Horses

[Philosophia]

Sorry, about being a smartass here, but in history cavalry was divided in light (scout, kill fleeing enemies/archer) and heavy (shock troops to ride right into an enemy formation).

And heavy cavalry was very effective. The reason why I am adding this here is that I live in Switzerland, where they actually invented the pikemen (which was later adopted by the German Landsknechts, although the used a lot of two-handed swords thats why their icon is a sworn, rather than a pike) in the early Renaissance. In contrast to Civ this was actually after knights have been dominating battlefields for centuries.

No, don't worry about it at all. I rather be corrected than to go on thinking something wrong. I don't know much about military history, let alone cavalry and that's just what I got from reading the wikipedia page on it.

 

[Reacher52]

I like to have a couple of them to harass and weaken the enemy and to chase down wounded retreaters. Although If you are Morocco and have a desert kingdom, the Berber horseman are tank-like in their strength.

 

[IkM]

Cavalries were most important part of ancient armies. in game cavs literally sucks. they need buff.

also, Wuddel, light cavalries were more effective than heavy cavs. because they were faster and far useful. in Battle of Nicopolis western world got what light cavalries can do.

in these battles Turks had only light cavalries.
Battle of Krbava Field
Battle of Sırp Sındığı
Battle of Maritsa

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Perhaps it's not the units that are a problem, but rather the battles themselves? I mean, wars are more about taking cities than fighting in the field. Until the importance of city conquest is lessened, then ranged and siege will continue to be king.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Horses are good even if the only thing they gave you were the production and circuses.

 

[PestWulf]

I love to use horse troops for internal garrison defense. With their movement and on roads I can keep several of them stationed strategically and if trouble pops up near a city I can have three to four horse there that very turn. It lets you bring to bare a powerful force in all your cities without having to staff a lot of troops.

 

[Byzantine Bomb]

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing them get a small boost but recall that the real power of any army is its infantry, the city takers. Spear men should keep their mounted defense bonus in my opinion.