Archi the great said:
It's something that was done by, in particular, ancient steppe cavalry (Sarmatians). I don't know who else did it, but if you think about your statement it actually sounds strange- why would you hold a heavy lance with one hand when you can hold it with two? You can hold a long lance for longer in a horizontal position with two hands, having more strength, control and versatility. Couching can only be done in a fairly narrow arc ahead of your body whereas holding it with two hands you can attack people to front, left and right (though you would have to swap hand positions to swap sides).
I haven't seen any couching so far and I think that might have been a concious decision on the devs, perhaps partly to reflect the era (there is uncertainty and disagreement bewteen historians on when couched lancing became a common techinque, but as far as I know there isn't concrete evidence for it before the second millenium AD; at any rate the 'dark age' period isn't famous for it and it isn't generally depicted in games unless they involve Norman period knights or later). One of the common declarations of those who say couched lancing wasn't popular until the eleventh century (or thereabouts) is that stirrups weren't known of in the west until shortly before this time, and without stirrups the practice was too destabilising to the rider. Something I haven't seen depicted in the game, at least not in recent videos and screenshots, are stirrups. That may be purely because of the time period, but I think Taleworlds are probably happy to forgo including stirrups simply because it might be hard to avoid the rider's feet clipping through them whilst galloping.
Not including couching might be influenced by how hard it is to get the AI to use it well; let's face it, even most players don't use it nearly as much as stabbing because you have to get up to high speed and rely on nothing interfering with you reaching your intended target- so if the target moves to the side or soldiers of either team block your horse your attack is wasted- and the AI doesn't tend to do very well with couched lancing in my experience. Stabbing, on the other hand, doesn't require high speed or many seconds of readying to use, so they can be somewhat effective.
) the horseman behind player.
