Some questions about polish cavalry

[Shoryn]

Hi,

I was wondering some things about the several cavalry units of the Poland faction. Main question is "what is the goal of each of these units ?"

Hussars - I assume it's early light cav, designed to flank/rear charge light units and to catch routing enemies (but they have a crappy skin ).

Polish Retainers - Early Heavy cav, with good charge ? but the little attack (2 for 14 charge, IIRC) attribute of the Lance is strange. Equivalent of Feudal Knights, or Mailed Knights ?

Piast Nobles - Early Heavy cav too ? Don't really know what they're designed for

Polish Knights - High Heavy cav, equivalent of chivalric/frankish knights I think

Polish Guards - Ok, Late heavy cav, the steamrolling ones, kind of equivalent of Gothic Knights/Lancer

Husarze - Late light cav with powerful charge ?

Am I wrong ? Do you have any advice or way-of-use for these units ?

[uanime5]

Hussars are late light infantry. Their original purpose was to combat the Ottoman light cavalry (except the Polish versions which are very heavily armoured).

[Enomine]

I think you mean Hussars are light cavalry. I am also curious to hear the answers to some of the OP's questions, but I can point out that Husarze are heavy cavalry (22 defense or something?), not light. Oh and I feel your pain about the Hussar skin

[AClockworkOrange]

Since Poland is one of my favorite factions to play, because of their cavalry, I searched for information about their cavalry some time ago. I found this site: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/matthaywood/main/Poland.htm. It doesn't answer all of your questions, but it gives an insight into their typical army compositions. I probably found others, but I only had this one bookmarked. I would love to see anything else someone might have about OP's questions.

P.S. The "Polish Battle Tactics" link talks about the roles of Poland's cavalry in battles.

[Enomine]

Thanks for that link, lots of interesting reading on there. I just might have to play Poland again soon, one of my favorite factions aswell.

[SamZi]

Piast Nobles are javelin skirmishers with a sword as backup and a good melee hit of 9. Polish Retainers are probably classified as heavy cavalry, being capable of devastating charges but with a poor melee attack (with a sword.) They wear brigandine armour. I really don't know but I've imagined Husarze are kind of a later, better version of Hussars. Anyone know about this?

[Shoryn]

Thanks you all for the answers - I'm glad this topic may be useful for others

@AClockworkOrange : Thanks for the link I'll check this

[k/t]

Aren't Husarze and Hussars the same thing but in different languages?

They were screwed up in Vanilla because in both Poland and in Hungary they were light cavalry instead of being heavy in Poland, like uanime said.

This reminds me of Diablo 2, where "dagger" is one thing and "poignard" is another, even though they mean the exact same thing.