Pursuit Cavalry vs Mongol Horse Archers

[Heksenketel]

I recently had my first couple of battles against mongols as venetians in grand campaign (black-death era).

I used my cavalry militia to good effect in these (and all) battles.

Stradiots and Mounted crossbowmen are fast pony units.

Can mounted crossbowmen measure up in a melee? (close-in fight?).

Does up-armouring these types slow them down?

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Adding armor won't slow them down a bit. All it does is add more defense. Added armor will put your crossbowmen in platemail, which looks heavy, and epic, but doesn't effect the speed at all. Clearly it is Elven Mithral. XD (with a Gothic / Uruk Hai look to it.)

Mounted Crossbows are surprisingly competent as light cavalry. The added defense will make them even more so. But one must keep in mind they are light cavalry, and not meant for hand to hand combat. They can easily rout archers, muskets, artillery units and the like though. And their speed will make them very useful and flexible. Take a look at the stats. They are similar to Militia Cavalry or Armored Sergeants, but the ability to use a missile weapon makes them more valuable in my opinion. Used well they'll be quite invaluable. :D

[Tsar Alexsandr]

The Stradiots should be very useful as well!

[Heksenketel]

thank-you for the feedback, good to know. It dawned on me only after I posted to set up a custom battle to get an idea and so pitted 5 mongol heavy horse archers against stradiots, mounted crossbowmen, generals bodyguard, broken lances, men at arms. The mounted crossbowmen with skirmish turned off exchanged missile fire and routed its competition, the stradiots closed fast and pulverized its opposite, the generals bodyguard stood toe-to-toe until routing its foe when it was down to its last six guys but the broken lances and men at arms routed.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Sounds like your cav did good!

The Mongols are quite powerful though. I recommend chokepoints with them. Bridges, river crossings. Oh and assassinating generals is good, especially if you have any night fighter generals. Cause then you can pick them off one at a time during the night. :D