Oh, for my part I did not think you implied Kinsmen are bad only that with all this "Kinsmen are not Cataphracts" talk it sounded as if they were a bad cavalry unit. I did not want to let it stand there like that^^ I too find them a very usefull unit :)

on Pontos: imo they have the doctrine: Cheap and (relatively) weak Elite units. Their Elite Phalanx is more compareable to the Pezhetairoi than Agyraspidai, still they are not a bad unit, just not as strong as other Elites, same goes for kinsmen.