But there are no crossbows in early!
There is, however, a way. Javlins.
Javlins are easy to get (everyone can get slav javlin at least if you have the right provinces) and cut through order Foot's extramly high armour in moments. The best way i would think is pin with FMAA, get javlin to the flank or rear to wear them down alot, when all your javlins are gone charge in with a unit that ha AP attack, say militia seargents, woodsmen at a pinch but preferably something bigge like swabian swordsmen (german and swabia only) viking units (all the good ones have AP) or similar.
usin cav is not the way to go because even out of formation OF have big bonusses against cav, and as they're moral is sky high you'l never get them to rout on a cav charge, which is usually the way cav charges work best. Crossbows or arbs would work pretty well to soften them up, but sticking to early it has to be javlins. Maybe use a good sword unit or three to pin instead of FMAA but the result is pretty muh the same.
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