The devs are apparently already aware of cavalry often missing foot soldiers and being overly defensive when approaching to attack, and a patch is hopefully on the way soon. However, I still have a few issues with the AI behaviour, both new in 1.2 and old issues still persisting.
Similar to melee cavalry being terrible against foot troops, melee infantry is also terrible against mounted units from my experience; first and foremost, they are too passive against incoming cavalry. Secondly, if a tight infantry formation manages to trap a charging cavalry unit by enveloping the cav, spear infantry attempts to land an attack by taking a step back, which often results in the enemy cavalry being able to escape and the spear unit missing the attack. This needs to be fixed ASAP.
Another issue is a small one, but an important one nonetheless; since the banner bearer of a horse archer cannot use their ranged weapons, they act like a regular melee cavalry and instead do a suicide charge headlong against the enemy formation by themselves and getting killed almost always. The banner bearer of a horse archer formation should always attempt to follow their formation when they're doing a cantabrian circle.
Finally, as @Terco_Viejo has noted several times, the fallback command doesn't work properly for infantry units. Infantry should be moving backwards while facing the enemy with their shields up while under this command. However, this command makes infantry moves to the indicated position with their backs turned, making them vulnerable to ranged fire. Skirmish infantry works a bit better, however they work exactly the same as a regular infantry unit until the enemy gets in range (around 40-50 distance). After the enemy is in their range, they throw their weapons while walking backwards, however they still do a weird "dance" where they face the enemy, walk backwards and throw their weapons -> turn their backs to the enemy to walk forwards -> pick up their throwing items from their "quivers" -> face the enemy again and throw their weapons. It would be better if the skirmisher units always walked backwards while facing the enemy and picking throwing weapons from their quivers. Another issue with the fallback command is that when the formation is in skein (and possibly other formation shapes), the units walk sideways to a different place instead of walking backwards to the ordered position.
Also, this is not an AI issue, but most foot skirmishers are useless due to having very low ammo and/or bad throwing weapons. Most skirmishers have a single stack of throwables, throwing axes and knives/daggers do barely any damage. This should be remedied.
Similar to melee cavalry being terrible against foot troops, melee infantry is also terrible against mounted units from my experience; first and foremost, they are too passive against incoming cavalry. Secondly, if a tight infantry formation manages to trap a charging cavalry unit by enveloping the cav, spear infantry attempts to land an attack by taking a step back, which often results in the enemy cavalry being able to escape and the spear unit missing the attack. This needs to be fixed ASAP.
Another issue is a small one, but an important one nonetheless; since the banner bearer of a horse archer cannot use their ranged weapons, they act like a regular melee cavalry and instead do a suicide charge headlong against the enemy formation by themselves and getting killed almost always. The banner bearer of a horse archer formation should always attempt to follow their formation when they're doing a cantabrian circle.
Finally, as @Terco_Viejo has noted several times, the fallback command doesn't work properly for infantry units. Infantry should be moving backwards while facing the enemy with their shields up while under this command. However, this command makes infantry moves to the indicated position with their backs turned, making them vulnerable to ranged fire. Skirmish infantry works a bit better, however they work exactly the same as a regular infantry unit until the enemy gets in range (around 40-50 distance). After the enemy is in their range, they throw their weapons while walking backwards, however they still do a weird "dance" where they face the enemy, walk backwards and throw their weapons -> turn their backs to the enemy to walk forwards -> pick up their throwing items from their "quivers" -> face the enemy again and throw their weapons. It would be better if the skirmisher units always walked backwards while facing the enemy and picking throwing weapons from their quivers. Another issue with the fallback command is that when the formation is in skein (and possibly other formation shapes), the units walk sideways to a different place instead of walking backwards to the ordered position.
Also, this is not an AI issue, but most foot skirmishers are useless due to having very low ammo and/or bad throwing weapons. Most skirmishers have a single stack of throwables, throwing axes and knives/daggers do barely any damage. This should be remedied.
