy infantry formations at a fast trot.
"It is necessary for the commander of the army to have the triangular formation of kataphraktoi at the ready and the other two units which accompany it, and, on whichever front enemy is facing, have them move out through those internals very calmly in proper formation. Even if enemy formation is made up of infantry, that is to say heavy infantry, the kataphraktoi should not be apprehensive but should proceed to attack very calmly, and aim the triangular formation of the kataphraktoi right at the spot where commander of the enemy army is standing. And then the spears of the enemy infantry in the front lines will be smashed by the kataphraktoi, while arrows will be ineffective, as will javelins of their javeliners. Then with the help of God, they will turn to flight."
"Then the front of the triangular formation must move in proper formation at a trotting pace and smash into the position of the enemy commander, while the outflankers on the outside encircle the enemy as far as possible, and the other two units proceed on both flanks with the rear ranks of the kataphraktoi without getting too far ahead or breaking rank in any way. With the aid of God and through the intercession of His immaculate Mother the enemy will be overcome and give way to flight."
"For the enemy spear and pikes will be shattered by the kataphraktoi and their arrows will be ineffective, whereupon, the kataphraktoi, gaining in courage and boldness, will smash in the heads and bodies of the enemy and their horses with their iron maces and sabers, they will break in to and dismember their formations and from there break through and so completely destroy them.
When the enemy troops do turn to flight, it is not the kataphraktoi who should undertake the pursuit but their two accompanying units trailing behind them."
Praecepta Militaria on the tactics of the deployment of Kataphraktoi
Later, in the High Medieval periods, it's only around this time that knights (...) started to just charge head-on into infantry formations.
I can think of multiple examples from the 1000s:
The Battle of Civitate (Norman knights directly charge Papal infantry and cause them to flee).
The first Battle of Dyrrhachium (where the Norman knights are described in the Alexiad as being "unstoppable, able to punch a hole in the walls of Constantinople").
The second Battle of Dyrrhachium (Byzantine cataphracts directly attacked the centre Norman infantry and crushed them).
And the Battle of Hastings (where the Norman knights could not flank the well chosen Saxon position, so they made multiple direct assaults, according to the primary sources and the Tapestry).
Compare that with the lances we have in the game. At the longest the standard lances sold in the shops are around 1.8 meters in length. At the longest, around 2.2 meters (Heavy Druzhinak lances). You can craft longer couched lances, which at maximum come out around 2.5 meters.
Make lances longer or make the cavalry hold them out a bit further.
The cavalry in the game are at the stages before transitioning into such roles and capabilities the Western European knights would (eventually) become to be known for. At "this point in time," cavalry still inherit and retain the roles they were known for in the classical times, and in the classical times, cavalry did not charge like knights.
This is inaccurate. Norman cavalry of the 1000s were the origin of the archetypical knightly charge. That's how the Norman charges are described in Byzantine military manuals and historical sources, as well as Norman sources of the First Crusade.
ps) If anecdotes mean anything, I've decimated pure Sturgian infantry lines of 100+ in shieldwall formation with a single cavalry charge in under 10 seconds by doing charges in the "correct" way these cavalry should be used. How did I do it? I threw my own shieldwall infantry line at them to have all of their backs turned to my cavalry. My cavalry were 80+, almost as numerous as the Sturgian line, and then I lined them as wide as possible, and sandwiched them from behind. That's what the cavalry in the game are used for. Yes, I did that, because my 80+ cavalry alone had no capability to just decimate a 100+ Sturgian infantry line by themselves -- because that's what the cavalry of this time period (or rather, of comparable time period in real-life) just are.
Actually there are real battles where cavalry direct charges prevailed which are very close analogies to that situation, such as the battles between the Byzantines and the Kievan Rus prior to the Siege of Dorostolon. In these battles the Byzantine cataphracts twice directly charged the Rus' shieldwall (which was not retreating), and twice crushed their way through it.
Cavalry don't have to be the bulldozers able to delete everything in their path like you fear, but if we are talking realism, a 300kg horse covered in armour charging at 40km/h should absolutely be able to knock down one or two lines of men, and unless the men in front have long pikes or large shields or really good armor, a couched lance charge or well-aimed stab should be killing in one hit.
Otherwise, what's the point of melee cavalry? They're more expensive and difficult to get, they need to attack from up close unlike ranged units, they need to do big sweeping movements around the battlefield for each attack which makes them take longer per kill than infantry and ranged.
So if on top of all that, you also make them require micromanagement and flanking and allied support to have
any effectiveness at all, I.E. their current state, then they will ****ing suck. Which, I should add, they do. In the current state of the game there's almost nothing melee cavalry can do which ranged cavalry can't do with fewer casualties.
Horse charges in Singleplayer need to knock down infantry more easily, but not necessarily deal more damage.
Melee cavalry need to have slightly longer reach, and be more accurate. Either that, or infantry need to be less accurate, as right now they have almost 100% accuracy against cav.
Spears and lances need to stab slightly faster and do about 25% more damage on a stab, while Slashing polearms like glaives need to be slightly slower and do about 25% less damage, as currently Khan's Guard, who are horse archers, are better cavalry than actual melee cavalry.
Armour needs to be more effective against ranged attacks.
These things combined should make cavalry be more realistic and more useful (balanced to take into account their greater cost).
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