Quote Originally Posted by greaterkhaan
I must respectfull disagree. Personally, I hate Boyars. They can't function as a horse archer(at least not how I use them). And because of the bow, they not only lose power on their charge, but they also are insanely expensive. Its not that they're terrible, I just find that they don't fit my style of play and are vastly overpriced. Plus, Russia doesn't exactly have the economy to stomach very many boyars. Now if they only swapped those bows for javelins... that'd be a quality unit.
Boyars are indeed, overpriced, costly to support and crippling to the Novgorod/Russian economy. So in fact they are simply classic nobility.
Quote Originally Posted by General Dazza
I must respectfully disagree with your respectful disagree . I've found them effective enough as archers (not sure how you use them) and also in general melee.

As they're the only royal cav unit with missile units (iirc though there may actually be 1 other) I think they're a very good all round cavalry unit.

But it does depend on your style of play. I like to send mounted ranged units ahead to try and lure out enemy units and then routh them with cavalry. I find the boyars are good for doing both of these. Then they're also good for running down routers
They are effective as archers, and good in general melee. They are strong all round cavalry in fact. Sipahis of the Porte are the other horse archer bodyguard unit.

The long and short of it is that you're both right, and that it all comes down to style of play. Personally I do thing Boyars are overpriced, especially support wise, and do need that extra something to justify the cost. The Pocket Mod that I am working on will eventually give horse archers a type of generic eastern compound bow that has longer range and greater power (not quite a longbow) this may make all the difference to those types of units. At present it is being tested on foot archers only, and it seems to be slightly overpowered still.