Unit Combat and Charging; Intuition vs. Testing vs. Animation

Whats wrong with the gendarmes? You can build them out of cities, and they have great armour. Remember that when cavalry charge in, they usually get surrounded, and attacked from the sides, so their shield and defense skill values are usually not factored in. Only armour really matters.

Nah, I like gendarmes. But losing the shield and 1 less defense for +2 armor over upgraded chivalrics is a poor trade. They are actually more vulnerable to missile fire as a result. They should get a defense BONUS since they don't have to carry shields, and their armor should be equal to partial plate plus shield (about 12 instead of 10 or 11), since that's why they didn't need to carry shields. Actually, chivalrics that upgrade to full plate should also lose their shields (and get more armor to compensate rather than a miserable +1), but the armor system doesn't even work properly, let alone include nifty features like that.

Given that Reapz's experiments involved cavalry charges into braced pikemen, it is no surprise that cavalry did better if they carefully edged into combat.

But against non-spear/pike infantry, charging is far better, and the flying body animation is indeed the correct way to gage success.