Well I'm playing with Getai and their Medium cavalry is a joke really. It costs too much. With that money I can make 2 units of HA which are way more effective if used properly. I use family as heavy cavalry, at least I can retrain them in more places... Just an example. I have an alpine phalanx fighting with some swordsmen and I attack them from the back with Medium cavalry and yeah I win but I loose at least 10 or more horsemen. That's not very realistic at all as swordsman have no chance against armored cavalry. What do you mean proper charge? Is there a special way to do it?