Carolingian question

[bahdahbum]

Dark ages armies do have some future . Have you noticed that at least 3 armies may dismount their lancers as armoured, superior , offensive spearmen ...but ...I do not understand why the average lancer in the carolingian army dismout as superior . Is it a mistake ( nothing is said about it in the erratas ) or can someone explain it to me .

[gozerius]

There are a number of armies beside Carolingian where lackluster mounted can dismount as superior foot. This is because of historical preference for foot combat over mounted. This occurs in the late medieval peroid as well for western European knights, who took to dismounting against the English. After a time, the knights became so reliant on foot combat that their equestrian skills were judged to have declined.

[hazelbark]

I thought it was a points balance thing. Also the Arab Conquest does it too.

[eldiablito]

This is not a point balance issue, I have to repeat the earlier post from gozerius with a case in point:

After Crecy and Agincourt , the French army began to dismount. Their mounted men-at-arms just were not as effective against the long bow with stakes as dismounting and walking in. So, part of the Medieval French army (within the army book), offers the knights the ability to dismount from average knights to superior heavy foot. But not to fear, because even the average knights cost 18 points each and when the dismount, they should only cost 14 points each (so, effectively, they pay 4 points more per stand). When I field this army, my 7 battle groups of average knights (dismounted to superior), my 800 point army starts playing 112 points down!

However, I often cringe when I see armies like the Arab Conquest and how their average cavalry dismount to superior heavy foot (with no point change per stand). Grrr...

[Lycanthropic]

What is there to explain? That a superior foot fighter that is pretty average on horseback needs to be classified differently than the obvious "superior foot fighter that is pretty average on horseback".
I shot an elephant in pyjamas.