Quote Originally Posted by Stazi
That juicy sound of bolts hitting armor/bodies, all those screaming people, dying horses, grenades exploding inside a tight pikeman formation, piles of bodies lying all around the battlefield.
No doubt the feeling the engine brings that you "are there" and the good pace of teh battles as well as the great environments (flora and fauna as well as the weather and eth landscape, the house models etc) make it all amazing.

But if someone has hard time wining a battle I suggest to try some kind of horse archers (with good morale - upgraded or innate). I keep 2 of them in every army. I wouldn't change them for Chivalric Knights or any other heavy cavalry unit even in early. People tend to underestimate them but those 2 generally weak units can make miracles when you are outnumbered and enemy has higher quality army and general. There is no better unit to disrupt enemy formation and to force AI to make a mistake.
Missile cavalry - whether light and fast or slower and more melee oriented, are indeed units that can prove invaluable. They are not as straightforward to use though and they take more patience and work to understand and learn how to use them which is why people tend to sidetrack them.
Heavy knightly cavalry have a fascination all of their own and play a whole different game.

For me its the most satisfying aspect of the game; to use the different units and unit types in combination relative to the terrain, the numbers, the weather, the valor and the opponent and what he does, to achieve victory.