The Absolutely Best Heavy Cavalry in EB...

[athanaric]

Realistically, your guys would have to switch to swords against infantry. Game play wise, I dont know. I'd say AP weapons, though. Thureophoroi are quite decently armoured (to the point that some have said unrealistically so. Probably they will be different in EB II).

[Watchman]

Actually one gets the impression that IRL in general spears and lances were favoured against infantry, whereas when horsemen fought each other the norm seems to have been to switch to sidearms immediately after the charge. I'm guessing that has a lot to do with the habit of cavalry fights of turning into swirling melees where much of the time the opponent was very much in your face, as it were, whereas against footsoldiers it's obviously useful to be able to reach them without having to first steer your horse right into their weapons, if you see what I mean.

[athanaric]

I can imagine that with an overhand spear*, but underhand lances feel kinda awkward for melee, especially if you're sitting on a horse.
Anyway, I prefer to switch to maces/whatever in cavalry fights to be historically accurate (and because maces are kewl), however I've learned to my intense frustration that the RTW engine lets lances win in those situations.

*I always have overhand spear cavalry use their spear against infantry, except when they're up against armoured units.

[Watchman]

I can imagine that with an overhand spear*, but underhand lances feel kinda awkward for melee, especially if you're sitting on a horse.

Compare thrusting cavalry swords. Which tended to be pretty long; Early Modern Poles had an 1.5m type called koncerz, and often summarised as "lance-sword"...

[Maestro Ugo]

All Steppe family members are absolute gods of the battlefield. I've beaten 12:1 odds with only a family member unit. Take out the light infantry or AP units with arrows and just charge the hell out of everything else. These guys are monsters. I'm starting to love the Saka as I have a massive army of three HAs and 2FMs to take towns that I then garrison with a unit of Suebi's. By the way, why are Suebi's better than Saka foot archers when they cost the same (+2 def I think).

I had a similar game a while back with Saka, my army consisted mostly of FMs, and an odd horse archer or noble here and there. The problem is that after the "march of time" your FMs suddenly lose the ability to shoot missiles. That is very unfortunate indeed...