Buffed infantry?

[eyelurker]

Infantry right now is in poor position. They mostly serve as cannon fodder as even the heaviest infantry can be easily killed by enemy cavalry even scouts or even the weakest archer such as levy archer.

Spear at least have value since they can survive enemy cavalry charge and deal bonus damage to cavalry. But sword only effective against infantry which translate as an easy prey for my cavalry. If i see enemy pumping out foot knight but forget to have an actual knight in their rank that's basicly a free heroic victory points for me.

[Khevsur]

In fact, a spearmen infantry has a better chance of winning against heavy cavalry. knight infantry with a sword has a smaller chance. Knight infantry are good in city battles, where cavalry loses skills.

cavalry of feudal knights rarely fought as infantry. Infantrymen were poorly armed warriors ,Because they were mostly poor peasants

[eyelurker]

In fact, a spearmen infantry has a better chance of winning against heavy cavalry. knight infantry with a sword has a smaller chance. Knight infantry are good in city battles, where cavalry loses skills.

cavalry of feudal knights rarely fought as infantry. Infantrymen were poorly armed warriors ,Because they were mostly poor peasants

Knight or just cavalry in general have a lethal melee, they will die in prolonged combat but not without killing their enemy first. Spearman could reliably survive cavalry melee if you could avoid their charge. Swordsman just die even in castle i often use my heavy cavalry to kill them without problem, best(or worsr) case scenarion they will kill half of my knight but that's it.

[Macaras]

We lowered the devastating strength of cavalry in SSHIP in comparison to SS and 'real combat' that our mod is based on. What we did was to lower the mass of heavy cavalry horses and give bonus vs cavalry to all spearman units. Now the important thing is to stop the charge somehow, and I also use the cheap spearman like chude or spear militia in the 'spread' formation as a cannon fodder to stop the charge and then attack the cavalry with good spearmen units. I think it makes sense that swordsman are not able to withhold the charge, how can they resist heavy lancers charging with a long spear towards them- the swords are useless.

But against the spearmen (especially prepared in formation) I agree that it is still too strong, would be good to lower it a little, I guess what could be done is to lower the charge statistics for all the cavalry units in the export_description_unit.txt. Maybe you want to experiment and test these changes and share the results?

Regarding the heroic victories, totally true, but the most we can expect from AI is to create full stacks with variety of units. It is not capable of thinking - 'I will prepare this army for the field battle vs cavalry, and the other army for siege etc'. Human naturally has an advantage, but thats why there are bonuses for AI.

[Slaytaninc]

Predominantly sword (or mace, axe, whatever) units did exist but in open terrain they needed to hide behind units with spears to even have a fighting chance. Where non-spear infantry, and really infantry in general, did best was in rough terrain but it's not simulated very well in the engine.

[eyelurker]

But it also means non spear unit are somewhat of a novelty unit. Putting them in front line no matter how heavy their protection is just asking to be killed. Their raw stats still have some use but you don't need them and in with cost and upkeep consideration spear militia have a better return both in combat and financial.

[Khevsur]

Macaras

Units quickly run away from the battlefield. They can't hold the line. I can't maneuver. Please add more protection to the units

[King Edward]

I'm finding the opposite at the moment; cavalry charge into sword units, the sword unit turns around and kills a huge chunk of the heavy cavalry in seconds. Heavy cavalry feels practically useless against anything but ranged units, or the rear of fully-engaged melee units. The balancing feels very off at the moment; even charging into the rear of sword units I'm finding cavalry is practically defenceless. If anything it feels like sword infantry need a debuff against mounted units. Similar losses with enemy cavalry; if they have 2-3 men left in a tiny unit chasing down 60 knights, they'll kill 10+ knights in moments despite having turned around to counter-charge. Even when being very careful with my cavalry I often lose half of it in any given battle

[eyelurker]

I'm finding the opposite at the moment; cavalry charge into sword units, the sword unit turns around and kills a huge chunk of the heavy cavalry in seconds. Heavy cavalry feels practically useless against anything but ranged units, or the rear of fully-engaged melee units. The balancing feels very off at the moment; even charging into the rear of sword units I'm finding cavalry is practically defenceless. If anything it feels like sword infantry need a debuff against mounted units. Similar losses with enemy cavalry; if they have 2-3 men left in a tiny unit chasing down 60 knights, they'll kill 10+ knights in moments despite having turned around to counter-charge. Even when being very careful with my cavalry I often lose half of it in any given battle

Heavy cavalry losing to sword? What happened? Do they not have engaged in combat or have their lance properly couched. Even on my worst case scenarion my heavy cavalry usually triumph against sword unit.

The whole tiny cavalry killing my charging cavalry does happen though. I don't know why but cavalry charging other cavalry is subject to RNG so attacking cavalry with my cavalry is generally something i avoid unless i bring infanrry to assist killing the cavalry.

[King Edward]

Yeah, there definitely needs to be some sort of mandatory fleeing effect when a cavalry unit is down to like 3 guys. I just had 1 mailed knight charge into my general and took out 10 dudes on his own. Almost half the unit to 1 guy...