Why do we have so few planned and well executed cavalry charges in cRPG? (I think I never saw one)
I also wish these would happen. It probably doesn't happen because horses are extremely fragile, and the riders are prostrate on the ground forever when the horse dies.
Lets say I have 5 good cavalry. Let's give them Warhorses (reasonable, right?), good armor (~40ish?), regular lances, shields, and good cavalry 1 handers (which are cut swords, right?)
We are going to do a cavalry charge into an aware body of enemies, lets say... 10 infantry, supported by 5 archers/xbow men. Is it reasonable to assume that at least 1/2 the infantry have pikes/longspears/some other longish (130+) polearm?
Here's what happens in my experience, in such a scenario :
The cavalry charges in, and is met with long polearms that well outreach their lance. Basically, the horse gets hit and stopped well before the rider can reach the enemy. (A 165 length anything isn't really 165 from horseback, is it?). When the horses get stopped well out of melee range for the riders, the ranged unleashes on them. 2 riders get shot out of the saddle, and 1 other horse dies.
Now we have 2 mounted riders, and 1 awful infantry. While the newly created infantry tries to rise from the ground, he gets torn apart by the infantry, he's now dead. The other 2 riders have a choice, try to ride away (horses getting hit the entire time), or draw melee weapons (horses getting hit the entire time) and try to engage. The shield bug helps one horse get away, only for it to catch even more ranged and fall dead. The remaining rider manages to slash 1 of the infantry to death before his horse dies, and he is torn apart while lying on the ground.
Tally : 5 dead cavalry, 1 dead infantry.
Now lets try it with 10 cavalry :
Not all of these will be well armored horses with well armored riders. Let's get a mix of coursers, rounceys, arabians, and warhorses. Riders are in a mix of leather, chainmail, and lamellar (armor 25-45?). Same set up, 10 enemy infantry with 5 long polearms, and 5 archers/xbows.
What I think would happen : 3 cavalry get stopped right off the bat and 2 of them get dehorsed, but one manages to get away.. 3 cavalry score couched lance hits, 1 killing an archer, 1 killing a polearmer. 1 breaking a shield. These 3 manage to ride out of the other side of the enemy formation. 2 cavalry get shot from their horses during the charge. 2 manage to stick someone, but don't kill anyone. They are brought to a stop from bumping into people, draw their swords, but are quickly dehorsed and killed on the ground.
We now have we now have 4 cavalry remaining out of the original 10 cavalry, the enemy now have 4 ranged, 4 polearmers, and 5 regular infantry (one w/o a shield anymore). The 4 cavalry reform to charge again, 3 are stopped and dehorsed, 1 is shot from his horse, and one kills a 2 hander before getting dehorsed and killed.
Tally : 10 cavalry dead ; 3 enemy dead
I can try it with 15 cavalry, but I'm sure it wouldn't be that much different.
Conclusion : Cavalry just can't charge headlong, the horses are the weak point in the equation.
I may be wrong here, but in my experience as cavalry, polearm infantry, archer, thrower, 1 hand shield, and 2 hand axeman (no huge swords, yet), this is about how it would go. If you think it would go otherwise, please share, I'd be interested to read it.
