What's the best cavalry?

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I think that if you pit a group of companions on top of a group of Cataphracts against two groups of praetorians, deployed in a similar fashion. The combined Companions and Cataphracts will win, because the Companions can keep leaving and charging while the Cataphracts take advantage of their staying power. If you mix Companions high attack with their high charge you get one hell of a charge.... It will take apart an Urban cohort no problem and Companions are fast enough to hunt down routers...

But whatever works for anyone else is the best for them.

[Sinner]

Yah, the Seleucids do have the best combination of heavy cavalry, plus camels, scythed chariots and elephants too! Just a pity that they have no horse archers.

I'd personally prefer a pair of Cataphracts for a fight against other cavalry, thana Cataphract/Companion team. The few kills I'd miss out on in the spear charge will be more than made up by the faster kill rate with the mace plus suffering fewer losses in return.

The base attacks of the Praetorians might be higher than that of the Cataphracts, but it still doesn't compensate for the latter's higher charge, armour piercing secondary and better defence.

In the opening charge...

Praetorian attack of 21 (base 12 plus 9 charge bonus) against Cataphract defence of 23 (armour 18 plus 5 melee defence) giving a difference of -2.
vs
Cataphract attack of 22 (base 7 plus 15 charge bonus) against Praetorian defence of 22 (armour 11 plus 7 melee defence plus 4 shield) giving a difference of 0.

So advantage to the Cataphracts in the charge.

In the following melee...

Praetorian attack of 12 (base 12 for either spear or sword) against Cataphract defence of 23 (armour 18 plus 5 melee defence) giving a difference of -11.
vs
Cataphract attack of 9 (base 9 for mace) against Praetorian defence of 17 (armour 6 due to armour piercing plus 7 melee defence plus 4 shield) giving a difference of -8.

Again, advantage to the Cataphracts.

And since both mounts use the same skeleton, they move at the same speed so there's no mobility advantage for the Praetorians to exploit in compensation.

Where I would perhaps consider Praetorians over Cataphracts is if I were fighting low-to-medium armour opponents. Anything up to 5 armour gives a slight offensive advantage to the former since the Cataphracts get little or no benefit from their armour piercing mace. However, the Cataphracts are still superior defensively so the Praetorian's attack advantage in these circumstances isn't enough for me.

Strategically the issue is closed for me though. Cataphracts require just tier 4 stables to the Praetorians' tier 5 and although they cost 50 more, their maintenance is 100 less, so in just one turn they're cheaper.