Cav WILL be useless on sieges, and most village maps. Furthermore, half the random plains maps are more like random mountains, which are even worse for cav than village maps, and better for ranged.
So if Strategus is up again, exactly as it was, with very few open battles and many sieges and village taking, cav isn't going to rule anything more.
The classes may be more balanced than before, but the situational advantage of archers is still the same. And I don't see why a few groups of archers camping on different mountains around a village couldn't dominate that map (the famous DRZ tactic).
IF and only if the accuracy was a bit more realistic could these situational advantages be toned down a bit (currently it's a bit sad that more archers than the other team + a roof = autowin).
This is a definite exaggeration. Most open plains maps, even if they had hills, the cav could do very well and with all ranged gimped, limited slots so fewer pikes, and higher riding skills than pre-January they will tend to dominate. Every map in the end is a cav map with their OP stats right now. Town - turn fast corners with a couched lance, kill, and ride away before retaliation and repeat. Hilly - Ride behind the hill so cant be shot then turn the corner with couched lance, kill and ride away before retaliation. Full open plain - Wait till melee engaged and mass charge utterly decimating engaged enemy troops, then ride away with super-jet fueled coursers and repeat.
There was only 1 truly mountanous viullage map I wouldn't recommend cav (though I did see a few do okay) and that was Gisim up in the Northwest.
Siege is the only place where cav gets off their horse and thats why the recommended 1h/polearm riding combo with shield skill. Shielders will be even more useful now as fewer ladders (take up so many equipment slots) and not as easy to ladder spam. So just pull out pick and shield and you are good for a siege or use a xbow with 1 wpf on defense like half the teams will probably be doing as do so much damage without needing to wear light armor or have skills in it.
Main thing is don't go 2h/polearm- no shield, no riding. Very little need for those unless you are the absolute best or they are specifically hiring you as dedicated pikeman. Throwing right now is also a bad way to go.
