I don't mind using basic HA for missile cav. But they are totally worthless for anything involving melee or charges. The can chase routers. They are very fragile. They make peasants look beefy. (well, almost) Part of the issue is the basic ones are terribly vulnerable to return missile fire. Turkomen are better there, and a bit more useful in melee. They are still brittle. Sipahis are the first that can be useful in charges without simply throwing them away. With your upgrading of spears, this is even more of an issue. Mostly they face spears (and archers) early. I don't mind the fragility per se, but in vanilla while it's there, you can pick and choose which to use when. That choice is removed by your changes.
Basic HA are cheaper and like Turkomen have good stamina. This makes them really good as pure missile Cav. Sipahi don't have the stamina. Though they have better stats, in battle they aren't so clearly better as missile Cav because they tire much faster. In melee/charges they are a LOT better though. Even with the stamina issue.
I like mixing types... unless I'm filthy rich (which is where the too much money becomes a negative factor on unit mix). HA are enough cheaper to justify keeping them around for emergency use. More missiles in the air is better when throwing stacks at incoming stacks to whittle them down. And more survive if you burn off their ammo then withdraw them to fight again next battle (hopefully with even more exp to help). But HA are not tri-purpose. They can chase routers if they can avoid unrouted units. But any melee means they rout and are lost, pretty much. That's not efficient. Need to have the cadre survive to really make them work.
Turkomen survive a lot better, but can still be lost. They can manage light tri-purpose. They chase routers well, can take brief melee (so you can notice and pull them out), and can even manage light rear charge or flak charge work, if microed. Mostly they can force a quick route, otherwise they are in trouble.
Sipahi can't run around as much as the first two, but they can hang in there and fight a while. And they can chase routers pretty safely. And they are up to med Cav level, pretty much, for charge work.
Thus, early on only bodyguard Cav is available for real getting into hard work situations. And for whatever reason (probably simply tougher rebels) the mortality rate of generals is much higher. That's not all that bad in my opinion, but it is forcing fewer factional-style battles for HA cultures. They need something to charge. But I don't really like the idea of a med Cav unit they don't normally get. I'd prefer to see them get BHA from a special building so it's widely available. It's always a bit useful as missiles-in-the-air from the flanks, but it's value does drop as armor goes up. The missile number is low. But Turkomen are no better, just more durable. Sipahi have better missile numbers, but can't dash around. Still, later the tendency will be to migrate to those for the improved hit rate. And to stand up better to return fire.
If BHA are removed from stables and put into a separate building available at motte & Bailey, or just into the structure itself, but at a low rate, and the others moved up to stable 1 and 2 respectively, that's reasonable. You can also play with the rates they come rather than leave a gap. Keep the Sipahi rate very low at tier 2, then up it at 3. Make Turkomen low at tier 1, but not very low, then pump it to full at tier 2 so it can start edging out BHA at the player's choice and so the AI will start swapping. A smart player can kill off BHA fast with concentrated missile fire.
Bookmarks