I recently mod'ed in some changes to adjust under-powered cavalry vs over-powered spearmen.

Seeing chivalric knights charge into a group of spear militia and kill 10 or so before routing is a bit much. Spears were your best bet against a cavalry charge, that is true. However, they were not a brick wall, and unless the men using them were hard core veterans, they at best evened the odds against a cavalry charge. This arguement was made a million times after the cav nerf (which was needed) so I wont go into it again.

I tinkered around and looked for a fix that would make me happy. I wanted cav to at least give as well as it got in a charge vs spears, but to lose in a drawn out fight with good ones (armored sgts, italian spears, most moorish spears, etc). I also wanted pikes to be the premiere and cavalry force so I boosted them.

Soooo what i did was lowered the spear bonus for spearmen and increased the charge bonus on all cavalry.

Spears were given a bonus of 4 or 2 depending on their quality. However in an attempt to help out the spearmans poor brother, I increased all pike bonuses to 12.

Cavalry charge bonuses were increased greatly. Most were given their current score+10. Top line cavalry using western style lances (Polish Guard, Fam Ducal, Gothics etc) were increased to 20. Lancers were given the top charge of 25.

Now before anyone goes bananas, let me explain the outcome. Even the best cav will lose one vs one to armored sgts, latuma spearmen, italian spears, etc if they attack from the front *and then stay*. The top cav can sometimes beat them if they charge and run and charge again and again. They will take heavy loses... most of the time 75%+. The vast amount of casualties will occur from the charge.

The big diffrence can be seen vs lower quality spears, non-spears and other cavalry. I can now charge my Royal Banderum straight into a group of Byzantium Infantry or Town Militia and crush them whith a charge. I can have my Gothic Knights slaughter dismounted fuedal knights who were unlucky enough to get caught in the open. I can plow my Latikon down the throat of those pesky Italian Spear militia, take a lot of causualties (the latikon are unwashed franks anyway... the Emperor can do without a few) but still drive the spearmen from the field. Finally, I can charge a group of engaged cavalry from the flank or rear and see massive casualties to the enemy horseman.

What I can't do is allow my cav to get bogged down in a prolonged fight with infantry. They need to charge and disengage if they wish to rule the field. Also, I must be wary of pikemen who dispatch my horsemen from beyond the reach of the lance.

Basically what the changes did for me for me was this: They made cavalry very, very deadly when charging. They stopped spears from being a "death ray" that instantly killed any horseman they touched with out taking away their anti-cav role. They made pikes into a death sentence for anyone dumb enough to engage them with cav.