Quote Originally Posted by SwordsMaster
Actually, I think vanilla RTW over-effectiveness of general's bodyguards was to simulate the moral effect on the enemy as they see the king charge into their lines....
OK, but the over-effectiveness I object to applies to heavy cavalry in general rather than the 2HP bonus for general's bodyguards in particular.

I played Carthage in a PBM and my cavalry was generally pretty poor (long shields at best), but I managed to use it to smash up massed armies of Roman heavy infantry with little loss (yes, from the flank etc, but still...).

I don't think you can do that in RTR due to the rebalancing of cav. vs inf. With some finesse, flanking with cavalry may still be a winning tactic (fair enough - it should be). But you'll lose a lot of expensive cavalry men if you try it unsupported and will probably have to use your infantry as a pinning force in order to succeed.

I would not really mind the vanilla RTW model of cavalry vs infantry if it were in MTW (the era of heavy cavalry - knights are ok in MTW, but perhaps a little tame), but it just feels wrong in an ancient setting.

Sort out the cavalry/infantry interactions and I think the 2HP for generals will seem rather a small thing.