I disagree about the anti-cavalry magic being useless. Cheesy, ahistorical, and unreasonable, yes, but not useless. Chariots do fine against horse archers if necessary (a rebel force with HA, for example). Chariot vs. chariot is actually pretty interesting. Perhaps it's a playing style issue, but I do find enough AI cavalry for chariots to be useful flank guards. A couple of equites or a single general can disrupt my jav cavs, while if there's a chariot unit hanging around the jav cavs can go about their business and if the enemy actually attacks the chariots will clean them up pretty quickly. Other units can serve the same role, of course. Note that AI Macedon in particular fields very large (and very bad) cavalry forces, so if the AI knew what it was doing that could be very painful, even with a chariot unit on hand. Sadly, the AI is a terrible general...Originally Posted by PaulTa
I also don't follow your point about all the spears. So what? As long as you're not crossing a bridge or clearing a city, it's easy enough to run around and charge the flanks or rear, just like with cavalry. Until/unless they lose momentum chariots are death on wheels to infantry, pike or otherwise. Basic elephants do the disruption with few kills you mention, chariots get plenty of kills. As you say, chariot plus cavalry works better (cav kills faster than chariots) but chariots can also rack up 100+ kills per battle pretty easily.
Regarding defense, I've found that chariots either take minimal losses or massive casualties (usually going berserk at the end), nothing in between. Thus my emphasis on using them against rebels - quick routs are fairly common.
The cost and time both seem quite fair for what you get. Since it's a basic blacksmith unit, if it took a single turn to build you'd get a silly chariot rush tactic (especially given the low manpower use) at the start of the game. The ~1000D is also about right for it's effectiveness; also note that at least two of the chariot powers really don't care what any unit costs since they have money coming out their ears. There's almost zero opportunity cost - build inf/cav/archers at your main troop cities, and push out a few chariots here and there from your minor cities.
On your faction question, BI is nice. I'd guess you'd prefer either the mod which makes the Romano-British playable, or just pick one of the barbarians (Franks maybe? I think they're the least cavalry-centric barbs...). Picking a fight with the WRE early on will put you in a fight for your life situation even if you don't start in one.
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