The only random factor would be ping. So long as your ping isn't fluctuating by more than 10 in battle, that isn't a random factor either.
I agree that with a little practice you can chamber most/almost all lances, but as I said earlier, for very little gain. Chambering and then hitting (that is quite rare tbh, horses are fast) the horse will very rarily result in Mr Cav getting dehorsed (horse must be wounded), and seeing that you are capable of chambering his lances, he'll probably just leave you alone. (or circle-lollance you, making your fancy cambers useless). But I disagree with ping being the only random factor, laggs really screw you up.
As for war spear being just barely too short for dehorsing cav when used with a shield. Yeah? What about it? That is not an issue since longer ones do it fine.
Longer ones are all unsheathable... The issue here is that cav are solo pwnmobiles against everything not specifically designed to counter them (pikemen, roofcaming archers (situational, and really lame), horse archers (also cav!). Carrying spear+shield means sacrificing alot (both slot and weight wise), I think it should be on atleast even terms when facing cav. (Mind you lollancing "extends" the length of the lance as there is nothing between Mr Cav and his target).
I play infantry, not cavalry. I usually use a pike.
I never feel at a disadvantage in a fight vs cavalry unless I have a 1hander (or other short weapon) and am alone. This doesn't happen, ever.
In this context "short" means "outranged by lance". I can see you have no problems against cav since you are constantly chugging along a four meter pole, which means that any decent cav will just ignore you. That is untill you drop this big pole (maybe because playing infantry, you might actually wanna do some
melee combat?) and suddenly you are either defenseless vs cav or immobile.
See, the problem here is not that there aren't options gear-wise to deal with cav, it's that those options require an awful lot of dedication (pike is 2 slots and unsheathable) and are not really optional (since atm, lacking cav-defence=dead). Forcing every infantryman to carry a pike is not game balance at all.
A) You are outnumbered and losing. If it were another infantry behind you, the result would be the same.
Not really, as horses have a MUCH easier time actually getting behind you. If an infantryman tries to flank you, you can always maneuver to put both him and your current opponent in front of you. If cav flanks you... tough luck.
I'm not suggesting a huge increase in charge, something like 5 more damage to all horses. A considerable decrease in maneuverability would also solve the complaint that cav are "too fast" because they would have to take prominent lines and slow down for tight turns.
This is really good stuff, if cav resolved around this type of gameplay (sounds damn fun!), even I would consider picking up the lance
Nah you wrong, watch some horses charge in alone against actual good players, it's a nice laugh. Also you'll notice most good lancers don't charge in by themselves, they wait for you to be distracted with something else or to distract you themselves for other lancers or members of their team to get ya.
First of all, a lone horseman charging in alone against a whole group is an idiot, and those are never an issue...
Anyways, back on topic:
For me, the primary issue with horses is not that they lack effective counters, it's that their presence force upon others a very strict style of gameplay (stick together in a big blob, bring alot of pikes, bring alot of ranged...), something no other class does.Reducing maneuver (something most seem to agree about) by a
considerable amount would help fix this methinks (as awareness would once again be an effective cav-counter). But it needs to be combined with a reach decrease of lances, to make regular spears a viable (fair!) way to fight cav. (Oh and throwing needs a buff too, but that's another topic).
Whew, that was a lenghty post.
But please keep posting here all, debate is always good