Alright, things that are true and/or happened alot in the chadztext:
-It's not kills related, as chadz stated.
-It's not damage related, as chadz stated.
-It seems it is only for the losing team.
-If you get it, you will not lose your multiplier, or gain a multiplier as okiN said.
-All the people who got it were the last guy alive OR one of the last guys alive.
Now, let's look at the text itself.
"Thy valour on the field of battle hath been rewarded"
What i think, is that you are courageous even when you are outnumbered. You try to even the odds again when you are losing, and your team is almost dead. Succeeding in that will reward your daring action with a multiplier/lesser multiplier penalty.
This makes people still to fight on, instead of to go kiting as an archer.
valour - the qualities of a hero or heroine; exceptional or heroic courage when facing danger (especially in battle); "he showed great heroism in battle"; "he received a medal for valor"
Heroïsm.
Sorry I am not believing it is not kill related.
Life of horse archers is hard, and their work is underappreciated. I consider it a good day when I dehorse 4 players, and pin down a top level cav man by forcing him to react and dodge my shots. I will often hit many and kill none, which is not a surprise given the low damage output of the HA. 0 kills, one extra death, since these dont count on that kill board. But hey, if dehorsing that star enemy cav saved 4-5 tin cans on my team, I am happy.
On bad days I might kill 2 afkers, and a peasant, making it 3 for my death. However, I still consider it a bad day if due to the lack of effective horse archers dehorsing enemy cav, too many tunnel visioners on your team died, causing a loss.
From my experience, I get valour for the bad days (multiple useless kills) especially since the team lost due to the enemy cav arm killing all the tunnel visioning tin cans. I never get valour for good days (dehorsing entire enemy team, last few arrows to pop a few shots from behind at archers, no kills, but team almost, almost got it, but lost for some reason, most likely ghosting).
Why am I being rewarded for NOT helping the team and pursuing my own +1 on the board? The times where I make a few afk and peasant kills and die leaves enemy cav free to roam and pick off tin cans, causing a crippling defeat, I get valour, while the times I dodge multiple lancers trying to trap me and shoot all the horses down, almost letting the team win, I do not get valour.
As a HA I am very sensitive to this. Most of the time when I suppress enemy cav, no valour. But when I go kill grubbing like those people who only care about KD I get valour. I can almost switch the valour message at will by altering my behavior. Kill grub=valour. Help team=sorry sucker.
Can we fix it so that doing the important things get valour, not the kill related things. I play for the team, not for the KD, and I could care less about Kd, mine or anyone elses. Like many statistics, it can be gamed, so I don't pay too much attention to it.
Now KD defenders might say those 3 peasants might have turned the tide. I say balderdash. If I down a hotshot cav while he is making an attack run, he gets mobbed and dies, thats good, since when I get forced into spec early I often watch these hotshots pick off guy after guy (4-8 kills etc, so people get more situational awareness). Even if he does not get mobbed and starts dueling, he might only get 3 kills without horse, yielding a net lives saved of 1-5 for example. One of these lives saved could be the hot shot tin can duelers, who could net 4 kills before dying. add these up for each cav you dehorse, and it is looking very significant.
In contrast, what could the 2 afkers and the peasant do?
