Hippeis Tarantinoi, are they really l33t?

[Sakkura]

The Hippeis Tarantinoi are described as "elite cavalry" - but isn't that a bit of a misnomer? Their melee abilities are described as if they can handle most situations and are better than their predecessors from Hellas - but their melee stats seem fairly similar to units like regular Hippeis or Prodromoi, with a worse charge and about equal in prolonged melee.

Granted, their missile ability is very useful; but does that feature in itself really warrant the description as elite?

[Watchman]

Well they're from the top end of javelin-skirmisher light cavalry certainly. Plus recall that their sword is the AP kopis, making them very much the betters of for example plain Hippeis in melee.

[Sakkura]

Hippeis have 9 attack with 0.13 lethality, Hippeis Tarantinoi have 8 attack with 0.1 lethality and AP. So yeah, Tarantinoi are perhaps slightly better in prolonged melee (their defense and morale are the same), but that small difference is sort of counteracted by their weaker charge.
The least I would have expected from "elites" was better morale than standard hippies.

And the description is still IMHO a little off when it proclaims how good they are in melee.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

They are Elite "Skirmisher Cavalry". Remember that.

[keravnos]

They are "hippakontistai" that can actually fight too. Historically that "type" of cav. became favorable to all Hellenistic states with Seleukides IIRC having a "tarentinoi cav" among their mounted troops. Note that the name designated a type of cavalry, aka skirmisher but with teeth too, much like "Tarantino film" designates a movie type.

[Sakkura]

Hmkay, I suppose they are pretty elite compared to hippakontistai. Although I still find the description of their melee capabilities a little misleading.