Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh
If CA didn't check for this one, they may have assumed stirrups were in use. This would explain why RTW Vanilla cavalry is so overly effective, especially when charging. The kind of shock charge possible with stirrups was virtually non-existent before that time -- or Rome would have been known for its cavalry instead. I hope it was a mistake on the part of the graphic artist, and not the values/historical team.
This reminds me of something that happened in MTW due to the artist's rendition of Knights Templar. All the cav knights were depicted with lances except the Knights Templar who were depicted holding a sword. It was the artist who took it upon himself to depict them differently than the other cav knights. LongJohn didn't want them depicted that way, but it was too late to change the artwork. So, LongJohn reduced the charge value of Knights Templar from 8 to 4 and lowered the cost slightly because they were depicted with the sword. He said that players might be confused if he had left them with the same charge as knights armed with lances. However, the players who knew something about the history of the Knights Templar were confused, and didn't understand why these knights were weaker than other knights. So, the graphic renditions which are at the whim of the artist can affect the final combat stats of the unit.