I now think its the Ghaznids. they have those pointy things...Spears, that cavalry are so averse to. and daylamites shield wall lets me do well-practised tactics from the Franks in BI, such as marching out (daylamites here, in BI levy spearmen) in open order, then grouping the archers to shoot and drawing up the shieldwall in front, with only a few spears to defend against fast lancers flanking blows vs. the archers. the dual purpose archers really can hurt cavalry that strays within range, they are only vulnerable to lancers. when the archers are out of shots, they become infantry; the shieldwall is dismissed, daylamites fall out into open order ranks and advance to within javelin distance of the enemy infantry, which are then hit with volleys of javelins a second or so before infantry charge contacts them. their second-wave assault then focuses on any units not routing. nice.