A couple of questions with regards to those cavalry archers that we know and use in our TW games whenever we have the possibility and tactics.

Pecheneg, Tatar, Cuman, Byzantine, Seljuk... a long list of cav archer types.

1. Per the inspiration of our beloved TW games, how common were those Cantabrian circles / circle formations used by the cavalrymen? Would they just run and shoot or would they actually form in circles and shoot/reload in complete motion?

2. Western armies preference for cavalry archers was quite low - you had some French cav archer units, Spanish jinetes (taken from the Moors in fact), Byzantines extensively using them, Outremer Crusader kingdoms as well (locals), but the Westerners at most had Reiters or Mounted Crossbowmen, not mounted archers.

Why?

3. Were they used at all during sieges? (TW games literally reduce them to useless units during sieges)


Thank you scholars.