To be honest, on low population server, especially on EU1 during morning or pretty much all weekend except primetimes, the problem is the ratio of ranged/cav to others. When there is 30 people and 17 are ranged and 10 cav, not much fun for the three poor bastards. And yes, i saw that exact setup during the last week.
As a quite long time player i am now somehow "forced" to go ranged or cav if i want to have some fun. If you say awareness fail, fuck you, how should all the awareness in the world help me, even with a long spear, manage to escape horde of horses chasing me? Nah, it wont. As an infantryman on some maps it is impossible to engage in some fight on full HP. Literally impossible. Not to speak that over last few days i have seen SEVERAL maps, where archers from one team could get easily to rooftop and rain death upon us, but from our spawn we didnt get any similar spots.
So yes, all those combined: Low playerbase, high ratio of ranged/cav on eu1, maps that actually support roofmonkeys back (in small scale).
And not to mention the worst of them all, HA/HX. Those fuckers have like 8-10 riding, which makes their bump take away 1/3 my HP in 50bodyarmor. Not to speak shield does not protect you from bumpdmg. So, yes, its fucked up. I stick to battle just cause i hate siege, but now i am thinking what to do. Switch to siege or go ranged/cav.
It is quite sad, as nothing gave me adrenaline rush as a good fight as infantryman. I played cav for like 8 generations, infantry for 20+-, did not finished a single try on ranged, but among these, the best satisfaction is killing group of enemies and moving on in battle with all HP left. Never felt like that while couching/shooting, NEVER.