Interesting result, but in a head on confrontation against the AI with 2 ranks deep formation, my money would be on the halbs anyway - especially in the hands of a human player. They have a cavalry attack bonus after all and the long drawn out formation allows them to "wrap" around the enemy cavalry's deeper column. The halbs also have the advantage in numbers. I don't think the issue in debate here is "can halbs kill cavalry?" - they can. The issue is, are they worth the money when compared to similar units that can perform the same job - I would say not.

Head on is also never the best for cavalry as it does not take full advantage of their greater mobility. If the Knights had moved onto a flank and charged then withdrawn a few times, while giving the halbs the run around, the battle would have had a very different outcome.

The good thing about JHI, billmen and CFK is that they are also quite simply very good infantry units - not just role specific cavalry killers. All of these units have better overall stats to halbs.

When I used to play MTW I would make exensive use of the CFK (dismounted CK) in anti-mongol defences. CFK were solid and dependable for those horrendously long battles, even when tired. Halbs ruined my defensive line up countless times, by routing en masse and taking other units with them. This is because halbs take too many morale hits (to their already low base morale) from these gruelling battles in the heat for hours on end.

I suppose it's "horses for courses", but I prefer a combined arms approach to defence rather than a mass of polearms units. To me it makes more sense to field a lot of spears and missiles and use polearms or axes in lesser numbers as flanking units. I've always found this strategy to deal the most damage and to be a better use of resources.