For a note from a cav clan.
GK tried something to see how effective it would be. Something many people think cavalry should do (rather than be ninja's).
We loaded up our heaviest horses (mostly mamluks), armour and great lances on the ruins map. About 40 people per side.
We formed in a line (about 10-15 cav), waited for the scattered enemy infantry who were engaged in the front and charged with couched lances on the flat section behind the gate house in front of the village.
The result was less than effective. If the great lance struck, it did minimal damage (why are they so weak?).
Most of the time the lances didn't hit, were easy to avoid and we got stopped by even a simple lolstab. When pretty much any weapon can stop a full charging, heavy armoured horse, then it doesn't work very well.
The majority of our kills were from charge damage (bumps) on people with poor health.
If people want cav to stop back stabbing, then something needs to be done when a fully armoured (very expensive), organised cavalry charge barely has any effect on a broken and disorganised infantry force. We actually got very few kills, however the enemy decided to camp and form a shield wall the next round from pure fear
So it was effective from that pov. But GK has a few of the best lancers in the game, and even they were struggling to kill anything with a great lance.
If they are near useless even in a heavy cavalry charge of a large number, then something is badly wrong.
I know they were always OP in native, but now they seem pretty near useless. They are very much UP. The heavy lance is by far the better weapon, even in a heavy cav charge. Which makes little sense.