Upkeep is the one major thing that hurts now. With a courser, 3 sets bodkins, Horn bow, steppe armour, nomad boots and leather gloves, my equipment cost is 68000. Bodkins break more, and upkeep is more expensive. This was perfectly viable pre-patch. You'd gain money on anything over a x3. Now I have to sustain a x5 for lengthy rounds (have to last over 3 mins), for a good number of rounds in order to make any kind of money. Most of the time I'm bleeding it with this build. I had 40000 gold at the beginning of this patch. Now I'm down to 15000. That's about 6 hours of crpg gaming (not all of it in battles, some in duel and some in strat).
That equipment build is now nullified. And it's mostly only light equipment. It's the bodkins and horse upkeep that do it.
Otherwise HA is fine. Accuracy, although slightly worse, is still viable. And even damage is acceptable. It's just the damn upkeep. Can't imagine what being heavy cav must be like. HA used to be the cheapest cavalry build though, now I get the feeling it's probably one of the more expensive if you want bodkins and a horse that will survive 2 arrows.
